Word: yasukuni
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...think it is the holy souls enshrined at Yasukuni that are experiencing the saddest feelings by seeing this kind of situation." RYUTARO HASHIMOTO, former Prime Minister of Japan, who along with four other former leaders last week denounced Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's continued visits to the controversial war shrine...
...What is Yasukuni? Built in 1869, it's a Shinto shrine in central Tokyo honoring the souls of Japanese killed in battle since the Meiji Restoration. Names of the deceased are added to Yasukuni's book of souls, a list of dead who are worshipped as Shinto deities. There are about 2.4 million spirits enshrined there?87% of whom died in World War II, including 14 Class-A war criminals and about 1,000 Class-B and -C war criminals, as well as roughly 50,000 people from Korea and Taiwan who died fighting for the Japanese...
...Class-B and -C war crimes, mostly over prisoner abuse. Twenty-five military and political leaders were convicted of waging war?a Class-A crime against peace?and 14 of those, including wartime Prime Minister Hideki Tojo and six others sentenced to death by the tribunal, are enshrined at Yasukuni...
...current flap start? Japanese leaders have made private pilgrimages to Yasukuni without causing a fuss, but in 1985, Yasuhiro Nakasone became the first Prime Minister to visit the shrine in an official capacity, prompting outcry from other Asian nations. his successors avoided official visits for the next 16 years, until Koizumi came to power promising to resume them?which he has done, visiting the shrine each year since 2001. China, along with other Asian countries invaded during World War II, insists that for Japan's leader to visit a shrine where the war's masterminds are worshipped as gods...
...risk alienating Japan's neighbors? Japan says it's nobody's business how it remembers its dead?after all, Yasukuni honors over 2 million others who simply gave their lives for their country. And the shrine remains a deeply spiritual place for many older Japanese. In a country whose military past has been shamed and denied, it's the only place where veterans and their families can pay their respects without the burden of war guilt...