Peaceful Rambles at Japan's War Shrine.

[sechan19]

I betook myself yesterday on a long walk along Tokyo's Yasukuni dori Avenue, ending at the famed Yasukuni shrine. For those of you who read my thesis, Yasukuni figured prominently in that work as an example of how modern Japanese continue to relate to issues of death and the supernatural. I was very eager to visit the shrine myself and discover it on a first-hand basis.

My visit there was delightful and surprising. Rather than finding even a single hint of the controversy that the foreign press loves to assign to Yasukuni (which is Japan's war shrine - honoring those who fought and died for the nation, including a number of Class-A war criminals much to the international community's chagrin), I found only peaceful tranquility. Families sprinkled fish food into the coi pond, while children laughing looked on. Elderly women swapped giggling gossip in the gardens. The faithful quietly communed with the Kami. The connotations I expected the place to exude in actuality formed no part of the essence of Yasukuni, and I was wholeheartedly delighted with it. I hope to return and make it one of my spots. It's proximity to my school makes it a very desirable haunt, and more than that I felt a deep connection to the spot.

I sat in the garden for half-an-hour, watching visitors come and go, and then I made my way to the shrine - where I gave offerings and prayed, clapping my hands to get the attention of the Kami and bowing to them in deep respect and love. Shintoism very much suits me - as it reflects my belief that God has many faces. I like the multi-headed face of God that I find in Shinto, and I value being able to love a rock or a tree (or a lamppost) as much as I love the infinite unknowable.

Comments

Re: HOnor the Dead

[reteva.livejournal.com]

I would be very interested to read these articles.

In terms of the museum displays, I did not visit there and consequently cannot attest to their present condition. I suspect, however, that it is probably as much as it ever was. Revisionist history is a folly of all nations, great and small, and I have no reason to suspect the Japanese of being any less subject to its whims than anyone else in the world.

Nevertheless, even excepting the presence of such revisionist history in the museum located there, I still would not consider the shrine as being nothing but an attempt to ennoble Japan's action in WWII. Such a black-or-white view of the shrine's role in the life of contemporary Japanese is too narrow to have realistic purchase in an academic argument. Undoubtedly, that aspect of Yasukuni's function does exist. In fact, that aspect is more than clear in the literature of the shrine in its website and (most likely) in any pamphlets of guidebooks handed out by the shrine and museum. But such a function is not the sum total of the shrine's meaning or purpose in the modern world, and I wish that more people would consider its additional roles when discussing its value at large. That's all. =]

Re: HOnor the Dead

[muroku.livejournal.com]

Scans, I made the scans last year during the height of the controversy and hosted them on my Uni. server...due to my workload I delete files over time (as we have to buy CDs in the library etc etc)

the articles also contain translations of the letters/diaries and words of the war criminals to their families

the writer is a Japanese scholar encouraged by her brother to share this information to the world (as her work is unpopular in Japan)

she provided a statistical analyses as well of their written words citing 1-2 Class B or Class C criminals who somewhat expressed remorse (not over the war but over their role in the deaths of civilians)

Class A war criminals such as Tojo in no place in his written material expressed guilt or regret over the death of civilians...he wanted to be a hardcore martyr

and Yasukuni has made him that

Please understand why many would abhhor the thought that a kami would dwell with Tojo

the "narrov" view which you have subscribed to my interpretation can be dispelled with a survey done amongst Japanese worshippers...few have any concept of the crimes committed by the enshrined military leaders

and as you probably know Japanese families who ASKED THAT THEIR sons be removed from the shrine are NOT allowed to

their sons are property of Japan

if you delve in deeper into Yasukuni you will find efforts of these families---they want to separate their sons from war criminals but they can't

it is the blurring of the good and bad

not seeing a shrine as black and white

these are the facts I have personally come across in plain old Eng.

enjoy the rest of your time in Japan

Re: HOnor the Dead

[reteva.livejournal.com]

I certainly did not mean to ascribe a black-or-white patina to your viewpoint - merely to some of the viewpoints I have come across in my own studies in a general way. I am still very eager to read the article you are referring to. If you can't provide a direct link any longer then any bibliographical information you have for it would help me to find it on my own.

Thanks for your well wishes! I'm sure that I will continue to love it here. And I look forward to any of your future commentary on my travels.