Yasukuni issue must be resolved

靖国問題の解決を

Establishing good relations with neighboring countries is a top priority of Japan's foreign policy. For now, the trust and cooperation of China and South Korea are key to resolving the North Korean nuclear crisis as well as the abduction cases involving Japanese nationals. Prime Minister Koizumi should try hard to settle the Yasukuni issue once and for all.

Yasukuni Shrine was a hot subject of controversy in the immediate postwar years. Critics argued that the state-sponsored Shinto institution, which had been used by the Japanese military to advance the cause of war, should be dissolved. Yet a religious affairs adviser to the General Headquarters of the Allied Powers, the postwar allied occupation authority, called for the continued existence of the shrine. GHQ approval of its survival is apparently based on his report.

Interestingly, the report called for changing the shrine's name back to "Tokyo Shokonsha (Shrine for Inviting the Spirits)," the predecessor to Yasukuni Jinja (Shrine for Establishing Peace in the Empire). The proposed name change seemed designed to weaken the link between Yasukuni and militarism.

The proposal seems to have reflected a strong view in the GHQ that Yasukuni had given moral weight to Japan's military expansion before and during World War II. Why, then, did the occupation authorities approve of the shrine? The exact reason remains unclear, but it is easy to imagine that they were concerned about political and emotional problems that would have arisen had they ordered the shrine disbanded.

Although the GHQ banned the government from supporting Shintoism, thus breaking the deep ties between the state and Yasukuni Shrine, the proposed name change to Shokonsha never materialized. Today's Yasukuni is a private religious organization, but its name continues to evoke dark memories of Japanese militarism.

It is not just the name of Yasukuni that matters, but its past role in prewar Japan. The shrine is dedicated to World War II criminals convicted by a Tokyo international military tribunal. Moreover, official visits by elected officials may violate the principle of separation of religion and politics.

Mr. Koizumi rekindled the Yasukuni controversy in April 2001 — when he took office after being elected president of the Liberal-Democratic Party — by declaring that he would visit the shrine in his official capacity Aug. 15, the anniversary of Japan's World War II surrender. He was to be the first prime minister to make an official visit there since Yasuhiro Nakasone did so in 1985. As it turned out, Mr. Koizumi visited Aug. 13, avoiding the anniversary date.

Last year and this year he selected a different date — in April and January, respectively. If this was to defuse the political and diplomatic fallout, the results appeared mixed at best.

Meanwhile, a proposal to erect a new national memorial facility for the war dead — an idea put forward by a private advisory panel to Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda — appears to be going nowhere. It seems that the prime minister is sitting on the sidelines as far as this plan is concerned.

Some LDP members maintain that Yasukuni visits are a domestic issue and that opposition from other nations amounts to interference in Japan's internal affairs. That argument misses the big picture: The Yasukuni issue is intertwined with what Japan did before and during World War II. It cannot be resolved without regard for relations with the Asian nations that suffered at the hands of the Japanese military.

Yasukuni remains a throwback to Japan's militaristic past, no matter how some of our political leaders try to justify their visits. It will be little use repeating a "no war" resolution unless they are trusted by those Asian nations. Self-complacency is often synonymous with self-righteousness.

The Japan Times Weekly
Aug. 30, 2003
(C) All rights reserved

      近隣諸国との友好関係構築は日本外交の優先事項である。北朝鮮による核開発、日本人拉致問題を解決するには中国と韓国の協力が欠かせない。首相は靖国問題を最終的に解決すべきだ。

      終戦直後、当時の連合国軍総司令部（GHQ）の宗教問題専門家は靖国神社に関する報告書の中で、神社名を創設当時の「東京招魂社」に戻した上で存続させることを勧告していた。

      GHQは存続を承認したが、神社名は変更されなかった。神社を廃止させた場合の政治面、国民感情面での影響を恐れたのであろう。

      国神社は日本人戦死者とA級戦犯を合祀しており、国会議員などが公式参拝することは政教分離の原則に反する恐れがある。

      首相は2001年4月の就任直後に、8月15日の終戦記念日に靖国神社に公式参拝する意向を明らかにして問題になった。実際には終戦記念日を避けて8月13日に参拝した。

      昨年と今年、首相はそれぞれ4月と1月に参拝したが、政治的、外交的問題を避けるためだったとすればあまり意味がなかった。

      一方、靖国神社に代わる国立慰霊施設を建設する計画は一向に進んでいない。首相もこの件については動きを見せていない。

      自民党内部には、首相の靖国参拝に対する他国の反対は内政干渉だという意見もあるが、靖国問題は日本の戦争行為に密接な関係がある。日本軍のために犠牲になったアジア諸国との関係を抜きにして問題は解決できない。

      日本の指導者がいかに参拝を正当化しても、靖国問題は過去の軍国主義と切り離せない。「反戦」の決意をいくら繰り返しても、アジア諸国に信頼されなければ無駄だ。自己満足は独善と同義と考えてよい。