Why the prime minister of Japan must visit Yasukuni shrine?
As summer approaches, the visit of prime minister Abe of Japan to Yaskuni Shrine will become discussed in world wide. I noticed the possibility that the foreign people are likely to misunderstand the meaning of his visit completely. I would like to alarm it accordingly.
Usually, the aim of the visit is translated as “worship”. Probably this is one of the reason of the misunderstand. In other words, they suspect if Mr. Abe wants to anew militarism of Japan following the war crimes, who are enshrined in Yaskuni shrine. I, however, am very sure that it is not true. As he always explain in Japanese, his aim is to mourn the deaths and ease the spirits of the persons who got usual deaths in a series of wars of Japan in the last 150 years. The war crimes must be included in the list. Although Japanese can immediately understand what it means, foreign people, in particular, Christians, seams to have a difficulty to understand it. We Japanse must explain it carefully and politely.
From ancient times, Japanese have thought that the spirits of the persons who got unusual deaths (by disasters, wars, and political collisions) remain in the world even after their deaths and cause bad things such as epidemics, disasters, famine, or wars. A large fraction of Shinto shrines in Japan are dedicated to ease them and work as containers to enclose those unhappy spirits safely. Once a year, they are brought out from the shrine buildings still kept inside of an ark, Mikoshi. They get wild to release their energy stored during the year.That is the festival of the shrine, called Matsuri in Japanese. The frustrations of the people are also relaxed by this vilent actions. Japanese people, who are polite in normal state, are become very wild or violent in Matsuri state. It is one of the important function of society to keep its peace in Japan.
If the A-class war crimes in Yasukuni shrine would torment the current Japan, I would imagine it will be most likely the recovery of Japanese militarism. Our wish is “No, we do not want it at all. Never wake-up. Please sleep silently, here”. I believe that the politicians, who want to visit Yasukuni shrine, also have similar desires in their minds. In this very reason, he want to visit Yasukuni shrine. Japanese people also support them, even unconsciously, since Japanese recognize the most important work of politicians is such cares of the spirits (Matsuri-goto). We use this word as “politics” in Japanese. In order to take care of the spirits of A-class crimes including the past prime minister, an equivalent class of person must work for that at least.
We must explain our spiritual dynamics instead of taking emotional reactions against criticism from foreign peoples, otherwise no one understand it. My foreign friends told me that this is very special and almost unique in the world. Our explanation must be very careful, otherwise they think it is just an excuse for militarism movement. We also have to declare that we Japanese shall oppose against any militarism and protest against any movements to colonise countries in the world as the storing countries (Western countries, USA, and Japan) did before world war II.