Visits to war dead haunt
Koizumi By Richard Hanson
"I would not say this or that to other state
leaders over their ways of paying homage to their war
dead. But China has criticized me in this matter. What
do the Japanese people feel about this? ... I don't
subscribe to the view that my visits to Yasukuni
[Shrine] are souring friendly ties with China." -
recent remarks by Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro
Koizumi in parliament
TOKYO - A District
Court in Fukuoka, Japan's large southern island that
faces the Korean Peninsula and China, on Wednesday
handed down a ruling that a visit made by Prime Minister
Junichiro Koizumi in August 2001 violated the post-World
War II constitution's separation of state and religion.
At the time, that visit sparked strong protests
over Japan's official postwar behavior toward its
wartime dead, which reached a peak of sorts shortly
after Koizumi was selected leader in a landslide vote by
the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP).
Koizumi personally visited Yasukuni Shrine, the
repository of spirits of the country's war dead -
including some who were convicted as World War II war
criminals - which is located across the moat from the
Imperial Palace in the center of Tokyo.
The
significance of this ruling is twofold. First, this was
the first such ruling by a district court in Japan that
Koizumi's action that summer, not long after he was
selected prime minister in April that year, fell under
the sort of religious activity that the state is banned
from participating in since it is a Shinto shrine.
Presiding Judge Kiyonaga Kamegawa concluded that
Koizumi's visits to the shrine, made as his official
duty as prime minister, amounted to violation of the
constitution's Article 20, which stipulates that the
state and its organizations shall refrain from religious
education or any other religious activities.
The
suit was filed by 211 plaintiffs in the Kyushu region
who protested the premier's visit to the shrine on
August 13, 2001 - just two days before the anniversary
of Japan's unconditional surrender at the end of World
War II.
Judge Kamegawa said: "Despite persistent
opposition from the public and even from the ruling
Liberal Democratic Party, the premier visited the
shrine, which is not necessarily an appropriate place to
honor war dead, based on political motivations." The
judge didn't award the plaintiffs any monetary damages,
which were claimed for the "psychological suffering"
resulting from Koizumi's visit.
For his part,
Koizumi brushed off the ruling as "irrational". He has
visited Yasukuni Shrine every year since August 2001,
each time drawing sharp protests from China and the
Koreas, and somewhat less sharp rebukes from other
nations that suffered from Japan's wars of aggression in
Asia and against the United States.
The other
point, however, is that Koizumi is also about the
closest thing to a wartime prime minister that Japan has
had since World War II.
Since the Koizumi
cabinet approved last year sending units of the
Self-Defense Forces (SDF) to do "humanitarian" work in
war-torn Iraq as part of US President George W Bush's
"coalition of the willing", there has been the real
possibility of military casualties. The problem is that
Koizumi's own political career is at stake if things go
badly in the heavily defended camp that has been
established in the southern part of Iraq (see Japan builds 'Fortress of Solitude' in
Iraq, February 19). The cabinet will have to vote on
whether to continue Japan's presence in the country by
May 1, when the initial approval runs out.
So
far, the public has remained almost evenly divided in
opinion polls testing support or opposition for
Koizumi's Iraq policies. What is also striking, however,
is that SDF troops (including women) appear to have been
keeping a very lower profile inside their reinforced
camp as the violence in Iraq has escalated in the past
week or so.
Apart from the risk of casualties,
Koizumi will mark the start of his fourth year in office
this month with his attention shifting toward a critical
Upper House election in the Diet (parliament) in early
July. Koizumi's pillar of support in the US, President
Bush, is also under fire for what he did or did not do
around the time of the September 11, 2001, attacks on
his country. Koizumi's support rates in the polls of
around 50 percent have held up in some part because of
his relationship with Bush.
As for the Yasukuni
Shrine case, Koizumi indeed is the prime minister.
Though claiming his visits to be personal, he signs the
visitors' book as "Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi".
The shrine honors 14 convicted World War II
Class A war criminals along with the war dead. The
sensitivity has been especially high since 1978, when
those convicted at the International War Tribunal in
1946 were enshrined at Yasukuni.
Those are the
spirits he has chosen to honor at his own possible
peril.
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