Significance Of The Yasukuni Shrine

Register to read the introduction… The shrine was administered by the army and navy up until the time of defeat in World War II when the American occupation authorities imposed the constitutional separation of religion and the state. The controversy over visits by Japanese prime ministers to the shrine arose from the fact that in 1978, the Yasukuni Shrine enshrined 14 executed World War II class-A criminals among the war dead, which generated dispute from neighboring Asian countries who view these visits as representing the glorification of Jingoistic nationalism and militarism in Japan. The essence of the issue lies in the historical heritage from the Japanese invasion and occupation which influenced the Japanese, Chinese, and Korean collective memories of the war. Yasukuni is not merely a memorial site where Japan’s 2.5 million military war dead are enshrined as deities, but the shrine, accompanied by a museum, is devoted to glorify Japanese militarism as a noble cause that strived to liberate Asia from Western powers and to promote an unapologetic view of Japan’s past atrocities through Korea, China, and much of Southeast Asia during the first few decades of the 20th century. The issue of …show more content…
The Yasukuni has different fundamental symbolic meaning for each of these groups, and each is associated with their unique perception and social memories of wartime history. Although there are strong anti-Japanese sentiments in both the Chinese and Korean societies, the Sino-Japanese conflict is not inevitable, and it is possible to dissolve the antagonism between Japan and China. While Japanese right-wing nationalist will have to change their belligerent and unrepentant attitudes towards its Asian neighbors of Japan’s imperial past, the Chinese Communist party will have to refrain from demonizing and seizing on Japanese provocation to stimulate their own people’s nationalistic …show more content…
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