Japan, China, South Korea, and Yasukuni Shrine

One of the largest issues surrounding Japan is how its new Prime Minister, Shinzo Abe, is going to strengthen relations with its Asian neighbors. Under Junichiro Koizumi, relations with China and S. Korea were destroyed with the PM's untimely visits to the controversial Yakusuni Shrine. The shrine is a memorial for its war dead: those who have died in wars defending Japan since the Tokugawa era until the modern day, including 12 class A war criminals from WW2. China and South Korea believe these visits encourage a militaristic Japan and support a revisionist view of its history. Koizumi and other conservatives claim it’s their personal right to pay homage to those patriots who died for their country-making references to Arlington National Cemetery and the like.

Honestly, I can see where both parties have strong points. I don't blame Japanese people for wanting to pay respect for its war dead and I can see why this bothers its Asian neighbors. The problem lays within the shrine itself and what it stands for; and the timing Japanese public officials choose for their visits. The shrine is a bastion for conservatives and reactionary nationalists, boasting a revisionist point of view on history-its history museum refutes Japan as the aggressor in world war two; rather it claims Japan was defending itself from western pressures. It claims the executions were illegal and that they died defending Japan from the conquering western powers. With this as a background, you can see why China and South Korea get pissed off when Japanese officials visit-China suffered the Nanjing massacre and thousands of South Korean women were displaced and forced into prostitution. So that is why China got mad when Koizumi decided to visit the shrine immediately returning from a diplomatic meeting in Beijing.

That’s the background of the whole diplomatic mess in a nutshell. Now that Abe is prime minister, SK and the PRC are optimistic for better relations; to me these countries don't dislike the Japanese people, they just want to be treated with respect. And so far Abe has done a pretty good job with this. This past weekend marked the first visit of a Japanese PM to Beijing since 2001 and the two parties, while not discussing anything too major, came out looking forward to a bright future. Similarly, Abe and SK president Roo Moo Hyun had a good meeting which ended with the two delivering a press conference praising each others' nations and provided promising outlooks.

These meetings were for show, the only thing these leaders discussed of value was the North Korean issue, but who already doesn't know these countries positions. We all know Japan is the harshest, S. Korea is kind of iffy, and China is the sole reason N. Korea still functions. It is also known that each of these countries will condemn the North if it carries out a test. So Abe got together with these leaders to confirm the need for 6 party talks, economic sanctions, blah blah. The real test for Japan will be whether or not Abe visits Yasukuni (I think it's a matter of when). A DPJ member questioned Abe on his views of Yasukuni (Abe is known to have visited it in the past and has yet to solidify his stance) Abe replied by saying that under Japanese law, the war criminals aren't real war criminals because their trials were held under foreign occupation. Kind of iffy if you ask me.