Word: shrines
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...unfamiliar, the Yasukuni Shrine in central Tokyo would seem like a serenely inoffensive place. Ringed by long, broad paths and shaded by groves of cherry trees, the shrine sits in a park across the moat from Japan?s Imperial Palace, attracting a range of lovers, snoozers and strollers. During the spring, it's a favorite location for Tokyo's famous cherry blossom festival. In such a tranquil setting, visitors might be tempted to forget those the shrine was erected to honor: Japan's 2.5 million war dead, including 14 convicted Class A war criminals from World...
...from a refuge, the shrine has become one of the most controversial locales in Asia - and in the process rekindled historic antagonisms between Japan and its neighbors throughout the region. The chief agitator is none other than Japan's Prime Minister, Junichiro Koizumi, who has made an annual pilgrimmage to the site for the past five years. Koizumi defends the visits as a chance to pray and show respect for Japan's war dead. But Koizumi's appearances at the shrine have infuriated the Chinese and South Koreans, who view it as a symbol of Japan's militarist past...
...Asia, however, Japan's assertiveness has raised anxieties about a resurgence of the nationalist impulses that led to the deaths of millions during World War II. Anger at Koizumi's visits to the shrine runs deep. At an APEC meeting in Busan, South Korea, last November, South Korean President Roh Moo Hyun told Koizumi that his visits were "totally unacceptable" and China?s ambassador to Japan recently said that a China-Japan summit, which has not happened since 2001, would only take place once "political obstacles" had been overcome. In Japan, debate over who should succeed Koizumi has thus...
...enduring symbol for die-hard nationalists since Japan's defeat in 1945. Starting in 1959, priests there have quietly enshrined more than 1,000 convicted war criminals, including hundreds of military men who personally committed atrocities, ordered them to take place, or refrained from stopping them. At the shrine's museum, memorabilia from kamikaze pilots and the Burma death railway are displayed in an unequivocally celebratory and exculpatory style. Visitors there are told, for example, that U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt purposely drew Japan into war, and an exhibit on the "Nanking Incident" does not mention the tens of thousands...
...Many Japanese say such historical distortions at Yasukuni museum are disseminated by an ultra-conservative minority affiliated with the shrine, and that mainstream Japan has confronted its war past head on. Koizumi's Yasukuni visits are highly controversial in Japan itself, with public opinion split roughly in half. Yasuo Fukuda, a candidate to succeed Koizumi, has picked up support by publicly criticizing Koizumi's Yasukuni fetish. One of Japan's most influential business associations has called for the erection of a new, non-denominational memorial where the next prime minister can pay his respects instead. That may be the only...