Top Story: 5.February 2007

Yasukuni Shrine - Message for the Future

Originally constructed in June 1869 by Meiji Emperor, the Yasukuni Shrine has been standing in Tokyo, just next to Tokyo University of Science. I got chance to visit there in January 2007. Many thanks for Junichiro-san for taking me here.

First thing that made me surprised was the mere size of the shrine. The area where multiple facilities of the shrine stands must be over one kilometer long. The great steel tori gate stands just against Tokyo University of Science. Maybe easiest way to go to Yasukuni is to use subway and go to JR Ichigaya station (with Chuo line). It takes about fifteen minutes to walk there. The area of shrine is surrounded by a large wall. The shrine is a Shinto shrine so it is operated like any other shinto shrine, and it has dedicated personnel and priests. The shrine is open 24 hours everyday, and the museum is open daily 9am to 5pm.

There are many facilities inside the shrine. Sanctuaries and statues, and memorial of souls of homing pigeons used by the military. Chinreisha is "Spirit Pacifying Shrine" to the south of the main sanctuary. It's a small shrine remembering those killed abroad during the war, foreigners and Japanese.

When I entered the shrine, the feeling and atmosphere inside the shrine wasn't that different from any other shinto shrine. People come here to pray for their future, clap their hands and write wishes to small tablets (available for purchase). In the small tablets, people write their wishes, most common wish seems to be "to enter the university". Some wish for the world peace.

Surprisingly many people were walking around even though it was a working day. Junichiro-san wondered "Don't these people have work to do?".

The museum was very interesting. The entrance fee was only 800 yen, which is really little when you consider how amazingly large the museum is and how much there is to see and you get chance to watch two full length movies. Just outside the museum, stood a statue of kamikaze pilot. The statue casted a long shadow, just as if he was about to make a statement.

Many original items such as samurai armors and swords are available to see there, as there is a genuine Zero aircraft, another types of aircrafts, Ohka suicide glider and Kaiten suicide torpedo, guns and tanks. Another interesting experimental weapon military developed was a suicide diver who carried explosive in the tip of a bamboo pole. These suicide divers were to stalk enemy submarines on shallow waters, and stick the pole into the bottom of the submarine. My favorite item was a thick rope which was a present from sailors wives to the navy. The made the rope from their own hair, to wish them a safe return.

And there were so many rusty, pierced helmets. The history and phases of Japanese military was explained in high detail. This was something that I was astonished. I'm no expert of World War II or history, but as far as I know, pretty much every event was described openly. On the other hand, atomic bombings of the US was described relatively shortly.

Visiting the museum, you could get to understand how similarly military propaganda works all around the world. There were so many beautiful stories, and as my friend Junichiro-san said, some of these stories are dangerous because they are too beautiful. The Japanese goverment said people have to die beautifully, like falling sakura. But truth is that in war, you die like a dog. What I felt was that especially during the World War II, Japan was led to such state that everything was to be sacrificed to the propaganda. Women and children, families. Everything was used to fight the war.

The families who sent their sons to die in the war didn't look sad, they looked happy because it was a great honour and chance to serve their country. I mean, people were not stupid, they must have known what the chances were. They did not have the luxury to look sad or feel sorrow for their lost family members. Everyone had to gaman. It happened, it happened a lot. Death was in the air.

Generally I felt that the Japanese who come here don't want to think about things too seriously. Most of them smiled. For Japanese this seems to be as interesting as it is for us foreigners. Even Japanese take pictures here. If you are Japanese and you say that you go to Yasukuni shrine every year, maybe people will think you are little on the right wing. But then again, when you really think about it, the shrine is all about remembering the past and conveying the only message to the future about war there is to convey, war means only one thing, death. Everyone must realize this.

For me I could not sense any political or passionate feeling in Yasukuni shrine. I got so tired reading the heated opinions and the news of Koizumi's visits to Yasukuni shrine earlier. The reason why I wanted to visit here was to imagine the past and the history, and what kind of atmosphere Japan had during this time of history. Yasukuni shrine does an excellent job conveying this, and the true nature of war.

The name Yasukuni means "Pacifying the Nation" and was chosen by the Meiji emperor.

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