The Yasukuni Memos: Bringing the Past to Light
One of the many complexities of the Sino-Japanese relationship can be said to be the difference in attitudes between the respective cultures of China and Japan and their attitude to wartime contrition. With China holding the view that 'a defeat, concession or confession must be made openly', and Japan holding the view that 'what is left unsaid is often said the loudest'. A cultural factor which has oft been blamed for much of the dire relations between these two Asian neighbors.
However, as anybody who reads the Japanese newspapers will also know, one of the many things that has been left unsaid for nearly 30 years, has just been said. Much to the delight, or horror, of 'interested parties' in both China and Japan.
Confirmation
In a radical new development of an old argument, the Japanese daily Nihon Keizai Shimbun has, this week, published extracts from a series of official memos - taken by a senior member of the Imperial Household - which finally confirm that the late Emperor Hirohito choose to boycott the controversial Yasukuni Jinja in disgust, after it was revealed to him that shrine officials had secretly allowed 14 Class-A war criminals to be interned at the site.
| "At some point, Class-A criminals became enshrined.... That's why I have not visited the shrine since. This is my heart."
Emperor Showa (As recorded by Tomita Tomohiko) |
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Before the release of the memos, it was well known that Hirohito, or Emperor Showa, as he has been formally known since his death, had visited Yasukuni a total of 8 times since the end of WWII, and that these visits had abruptly stopped at around the time that news of the war criminals prescience became public knowledge.
However, while it had been widely speculated that his refusal to attend Yasakuni was directly liked to this revelation, neither Hirohito, nor his staff, had ever fully explained the facts of the matter. Making the recently published memos the first official document ever to publicly confirm his personal views on this topic.
Hirohito's son, the reigning Emperor Akihito, has also refused to attend Yasukuni, either as part of his official duties, or in a personal capacity, since the presence of the war criminals was revealed.
His actions, and past statement, indicate that his reasons are the same as those of his father. Though his status as a constitutional monarch prevents him from speaking out in any real capacity.
Tomita Tomohiko?
The newly published memos come from a set of 20 notebooks, kept by Tomita Tomohiko in which they recorded conversation held by the late Emperor.
Tomita was a senior member of the Imperial Household, becoming its Deputy Head in 1974, before rising to the rank of Grand Steward in 1978. A position which they held for 10 years, and which granted Tomita close access to the reclusive Emperor.
Tomita passed away in 2003, and the notebooks records were provided to the Nihon Keizai Shimbun by family members.
Vindication
Though the full implications of Tomita's memos are not yet known, they have been seized upon by elements within both moderate and liberal Japan – which makes up the vast bulk of Japanese civil society - who have used them to bolster their call for Yasukuni to either be sidelined through the construction of a alternative monument that does not name Class-A war criminals, or for the controversial shrine to be forced to comply with demands that it remove the names from its monuments. Both as a means of allowing Japanese to refelect properly on the wrongness of war, and as a means of showing neighboring China and Korea the 'true face' of a repentant Japan that is strongly comitted to turning its back on nationalism and militarism.
| “It is obvious that the nation needs a new facility where anybody can pray for the war victims.
Editorial, Asahi Shimbun, Japan |
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A Kick in the Backside
Though well received by most, not everybody, however, has greeted Tomita's memos with jubilation. Indeed, their very existence come as a great humiliation to extremist on both sides of the Sino-Japanese divide.
Japan?
Many members of Japan's discredited and isolated nationalist minority claim fealty to the Emperor and former Emperor but, until now, have been at a loss to publicly explain when both Hirohito and Akihito have denied their cause even the slightest gratification, by refusing to visit Yasukuni.
As such, these nationalist elements have commonly used Hirohito and Akihito's refusal to make their personal views public, as is traditional in Japan, as a conduit through which to spread speculation and doubt about their reason, and to maintain the argument that it was possible that they had some other mysterious reason to avoid the shrine. A reason other than as a protest against the presence of Class-A war criminals.
Thanks to Tomita's memos, such nationalist denials are no longer possible.
| "Regarding the reasons the emperor stopped visiting the shrine, there has been little evidence from those who were close to the emperor. Therefore, arguments were often premised on speculation. But, the newly discovered memo now provides crucial evidence that Emperor Showa felt displeasure.”
