Over the past number of years many articles have been written about the Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo and of Japanese prime ministers visits to honour Japan's war dead and particularly the 14 Class A war criminals enshrined there as 'gods'. These visits have caused much controversy and also angered the governments and the people of China and Korea particularly, due to the enormous atrocities that those war criminals and their armies carried out in their countries - and all across Asia, in WWII.
The only photos I have ever seen of the Yasukuni Shrine have been taken from the front, and indeed I have the same photos taken on my visit there many years ago. However I did not go to pay repsects to the Japanese war criminals - I went to see and try to understand more of the POWs' story. I have also visited the adjacent war museum - which is not bad overall for the military relics it contains, but the portrayal of the Japanese in WWII in most cases could not be further from the truth. However, never have I ever seen any photos of the tablets or memorials which are so often talked about on these occasions when the prime minister and other officials visit the shrine. I always wondered what they looked like and what form they took.
Now finally on August 27th 2014, thanks to an article in the Washingtom Post which featured a story about Prime Minister Abe sending an official letter to the Koyasan Temple’s annual ceremony honouring hundreds of war criminals, we can finally see what the inside of these Japanese war shrines looks like.
The ceremony was held April 29 at the Koyasan Okuno-in Buddhist Temple in Koya town, Wakayama Prefecture in central Japan, and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe sent a letter to the ceremony honouring more than a thousand World War II-era war criminals and praising their contributions to the country. He wrote, “I humbly express my deepest sympathy for the martyrs ... who sacrificed their souls to become the foundation of peace and prosperity in Japan today.” A copy of the letter was obtained by The Associated Press.
The ceremony was held in front of a stone monument that honours about 1,180 Japanese war criminals, including wartime Prime Minister Hideki Tojo and 13 other executed officials. Abe, however, has said that those convicted by the tribunal are not considered war criminals under Japanese domestic law - well go figure - of course they wouldn't be!
So here at last is a photo - courtesy of the Kyodo News and Associated Press, of the 'inside' of a Japanese War Shrine to its wartime 'heroes' -
- now we can see what the Japanese leaders see when they visit these war shrines. The names of all the war criminals are inscribed on the memorial tablets shown here at the Koyasan Okuno-in Buddhist Temple.
There is nothing wrong with having their names inscribed as a remembrance of them in death - as in any 'cemetery', but it is the constant honour and praise by the highest-ranking officials on behalf of the government of Japan of these war criminals who caused so much suffering and death all across Asia in WWII - and revering them as 'gods' - that is so wrong!