POLITICS-JAPAN: Ghosts of Wartime Past Prompts Soul-searching

By Suvendrini Kakuchi Reprint | | Print |

Suvendrini Kakuchi

TOKYO, Aug 16 2000 (IPS) - Another anniversary marking Japan’s defeat and the end of World War II has come and gone, but for many Japanese, the ghosts it usually calls forth have haunted the country for too long.

In fact, some even say it is time for Japan to get over its controversial wartime past and to try working on a new national spirit that would see the country through the 21st century.

One step toward that, they say, is for Japan’s leaders and the Imperial family to begin paying official visits to the Yasukuni shrine, which is the symbol of Japanese militarism and honours the 2.4 million Japanese war dead.

“Leaders should ignore protests from countries like South Korea and China that always refer to Japanese colonisation of their countries on this day,” said Hakugaki Kuriyabashi, 84, who spent seven years in Siberia after Japan lost the war.

“They should say clearly that Japan has apologised for whatever bad it did to those countries and then move on by respecting its war dead,” insisted Kuriyabashi, who has among the estimated 10,000 mourners who trooped Tuesday to the Yasukuni shrine here.

Yasukuni, which means “peaceful country”, is the congregation point for thousands of Japanese each Aug. 15, the day on which 55 years ago, Japan surrendered to the Allied Forces.

The shrine, located in the heart of Tokyo next to the walls of the Imperial Palace, honours all of Japan’s war dead. Created in 1869, it became known as Yasukuni in 1879. It is most known for being the site of the graves of six convicted war criminals of World War II.

No member of the Imperial Family was present there Tuesday. Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori did not visit the shrine as well, the better to avoid upsetting neighbouring countries that had suffered atrocities in the hands of the Japanese Imperial Army in World War II.

Emperor Akihito and Mori, attending a memorial service elsewhere in Tokyo, expressed regret for wartime aggression and sorrow for the war dead and their families.

But 10 Cabinet members and the popular Tokyo governor, nationalist Shintaro Ishiharo, were among Yasukuni’s throngs of visitors.

Some observers say the presence of these officials at Yasukuni is only one among the growing indications of changes in how the Japanese view their country’s wartime past.

Indeed, many now say that in order for today’s recession-hit Japan to boost its confidence, the country must once and for all get over what it did to other countries more than half a century ago.

The problem, however, is that there has yet to be a significant consensus on how to do just that.

Japan’s efforts to come to terms with its past are also not helped by unfinished debates over its wartime atrocities, which include its having forced women in South Korea, the Philippines and Indonesia into sexual slavery.

Debates also arise now and then about how Japan should express its apology for those past acts. The issue still affects ties with neighbouring countries, and breeds some mistrust from their part.

In truth, much of Japan was engulfed in fierce debate before the legislature was able to pass a law a year ago that ordered schools to play the national anthem and fly the ‘Hinomaru’ or sun flag during ceremonial events.

Both had been symbols of the Japan that had invaded neighbouring countries decades ago.

Likewise, these days there are moves among politicians and academics toward a rewriting of Japan’s postwar Constitution that had been the creation of the victorious U.S. forces.

Among others, the charter stipulates that Japan keep only self- defence forces and not a military that is capable of aggression.

Proponents of changing the Constitution argue that Japan has matured enough to play a more active role in international affairs without the blessings of Washington.

Then there are efforts like those of the Japan Association, which is an organisation of mostly elderly Japanese hoping to restore Japan’s “former glory”. It claims 23,000 members.

“We are for peace, not war,” said one woman member of the association, standing beside a colleague distributing leaflets at Yasukuni. “But at the same time, we would like the Japanese to have confidence about their past.”

Meanwhile, some elderly Japanese say all the breast-beating that their country has done for the past half century was for the wrong reasons. This is why, they say, today’s youth have a distorted view of the war and Japan’s role in it.

“Japan was dragged into World War II by the United States,” said Shusaku Moriyama, 77, who was posted in Manchuria and watched many of his friends die there during the war.

“Many Japanese died to defend their country and free Asia from Western aggression. I am angry that the new generations do not see their past this way,” he added.

Taro Hasegawa, 72, who recounted that he went through hell in the jungles of the Philippines where he was sent as an Imperial Army officer, said he could not agree more.

He added: “I am so worried about the future of Japan because our young people have no moral strength and have no identity. All this is because they have not been taught to respect their country.”

Seventy-nine-year-old Yayoi Saeki, however, is content with simply bowing silently in a quiet corner at Yasukuni each Aug. 15.

“I pray for my husband who died at the age of 28 after he was taken away by the military and sent to war,” she told IPS. “What happened for most of the people laid to rest in Yasukuni and to the people in Asia who suffered as a result of Japanese militarism should never happen again — ever.”