Yasukuni, the War Dead and the Struggle for Japan's Past

Yasukuni, the War Dead and the Struggle for Japan's Past

Edited by John Breen

Hurst, HK$420

On April 18, 2001, Japan's former prime minister Junichiro Koizumi declared in his campaign pledge for the ruling Liberal Democratic Party presidential election (the winner of which also became prime minister): 'Once I take office ... I will definitely visit Yasukuni on August 15, however much criticism I face.'

Which is why in 2006 Koizumi, in tails and a tie that matched his silver hair, followed a Shinto priest through the cypress pillars of the shrine to pay his respects to his country's war dead. The parting gesture, Wang Zhixin writes in Yasukuni, the War Dead and the Struggle for Japan's Past, on the day Japan declared its unconditional surrender 61 years earlier, allowed Koizumi to honour his promise and mark a decisive end to his tenure as prime minister.

Koizumi fuelled more controversy than previous leaders with his six annual trips to the shrine, built in Tokyo in 1869 to commemorate the men who went to war and died for their emperor, numbering 2.5 million to date.

Chinese feelings were hurt by his actions, comments Wang, adding: 'Yasukuni is offensive to the people of the war-damaged nations, and state patronage eats away at Japan-China relations.' Central to the shrine's ability to provoke enmity, not only from China but also South Korea and other Asian countries,