Forum - View topicINTEREST: Pokémon's Creatures, Inc. in Hot Water Over Visit to Controversial Yasukuni Shrine
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Zapdos
Posts: 65 |
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You think Japan would have learn their lessons from Nidome. Guess not. The problem here is not about paying respect for the dead, it's the fact that Japan been trying to revise history, play down their war crime and distorting history.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lnAC-Y9p_sY |
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GhostStalkerSA
 Posts: 425 Location: NYC |
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Yasukuni also happens to have a war museum on site that presents Japan's actions in WWII, including the Attack on Pearl Harbor, as justified defensive actions, in part to combat western imperialism; and the US started it first, embargoing Japan's oil and scrap metal supply over their actions in China prior to the attack. So yeah... Yes, Yasukuni enshrines as kami the spirits of all of Japan's war dead from the Meiji era onwards, IIRC; including a good number of soldiers that did not commit any sort of atrocity and likely served with honor. However, this number also includes a thousand plus war criminals, including the dozen or so Class A War Criminals imprisoned or executed following the Tokyo War Crime Trials following Japan's surrender after WWII. Originally, the Class A War Criminals were kept from enshrinement due to the controversy by the head priest in charge of the shrine following their deaths, although Class B and C War Criminals were enshrined in the 60s after the official position of the government changed, and without too much controversy. However, the Class As were snuck in, enshrined in secret in the 80s by a new head priest, who rejected the outcome of the trials and the classification of war criminals as victor's justice, after the previous head priest died, which leads to much of the difficulty today. There's apparently a doctrinal disagreement in Shinto whether a kami, once enshrined, can be removed, or if they're permanently installed, as their spirits have merged with all the other kami in the shrine, if I remember the argument correctly. The current leadership of the shrine holds the latter position, I believe. The presence of the Class A War Criminals is the reason why the current Emperor has refrained from visiting the shrine since their enshrinement, IIRC. Ironically, prior to the surrender of the Japanese, the Emperor acted as head of the Shinto religion and could order that those spirits/kami be removed, under my understanding of doctrine. However, with the post war Constitution adopted by Japan and drafted in part by MacArthur, the Emperor no longer has the authority to dictate any religious authority, and Yasukuni is officially a private operation, not supported by the state as State Shinto was disbanded. So he can't do so now even though he would probably like to. It would maybe save a whole bunch of bad blood between Japan and China/South Korea if whenever a major politician or the Prime Minister and his Cabinet make an official visit there, or a company such as Creatures Inc in this case, if he could've still done so. And there's also a rather large constituency in the Japanese electorate and the leading politicians of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, including the current and a number of former Prime Ministers and other Ministers, who are associated with a movement that downplays the actions of Japan in WWII, which one always has to keep in mind when discussing this topic. |
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Zapdos
Posts: 65 |
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Japanese emperor himself boycott the shrine.
Hirohito quit Yasukuni Shrine visits over concerns about war criminals https://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/26/world/asia/26iht-japan.1.5447598.html |
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faboo95
 Posts: 92 |
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There have been many instances where "Japan" has apologized for the past: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_war_apology_statements_issued_by_Japan Granted that there are a lot of things said and done that contradicts there apologizes, but I don't think it's fair to say that Japan hasn't made any effort to do so. |
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BadNewsBlues
Posts: 5920 |
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Isn't that typically something reserved for Yakuza members that dishonor their families? |
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