This should be warmly received:
Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi squarely blamed China and South Korea on Wednesday for worsening relations with Japan, accusing them of interference in Japan’s domestic matters.
In a nationally broadcast news conference for the new year, Mr. Koizumi defended his annual visits to the Yasukuni Shrine, the memorial to Japan’s war dead, although the visits have frozen Japan’s diplomatic relations with its neighbors. The leaders of China and South Korea have refused to meet Mr. Koizumi as a protest over his visits to the shrine, which also honors top-ranked war criminals and is considered a symbol of Japanese militarism in Asia.
"I can’t understand why foreign governments would intervene in a spiritual matter and try to turn it into a diplomatic problem," Mr. Koizumi said, adding that he visited the shrine to pray for peace.
Let the bitching begin!
13 Comments
i have to agree. not because i consider japan to be the most trustworthy country in the region (which i do), but because he has a very valid point. all the countries do things that could easily bring offence to others in the region, its just a matter of which things different countries choose to take “offence” at. korea is tired of being americas bitch…………..so they are looking to become china’s new bitch, as they seem to think they will be the new power, and they would never actually consider standing on their own. (sorry fot the semi-bad language if anyone took offence, but i thought it was the most appropriate expression to use in this context)
I think it’s about time Koizumi took a stand on this issue. No matter what any world leader does, it’s not possible for everyone to be happy. Korea and China see this as an opportunity to get some sympathy and more free money which they can hide from their people and put in their own pockets. It needs not to happen. Koizumi works for his own people, not Korea’s, not China’s. Having good relations with your neighbors is important, but not more so than sacrificing your own people.
This recognition of history ‘problem’ is the biggest joke in the history of time. Japan isn’t China, Japan isn’t Korea. There is no single history book, there are many. The history book that people claim whitewashes history is used by less than 1% of all schools, all of the schools that use it are for mentally challenged children. Furthermore, if people would consider actually looking at the history book, they would realize that it does not whitewash, it does not say things didn’t happen. It just doesn’t go into the extreme detail that China and Korea do in order to foster hate for their neighbor in their children. And anyways, these books are for middle schoolers. People go to High School, the information is covered in High School.
Yasukuni has been around since long before WW2. It’s not a memorial to killing Koreans. I don’t see why people can’t understand that. It’s a memorial to those who died due to wars for their country. In the Japanese Shinto religion, all dead souls are just that, deal souls. There is no evil, and their is no good for dead souls. Foolish things like that are left on Earth. That is why the 14 A-Class “war criminals” are enshrined their. They do not represent evil, they do not represent good, they are just 14 of the 2.5 million Japanese that died due to war. People say that the 14 shouldn’t be enshrined because they did not die fighting. I used to agree, but upon further reading I learnt that it’s not only dying fighting that will get you enshrined, but dying for the cause. The people that were executed did in a way die fighting, they died at the hand of the enemy. They died because they fought for their country. What about those who died in custody before America and others had a chance to kill them? They died in custody, they were in custody because they fought for their country.
Japanese soldiers are not the only ones enshrined at Yasukuni. There are many Taiwanese and Korean soldiers as well. Also, Yasukuni is not limited to only soldiers. Anyone who has every died due to war in the history of time is enshrined in Chinreisha, on the same grounds as the main building of Yasukuni. All Korean and Chinese civilians, all Jews, all Americans, all French, everyone is worshiped as a god when Koizumi goes to pray for peace. I think that is a truly amazing thing. Does China have a shrine to pray for the Koreans it killed the many times it invaded? Does Korea have a shrine to pray for Japanese who died fighting their previous Chinese rulers? Didn’t think so.
I don’t care what they do there. What we have to do with their shrine visits? We are not losing anything with it nor it represents anything.
I think the poor relations which have resulted from these shrine visits are a little ridiculous but I think Japan does have a right to be annoyed at China and South Korea’s protests regarding Yasukuni.
It seems to be, as Koizumi said himself, a domestic issue that should not involve China and Korea. Despite the unfavorable relations among the three countries, Japan is not closing off ties with its neighbors–it is the exact opposite that is happening.
If one is to blame the lack of diplomacy in NE Asia on one side, it would be shortsighted to blame Japan and more accurate to point fingers at the nations which have chosen to cease communication with Tokyo in childish protest to Yasukuni.
It’s unfortunate because North Korea is still a common concern for all three countries.
