Yasukuni.

This is coolbert:

The never ending saga of the Yasukuni shrine in Japan.

Shinto shrine honoring the souls of the dead from the Second World War [WW2] and always a point of controversy.

The current serving Japanese Prime Minister [Abe] having made a visit to the shrine recently and offered prayers.

The names of those war dead enshrined at Yasukuni including those persons categorized as Class A war criminals such as Hideki Tojo.

The shrine itself:

* "Built in 1869 under the Emperor Meiji."

* "Venerates the souls of 2.5m war dead"

"Yasukuni Shrine Whines Justified?"

"Just recently, Japan’s neocon Prime Minister, Shinzo Abe, visited Yasukuni shrine, the first visit by a sitting Japanese Prime Minister in 7 years [Koizumi before Abe].  This provocative and very public visit, rightly seen by the Korean and Chinese governments as an intentional slap in the face, will set back already strained relationships and may be used as an excuse for a revival of militarism. "

[my emphasis]

Please keep in mind that Prime Minister Abe is the grandson of the man referred to as the "Albert Speer" of Germany. With all that means.

Shinto, however, and the Yasukuni shrine are devoted to the departed spirits who under the religion are devoid of moral judgments based on prior temporal existence.


From David Yeagley at Bad Eagle commenting on the appearance of the former Prime Minister Koizumi at Yasukuni:

"BadEagle has pointed out before, the Shinto religion does not honor the life, deeds, or character of the dead. It honors the departed spirits, the kami (gods) which depart without moral definition. This is ancient animism. Koizumi is not honoring war criminals. That is a superimposition of Western abstract political ideology . . . It is actually wholly irrelevant to Shintoism, the ancient national religion of Japan."

Adjacent to the shrine is a private museum the displays however having a definite nationalistic and non-apologetic aspect to them, favorable to the Japanese effort during WW2? This I was not familiar with.

Much is being made of nothing here? Judgments not taking into account the perspective of Shinto with regard to "moral definition"?

coolbert.