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The National Politics of the Yasukuni Shrine

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 May 2025

Takahashi Tetsuya  and
Philip Seaton
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Takahashi Tetsuya's “The National Politics of the Yasukuni Shrine, ” is among the most important statements to emerge from the debate over Yasukuni Shrine, historical memory and war nationalism.

Japan Focus is pleased to present chapter seven of Naoko Shimazu, ed., Nationalisms in Japan. Philip Seaton is the translator.

We thank Takahashi, Shimazu, Seaton and Routledge for their cooperation in publishing this article.

Find a podcast of Takahashi Tetsuya's lecture of March 6, 2007 on Postwar Japan on the Brink: Militarism, Colonialism, Yasukuni Shrine. This was the inaugural lecture of The Tetsuo Najita Distinguished Lecture Series in Japanese Studies at the University of Chicago.

Prime Minister Koizumi Jun'ichiro and Tokyo Mayor Ishihara Shintarō have repeatedly worshipped at Yasukuni Shrine since 13 August 2001 and 15 August 2000 respectively, and have expressed their intentions to continue worshipping in the future. In the face of this worship, there has been bitter criticism from inside and outside Japan. There are doubts over whether worship by public figures at Yasukuni Shrine, which is an autonomous religious institution (shūkyō hōjin), contravenes Articles 20 and 89 of the Constitution, the provisions concerning the separation of religion and the state. Furthermore, worship at the shrine where Class A war criminals, those found guilty as the leading war criminals by the International Military Tribunal for the Far East, are enshrined, is seen as Japanese political leaders’ neglect of Japan's war responsibility and causes distrust among the people of Asia, including China and South Korea.

Type
Part 3: Sites of Japanese Memory: Museums, Memorials, Commemoration
Information
Asia-Pacific Journal , Volume 11 , Special Issue S7: Course Reader No. 7. The Politics of Memory in Japan and East Asia , January 2013 , pp. 343 - 362
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BYCreative Common License - NCCreative Common License - ND
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivatives licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is unaltered and is properly cited. The written permission of Cambridge University Press must be obtained for commercial re-use or in order to create a derivative work.
Copyright
Copyright © The Authors 2013

References

Notes

1 Takahashi Tetsuya, Kokoro to senso, Tokyo: Shōbunsha, 2003, Chapter 4.

2 ‘Koizumi shushō danwa of 13 August 2001’, 13 August 2003 (yūkan), Asahi shinbun.

6 ‘Koizumi shushō kasha kaiken of 1 January 2004’, 1 January 2004 (chyōkan), Asahi shinbun.

4 Author's italics. ‘Nakasone Yasuhiro shushō kōen’, Jimintō Karuizawa semina, 27 July 1985.

5 Author's italics. ‘Koizumi shushō danwa of 14 January 2003’, 2 January 2004 (chyōkan), Asahi shinbun.

6 ‘Koizumi shushō kasha kaiken of 9 December 2003’, 10 December 2003 (chyōkan), Asahi shinbun.

7 Author's italics. ‘Nakasone moto shushō intabyū’, 30 March 2003 (chyōkan), Asahi shinbun.

8 Kawamura Tateo, http://www.mext.gojp/b_menu/houdou/16/01/04010502.htm.

9 Author's italics. 26 February 2004, Asahi shinbun.

10 Author's italics. Yokoyama was an elementary school teacher, army personnel officer, an employee of Hochi shinbun, and ultimately, a successful children's author. Yokoyama Natsuki, Kagayaku Yasukuni monogatari, Tokyo: Taihei shobō, 1944, p. 226.

11 Author's italics. Yasukuni restsujo itoku kenshōkai, ed., Yasukuni retsujo den, Tokyo: Shuppan bunka kenkyūkai, 1941.

12 Takagami Kakushō, Takagami Kakushō zenshū, 10 vols, Tokyo: Rekishi toshosha, 1978.

13 Author's italics. Takagami Kakushō, Yasukuni no seishin, Tokyo: Dai ichi shobō, 1942, p. 94.

14 Ibid., p. 98.

15 Ibid.

16 Hirayama Hiroshi, Fukuzawa Yukichi no shinjitsu, Tokyo: Bunshun shinsho, 2004.

17 Fukuzawa Yukichi, Fukuzawa Yukichi zenshu, vol. 15, Tokyo: Iwanami shoten, 1970, pp. 321-2.

18 Ibid., p. 341.

19 Kawakami Hajime, ‘Nihon dokuji no kakka shugi,’ in Sugihara Shirō (ed.), Kawakami Hajime hyōron shū, Tokyo: Iwanami, 1999.

20 16 April 1987, Asahi shinbun.