Hata Ikuhiko, Lecturer in Contemporary History, Nippon University, Japan |
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China?
Just as the memos been damaging to Japanese nationalists - by removing their ability to claim the silent support of Emperor Showa - so have they been damaging to China's young angry nationalists, as they finally put pay to Chinese claims that Emperor Showa remained without remorse until the time of his death.
Tomita's memos also resoundingly contradict any claims, by nationalist elements on either side, that Hirohito secretly supported the internment of Class-A war criminals in Yasukuni. Showing clearly and definitively that he felt deeply enough about the presence of those who had ravaged China and its neighbors to boycott one of Japan's most important shrines.
Side Story
As an unusual side story, it was also revealed that the memos of the late Emperor included a strong criticism of Matsudaira Nagayoshi - the Chief Priest of Yasukuni who had allowed Class-A war criminals to be interned at the shrine - in which Hirohito accused him of going against the principles set by his own father, and by his predecessors, by allowing war criminals to be enshrined in a place of peace and remembrance.
| "I wonder what was on the mind of Matsudaira's child..... I thought Matsudaira [senior] had strong aspirations for peace."
Emperor Showa (As recorded by Tomita Tomohiko) |
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Matsudaira Nagayoshi's father was Matsudaira Yoshitami. A former minister of the Imperial Household during the post war years. He sought peace and reconciliation.
Prior to Matsudaira Nagayoshi's appointment, Chief Priest Fujimaro Tsukuba, had refused 'point blank' to allow Class-A war criminals names to be included in the shrine. He swore that he would fight their enshrinement so long as he was alive. Fujimaro kept this promise until the time of his death.
| “Enshrinement [of Class-A war criminals] will probably be impossible as long as I’m alive”
Fujimaro Tsukuba, Former Chief Priest, Yasukuni Jinja |
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Powerless?
Though neither widely known nor accepted in China, Japan's post war constitution actively imposes a barrier of nullification between the Japanese government and the various religious groups operating within the country.
This clause was imposed by the US in 1946, and was originally intended to serve a number of purposes, including:
A) To prevent the state from promoting religion
B) To prevent the state from persecuting religious groups
C) To prevent religion being used to promote the ideals of the state
Unfortunately, because the controversial shrine is maintained as a religious site - and so falls under religious jurisdiction - this clause now acts to prevents the state from imposing a solution on Yasukuni, or leveling sanctions against it if it refuses to remove class-A war criminals of its own accord.
Effectively rendering Tokyo powerless to act against Yasukuni, even if it is in the nations best interests, or if it is the will of the wider Japanese people.
A similar clause exists within the constitutions of a number of countries and states, including that of the US - on which the Japanese constitution is based. Like Japan, the governments of such countries are also powerless to prevent religious groups, or nationalists using the cover of religious protection, from honoring war criminals.
Yasukuni - The Bare Facts (Including the Good, the bad, and the down right Ugly)
- The name 'Yasukuni' literally meaning "Peaceful Garden"
- It was founded by the Meiji Emperor in 1869, in commemoration of the Boshin War of 1868 to 1869
- It remembers around 2 and a half million dead from a total of 11 wars. Many of which were internal to Japan and did not involve aggression against foreign states
- Contrary to some misconceptions, the shrine is Shinto and not Buddhist
- Among the dead remembered at Yasukuni are Chinese, Taiwanese and Koreans citizens, as well as Japanese civilians
- Around 57,000 of the names at Yasukuni are of women, 460 of whom were students who volunteered as feild nurses. Most these nurses were killed during the invasion of Okinawa
- Included among the civilian names are 700 elementry school children who were killed when their evacuation ship was torpedoed by western forces
- Yasukuni also contains a shrine to the western victims of Japanese aggression, though it has been off limits to the public since 'threats' were made against it. Contention exists as to whether these threats were real, or whether they were fabricated
- 1,068 of the dead named in Yasukuni have been convicted of some form of war crimes, ranging from complicity or failure to prevent event, through to the purposeful murder of civilians
- 14 of the dead in Yasukuni have been classified as Class-A (the worst of the worst) war criminals. Their crimes include mass murder and facilitation of atrocities such as the Nanking massacre
- Although most of the Class-A war criminals were executed in 1948, or died in prison during the 1950s, they were not enshrined at Yasukuni until 1978.
