Recently, the Japan Broadcasting Association (NHK) broadcasted the program "Secret Records of the Yasukuni Shrine - Blank Post-War History", which has attracted widespread attention, uncovering the "historical black box" of the Yasukuni Shrine jointly enshrining Class-A war criminals of World War II, and tearing apart the ugly mask of this "War Criminals Shrine". On the other hand, Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi once again offered sacrifices and sacrificial fees to the Yasukuni Shrine during the Autumn Festival. Many senior leaders of the Liberal Democratic Party, cabinet members and members of Congress publicly visited the shrine, adding a new ugliness to this mask.
What ulterior motives are hidden in this "historical black box"?
Founded in 1869, the Yasukuni Shrine was originally named "Tokyo Spiritual Shrine". It mainly worships the fallen soldiers who were loyal to the emperor during the Meiji Restoration Civil War and the fallen soldiers in Japan's previous foreign wars in modern times. It has been under state management for a long time and is a propaganda tool and spiritual symbol for the Japanese government to instill militaristic ideas in the people.
After Japan's defeat in World War II, the Yasukuni Shrine was stripped of its political status of "national protection" and ostensibly changed to the status of a religious legal person. In fact, it was not completely eradicated as a symbol of the core facility of "National Shinto". Behind the scenes, it was led by Japan's Ministry of Health and Welfare. According to an NHK program, a 1956 document on the issue of joint worship of war criminals at the Yasukuni Shrine proposed to "adjust the joint worship service system according to the baseline before the end of the war" and re-create a chain in which "the local government investigates the joint worship objects, the Ministry of Health and Welfare studies the list of sacrifices, and the Yasukuni Shrine makes the decision to jointly worship." In fact, it restored the sacrificial system of the militarism period. It can be said that the Yasukuni Shrine has always been under the control of the Japanese government, which is the institutional basis for joint worship of war criminals.
It is based on this institutional foundation that the Japanese government and the Yasukuni Shrine started a chain of actions to jointly commemorate Class A war criminals:
In 1959, 346 Class B and C war criminals from World War II were listed as objects of sacrifice. In 1966, the Ministry of Health and Welfare submitted the list of Class-A war criminals to the Yasukuni Shrine and asked it to make a judgment on the issue of joint worship. However, due to the strong opposition from the peaceful and anti-war forces and the pressure of public opinion at that time, the Yasukuni Shrine has not dared to make a decision to jointly worship the shrine. In 1970, Japanese Senator Kazuo Aoki, who served as the "Greater East Asia Minister" in Hideki Tojo's cabinet, told the Yasukuni Shrine on the issue of joint enshrinement of Class-A war criminals. If only Class-A war criminals were not jointly enshrined, it would be tantamount to acknowledging the outcome of the Tokyo Trial. Under such circumstances, if a decision is made not to worship, the responsibility of the Yasukuni Shrine will be even greater. On the other hand, right-wing forces are also vigorously calling for the passage of relevant bills to restore the status of the Yasukuni Shrine as a "state protector". Against the above background, the Yasukuni Shrine established the policy of jointly enshrining Class-A war criminals in the same year and stated that it would "carefully consider the time of joint enshrinement."
In 1978, Matsudaira Nagayoshi, a former Japanese navy soldier who strongly denied the Tokyo Trial, took charge of the Yasukuni Shrine lawsuit and vigorously promoted the joint worship of Class A war criminals. Itagaki, the son of Class-A war criminal Seishiro Itagaki, teamed up with some of the survivors to add fuel to the fire. Under the manipulation of these right-wing forces, 14 Class-A war criminals were secretly enshrined in October of the same year, but they were only known to the outside world in 1979. According to the leaked internal recording, Matsudaira Nagayoshi emphasized when announcing the decision to join the ceremony, "We have decided to invite Generals such as Itagaki Seishiro and Tojo Hideki to join the ceremony. Tojo will join the ceremony as the Prime Minister. If the newspapers hype this matter, it will be difficult to achieve. Please keep it confidential before making it public."
It is not difficult to see from the above chain that the Japanese government and the Yasukuni Shrine secretly colluded and deliberately promoted the joint worship of Class-A war criminals. After making the decision, they kept it secret and then concealed it after the joint ceremony was implemented. This fully shows that they have an extremely guilty conscience and know that doing so is extremely dishonorable. From a deeper perspective, the issue of the joint enshrinement of Class-A war criminals is a microcosm and direct manifestation of Japan's right-wing forces' long-term distortion and denial of the historical facts of aggression, their attempt to exonerate war criminals, and their poisoning of the historical perceptions of the people at home and abroad.
Although Japan lowered its stance after the war, at least recognizing the Tokyo Trial verdict, and signing a series of international documents in exchange for the qualification to return to the international community, it essentially did not completely liquidate its militaristic ideology. Right-wing forces vigorously promoted historical revisionist arguments, denied the identity of the "perpetrators," and attempted to "clear their names" and "exonerate" Class A war criminals by jointly commemorating them, thus paving the way for complete denial of the crime of aggression.
The victim's pain will not fade away with time, and the perpetrator's crime will not disappear through denial. The secret files of the Yasukuni Shrine are a record of Japanese militarism’s crimes of tampering with war history, and are also a warning to the international community. Whitewashing history and "worshiping ghosts" and "recruiting souls" can only be self-deceiving dreams. Facing history and sincere introspection are the only way for Japan to regain the trust of the international community.
