Anti-Japanese Sentiment - Yasukuni Shrine

Yasukuni Shrine

The Yasukuni Shrine is a Shinto shrine in Tokyo, Japan. It is the resting place of thousands of not only Japanese soldiers, but also compulsory recruited Korean and Taiwanese soldiers killed in various wars, mostly in World War II. The shrine includes 13 Class A criminals such as Hideki Tojo and Hirota Koki, who were convicted and executed for their roles in the Japanese invasions of the China, Korea, and other parts of East Asia after the remission to them under Treaty of San Francisco, A total of 1,068 convicted war criminals are enshrined at the Yasukuni Shrine.

In recent years, the Yasukuni Shrine has become a sticking point in the relations of Japan and its neighbours. The enshrinement of war criminals has greatly angered the people of various countries invaded by Japan. In addition, the shrine published a pamphlet stating that " was necessary in order for us to protect the independence of Japan and to prosper together with our Asian neighbors" and that the war criminals were "cruelly and unjustly tried as war criminals by a sham-like tribunal of the Allied forces". While it is true that the fairness of these trials is disputed among jurists and historians in the West as well as in Japan, the former prime minister of Japan, Junichiro Koizumi, has visited the shrine five times (seeming to imply that his point of view is consistent with the shrine's pamphlet); every visit caused immense uproar in China and Korea. His successor, Shinzo Abe, was also a regular visitor of Yasukuni. Some Japanese politicians have responded by saying that the shrine, as well as visits to it, is protected by the constitutional right of freedom of religion. Yasuo Fukuda, chosen Prime Minister in September 2007, promises "not to visit" Yasukuni.