Darin my dear,
Really love your logic, if there was to be a Nazi shrine for Hitler, it would be a fine and respectable idea as long as it also enshrined the Nazi collaborators from occupied Poland, France and Ukraine.
And if the new German Chancellor was to visit the Hitler shrine, it would be “truly amazing” too, as long as she prayed for peace in the Hitler Shrine.
Golden has referenced Hitler–according to Godwin’s Law, he/she has lost the argument. (By invoking Godwin’s Law I hereby give up all attempts to end this thread….)
golden: Really not surprised by your lack of attempt to understand.
This is not a shrine to hitler, nor is it a shrine to the war criminals. It is a shrine to those who died due to war. Also, as I mentioned before but you clearly didn’t read, there is no good or evil in the Shinto religion. A dead person is a dead person, and that dead person is to be enshrined as a ‘kami’. A major problem with this issue is Japan is the only country that has the Shinto religion, and seemingly Shinto is the only religion with these beliefs. When these beliefs are translated into English, or compared to christian religions so that others can understand, there is no option but to translate the word ‘kami’ into god. But they’re not really gods, more like spirits that must never be forgotten. The opposite is also true. The concept of a christian god is very difficult for a Japanese person who speaks Japanese natively to understand. I’ve attended a few church services here and although I am not a devout, or any for that matter, christian, I did grow up in a christian home, my grandfather is a paster, and I went to a christian college with mandatory religious studies courses, and to me, the christianity practiced in Japan isn’t really christianity. It’s something else. Christianity seemly can not be understood by a ‘Japanese’ mind. I’m not the only one to think so. If you’re interested, I can look up the English names and translations of some literature about it. In the same way, Shinto is something that can not be understood by a ‘christian’ mind. I don’t consider myself christian, yet I still can’t fully comprehend all that is Shintoism.
Golden has referenced Hitler–according to Godwin’s Law, he/she has lost the argument. (By invoking Godwin’s Law I hereby give up all attempts to end this thread….)
Um… Godwin’s lie doesn’t (or at least shouldn’t) apply when we’re talking about things directly related to Hitler. That would include Hitler’s allies (e.g., the Yasukuni-14), Stalin (whether Stalin or Hitler was worse), or people such as Hitler’s barber.
If someone posits that Hitler’s hairdresser was gay, does that person automatically lose the argument because they mentioned that Herr Johannes was Hitler’s barber? What if we discuss whether Schindler’s List was Spielberg’s greatest film? Do I automatically lose my argument because I mentioned Hitler in the context of a movie about Nazi atrocities, or for that matter an issue about Hitler’s allies?
Anyway, my thoughts on this matter are here (I posted this before Marmot put this up), and I link this only because at the bottom they include non-rhetorical questions I’d like the answers to.
But are we talking about Hitler? Nope.
Criticize Korea, people scream that Japan is worse (so that makes it okay?).
Talk about Yasukuni, people scream how bad it would be if people made a shrine for Hitler (except this isn’t a shrine for Hitler, or any other one person, but for every human being that has ever died through war in the history of time.)
All that’s missing in this argument is some America bashing and we’ve got all the irrelevant basses covered.
Kushibo, golden made a comparison involving Hitler–classic Godwin’s Law.
http://www.answers.com/godwin’s%20law
Anyway, on the OP, there’s plenty of blame to go around for the diplomatic strains. Koizumi knows full well that the yasakuni shrine represents an ideologically loaded view that exculpates Japan from its wartime aggression. The current Korean gov’t, for its part, has been childish and amateur in its relations with Japan, like this recent stunt:
http://english.chosun.com/w21d.....20023.html
And China is, as always, in no position to criticize Japanese imperialism or treatment of its neighbors.
Chinese and Korean governments will never accept the Yasukuni visits. According to a poll, almost half of the Japanese people are also against their government leaders visiting Yasukuni. Koizumi and others like him are damaging Japan’s standing in Asia. The Japanese are shooting themselves in the foot because of the visits. Last year, there was a big backlash against Japanese businesses and consulates in China. Japan is going to become more isolated and unpopular in Asia. It will be their loss.
I hate when people include Korea with Chinese. Don’t you agree that we don’t have anything in common?
Katz, both governments are going to be group together on a topic they are both acting the same way about.
“Don’t you agree that we don’t have anything in common?”
No.. Korea and China have almost everything in common. Just like Korea and Japan do, and Japan and China do. People are so similar, that’s why they always fight with each-other. Just like Europe.