Word: yasukuni
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...That question can be posed another way: Why on Earth does Koizumi stubbornly keep doing something so unpopular? He himself has never fully explained his motivations, except to say things such as: "I visit Yasukuni Shrine to pledge to the soldiers who were made to fight and to die that the future will hold no wars." Granted, Koizumi did make annual visits to the shrine a campaign promise in 2001, and some speculate that he fears the wrath of the Japan Association of War Bereaved Families if he stops. But Koizumi is a lame duck?he has repeatedly said...
...colonial power, the shrine was a focal point of the country's native religion, used by political leaders to help justify national conquests. They proclaimed that the souls of those who sacrificed their lives at war for Japan and its Emperor would live forever, venerated as gods, at Yasukuni. Soldiers, pilots and seamen heading into battle would frequently bid farewell to each other by saying, "See you at Yasukuni." Since 1945, Yasukuni has remained a quiet but potent and enduring symbol for the country's die-hard nationalists. Since 1959, priests at Yasukuni have quietly enshrined more than...
...postwar Japan, a man whose personal stamp upon his office will?for both better and worse?have a lasting impact long after he steps down next September. On the one hand, his crushing election victory established a mandate for continued economic reform. On the other, his insistence on visiting Yasukuni outraged much of the rest of Asia. Anyone who displays such brio at home and yet produces such anxiety abroad is ready for the history books...
...Yasukuni?not Japan's longstanding ties to the U.S.?that is straining relations within Asia to a breaking point. The leaders of South Korea and China refused to have formal bilateral meetings with Koizumi at December's East Asian summit in Kuala Lumpur. At the APEC summit in November, South Korea's President Roh Moo Hyun told Koizumi the visits to Yasukuni were "totally unacceptable." Tang Jiaxuan, a Chinese State Council member in charge of diplomacy, said that the issue has made Sino-Japanese relations "the most difficult" since the two nations normalized diplomatic ties in 1972. And Wang...
...says] argues strongly for a permanent seat on the U.N. Security Council," says Jeff Kingston, a professor of Japanese history at Temple University's campus in Tokyo. "But China's Security Council veto can block Japan from membership for as long as it likes. So do you think visiting Yasukuni is advancing Japan's interests...