The Yasukuni Shrine, History, and Revisionism

Today’s Chosun Ilbo has an excellent article on the subject. Definitely read the whole piece, which closes with this:

Rather than ignore Yasukuni, Americans should participate in the debate about it, doing so from an American perspective. The US government should quietly discourage Prime Minister Koizumi and other officials from visiting Yasukuni. The government should also encourage Japan to reconsider establishing a non-political memorial dedicated solely to commemorating those who gave their lives, which would not include war criminals.

Wish granted. Here’s my own contribution from a few months back, and here’s a much longer, more scholarly piece kindly contributed to this blog by Dennis Halpin, a senior staffer on the House Asia-Pacific Subcommittee, who also works for Rep. Henry Hyde, Chairman of the International Relations Committee. Mr. Halpin, who has years of diplomatic and other experience in Korea and China, is the House’s top Korea policy aide. My visitors’ log tells me that a number of Chinese blogs have been linking Mr. Halpin’s piece recently. The actual post date is in 2005, although I changed the time stamp as a redneck fix for Blogspot’s lack of a “read the rest” feature.

I’m very glad that I took the time to visit Yasukuni and get my own perspective. What critics from the left often miss is that the Hiroshima “Peace Museum,” which simply basks in sanctimony, is a mirror image of the same kind of nationalist distortion.