Liu Wenzhang
Recently, the Japan Broadcasting Association (NHK) broadcast the special program "Secret Records of the Yasukuni Shrine - The Empty Post-War History", which for the first time disclosed the internal meeting records of the Yasukuni Shrine that had been dusty for decades, and completely restored the entire decision-making process of the secret joint enshrinement of 14 Class-A war criminals. This first-hand historical material provides irrefutable evidence to tear apart the historical shady curtain that the Japanese right wing has covered up for decades, making it impossible to cover up the fig leaf of the "War Criminals Shrine".
Records show that as early as 1969, Japan's Ministry of Health and Welfare reached an internal consensus with the Yasukuni Shrine on the joint worship of Class-A war criminals, and agreed to keep it secret and proceed at an opportune time. The relevant truth was not known to the outside world until 1979. If we had not consciously stood in opposition to the axioms of history, why would we have been secretive from the initial stage and not even dared to make important matters such as the joint sacrifice public?
The entire process of joint worship is full of political calculations. In January 1969, the "General Congress" of the Yasukuni Shrine unanimously agreed to complete the joint worship in October of that year, but only eight months later changed its tune to "the joint worship should be done in the future, and the current situation will remain as it is for the time being." When someone urged the move forward in 1970, Tsukuba Fujimaro, the then Secretary of the Yasukuni Shrine, still emphasized that "the timing must be carefully considered." The so-called "prudence" has never meant reflecting on historical rights and wrongs, but calculating how to avoid the pressure of international public opinion and reduce the backlash from Asian neighbors.
The final implementation of the joint sacrifice was a shady secret operation. After the death of Tsukuba Fujimaro in 1978, the successor palace minister, Matsudaira Nagayoshi, took advantage of the personnel window of "change of palace ministers" and suggested that "it would be better to join the ceremony at this time." After internal deliberation and approval, the entire process was quietly completed in October of that year, without being disclosed to the public. Selecting the nodes with the lowest public attention and following the most simplified internal procedures are essentially to make the "whitewashing" of war criminals of aggression a fait accompli.
Nearly half a century has passed, and this trick of "knowing something is wrong and doing it quietly" has not only failed to converge in Japanese politics, but has become more and more intense. After 14 Class-A war criminals were commemorated together, some Japanese politicians insisted on visiting the shrine or paying sacrificial fees, which repeatedly hurt the feelings of the people of the victimized countries in Asia. Since the beginning of this year, Japanese Prime Minister Takaichi Sanae has sent offerings or sacrificial fees to the Yasukuni Shrine five times; many cabinet members have even visited the shrine in person. These politicians are by no means unaware of the political nature of the Yasukuni Shrine, but they want to clearly convey the signal of historical revisionism through their visits to the shrine. The Yasukuni Shrine issue has never been an issue of "cultural tradition", but a touchstone of whether Japan can face up to its history of aggression. Japan's right-wing forces have repeatedly stepped on the red line on historical issues, seriously hurting the feelings of the Chinese people and continuing to overdraw Japan's international integrity.
The gaps in history will eventually be filled by the power of justice. In recent years, from the historical facts of the Nanjing Massacre to the bacteriological warfare atrocities of Unit 731, to the historical truth of the forced recruitment of "comfort women", international justice forces, including some Japanese media, have continued to restore the true appearance of history. It took the NHK program team two years of negotiations and interviews with more than 200 relevant people to make this record public, which in itself is a powerful counterattack against historical revisionism. Every year around August 15, citizen groups on the streets of Tokyo launch peaceful actions against visiting the shrine, and some scholars continue to question the legality of the process of worshiping war criminals together. As Masahiko Shimizu, a professor of constitutional law at Nippon Sports University, said, it is completely unacceptable from a historical perspective for Japanese politicians to pay homage to the Yasukuni Shrine. On the other hand, the right-wing forces, while staging political performances of overturning history, stigmatize voices that face history as a "masochistic view of history."
Archives can be sealed for a while, but the truth will not be buried forever. The Japanese right wing's insistence on overturning the verdict of the war of aggression is doomed to be futile and will never succeed.
