Politicians' Visits
As a result of the enshrinement of the war criminals In Yasukuni, a controversy has arisen regarding Japanese politicians' right to visit and worship at Yasukuni Shrine.
This issue first surfaced when Emperor Hirohito refused to visit the shrine from 1978 until his death in 1989. According to a memorandum released in 2006 kept by Imperial Household Agency Grand Steward Tomohiko Tomita, Hirohito stated that the reason he stopped visiting the shrine was because of the decision to enshrine Class-A war criminals such as Yosuke Matsuoka and Toshio Shiratori. Since his 1978 decision, no Japanese emperor has visited the Yasukuni Shrine. Japanese imperial emissaries have visited annually.
While an emperor has not visited the shrine since 1978, Japanese politicians, including Japanese Prime Ministers and other Japanese Cabinet members, have caused considerable controversy by visiting Yasukuni. Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi was one of the most outspoken and controversial visitors. On October 17, 2005, for example, Koizumi visited the shrine for the fifth time since taking office. Although he claimed that his visit was a private affair, it came only days before Japanese Foreign Minister Nobutaka Machimura was scheduled to visit Chinese officials in Beijing to strengthen Sino-Japanese relations. The People's Republic of China responded by canceling the scheduled visit as they consider the shrine a glorification of Japan's past military aggression,.
Koizumi's annual visits to Yasukuni continued to draw criticism from around the world. During the 2005 APEC summit in Busan, South Korea, Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing likened Koizumi's visits to "German leaders (memorials) related to Hitler and Nazis." In 2006, Henry Hyde, chairman of the United States House Committee on Foreign Affairs, stated that Koizumi would embarrass the United States Congress and offend American veterans of World War II if he were to give a Congressional speech after making another visit to Yasukuni.
Koizumi's expected successor, Shinzo Abe, had visited the shrine in April 2006 before he took office. Although this visit concerned both Chinese and South Korean governments, Abe remained vague as to whether he had visited or would visit the shrine in the future. Subsequent events have led some to suggest that a compromise on the issue was reached with China. Abe publicly supported his predecessor's visits to the shrine, but he did not visit the shrine during his term as prime minister.
On June 7, 2007 former President of the Republic of China Lee Teng-hui visited the Shrine to pay tribute to his older brother who died in the Japanese Imperial Navy; he too volunteered as a Japanese Imperial Army officer.
The former Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda vowed never to visit the shrine, a commitment applauded by Japan's Asian neighbors. Fukuda's open political opposition to the shrine has helped improve relations with China, and North and South Korea. Other politicians have continued to visit the shrine; a group of 62 Diet members from the Liberal Democratic Party and the People's New Party, including former farm minister Shimamura and Eriko Yamatani, a special adviser to prime minister Fukuda, visited the shrine on 22 April 2008.
In the public opinion poll of Nihon Keizai Shimbun, half of Japanese respondents agreed with the Prime Minister's visit to Yasukuni Shrine.
Read more about this topic: Controversies Surrounding Yasukuni Shrine
Famous quotes containing the word visits:
“The soul is no traveler; the wise man stays at home, and when his necessities, his duties, on any occasion call him from his house, or into foreign lands, he is at home still and shall make men sensible by the expression of his countenance that he goes, the missionary of wisdom and virtue, and visits cities and men like a sovereign and not like an interloper or a valet.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)