- Due to the controversy surrounding it, their enshrinement was kept secret, both from the Emperor and the population at large. It did not become public knowledge until 6 months later, at which point it provoked outrage among the Japanese people.
The 14 Class-A war criminals named at Yasukuni are as follows (name position, sentence):
- Tojo Hideki - General, Prime Minister (Hung by the neck until dead)
- Seishiro Itagaki- Officer, Architect of the "Manchurian Incident" (Hung by the neck until dead)
- Kimura Heitaro - Head of the Guandong Army, Architect of the Burma-Thai Railway (Hung by the neck until dead)
- Doihara Kenji - Officer, Intelligence operative, key architect of the "Manchurian Incident" (Hung by the neck until dead)
- Matsui Iwane - General, Officer held most responsible for the Nanking atrocities (Hung by the neck until dead)
- Muto Akira - Commander of the 2nd Imperial Guards (Hung by the neck until dead)
- Hirota Koki - Foreign Minister, Prime Minister (Hung by the neck until dead)
- Umezu Yoshijiro - Commander in Chief of the Japanese Army (Imprisoned until Death)
- Koiso Kuniaki - Governor General to Korea, Prime Minster (Imprisoned until Death)
- Hiranuma Ki'ichiro - Right Wing leader (Imprisoned until Death)
- Toshio Shiratori - Ambassador to Italy, adviser to the Foreign Minister (Imprisoned until Death)
- Togo Shigenori - Minister of Foreign Affairs, Minister for Colonization (20 Years Imprisonment)
- Nagano Osami - Chief of Naval General Staff, Office held most responsible for Pearl Harbor (Death by heart attack before sentencing)
- Yosuke Matsuoka - Minister of Foreign Affair (Death by natural causes before sentencing)
Bringing honour out of Dishonor
Many Japanese opposed the war, but were silenced by the government of the time, who regarded them as being seditionist and traitors. Other's remained silent, but later came out to bear witness to what they saw, or to confess to the crimes that they either committed or failed to prevent. Such people include the late Azuma Shiro and Shinozuka Yoshio
Azuma Shiro?
Azuma Shiro, also known as the conscience of Japan, was present during some of Japan's worst atrocities, but did little to prevent them. After the war, he was driven by guilt and grief to publish "My Nanking Platoon", a collection of memoirs that recounted what he had seen, and what he had been made party to, during the war.
Azuma visited China many times after the war, including visits to the Nanking, where he met with survivors and their decedents in an effort to make peace.
| "I used to hate the Japanese so much .... But when I saw the old Azuma in tears, bowing and kneeling before us in repentance, I couldn't hold back my tears"
Jiang Fugen, Survivor, Nanking Massacre |
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Azuma died on 3 January 2006. His passing war mourned by both China and Japan.
| "He was a warrior fighting for justice. He was a sincere friend of Chinese people"
Jing Shenghong, Professor of History, Nanjing University |
| Shinozuka Yoshio?
During the war, Shinozuka was a member of Unit 731, a WMD development development unit that conducted chemical and biological weapons trials on human subjects in China.
| "[Unit 731] cruelly murdered human beings, first by caging them and then by killing them."
Shinozuka Yoshio, Former Member of Unit 731 |
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Unlike other members of the unit, who sought to make atonement for their crimes in private, Shinozuka fought to raise public awareness of the war crimes and atrocities committed by Unit 731. including the deliverance of key testimonies in support of 180 Chinese survives, and their families.
He and was instrumental in a 2002 verdict, by Japanese courts, which denounced Unit 731, and indelibly recorded their actions as being "clearly inhumane" and the suffering that it caused as being "immense".
| "I was doing what I was told. And I might very well have been killed had I disobeyed. But what we did was so terrible that I should have refused, even if that meant my own death."
Shinozuka Yoshio |
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After the war, many member of Unit 731 were granted amnesty by the West in return for divulging data that they had gathered while conducting experiments on Chinese civilians.
At the time, much of this data was at the cutting edge of the WMD industry.
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