Just as there is an uproar when a major Japanese official visits Yasakuni, every time a new textbook is published it takes a while for relations between the two countries to be normalized.

For the record, this same trend has not occured in Korea, with the issue of “comfort women.” An even less well known travesty of war where the Japanese set up a system for the abduction and abuse of young women (mostly Korean) for the purpose of making them into government-sanctioned prostitutes.

But at least at USMA-West Point, cadets and visitors can openly question whether to honor Custer or Mickey Marcus or whomever they wish in the cemetery, and the U.S. President is not laying a wreath on Custer’s grave.

In Japan, the shrine that contains the souls of many soldiers, including Class A War Criminals, is a site that is used by nationalists for demonstrations, specifically because it honors those who expanded Japan’s colonial ambitions.

Yes, it took a century for America to realize Custer was not a saint; and it took decades for Germany to face its realities, and it will take decades for Japan and Austria to face their historical issues.

Thanks for correctnig the spelling and the info on the shrine

I lived in Japan for a decade, and the issue of Yasukuni Shrine, or, more specifically, the issue of official visits to it by the Emperor or politicians, always generated a lot of controversy. The Chinese and Koreans, of course, never fail to go apeshit if anyone in the government visits the place.

A lot of people in Japan are very ashamed and remorseful about what their country did in WWII. But they also hate it when foreigners remind them of it, and so they get defensive. Nobody likes being lectured.

Just like with the Jews and Grmany, some wounds will never heal.

Just as a matter of historical accuracy, I feel compelled to point out that Yasukuni Shrine (not Yakasuna) was not built specifically to honor WWII war criminals as your post suggests.

Yasukuni Shrine is the main “gokoku jinja” or “country protecting shrine” in Japan. It was established in 1869 to honor the spirits of those soldiers who died in the Boshin War, the civil war that ended the Tokugawa government and led to the Meiji Restoration.

Each prefecture has a “gokoku jinja”. These shrines house the spirits of everyone who has died in war in the service of the Emperor. Each prefectural shrine houses the spirits of the dead from that prefecture. In a sense, these shrines are the equivalent of military cemeteries in the US.

en.wikipedia.o...

Yes, it is more than a little problematic that the shrine also houses the spirits of WWII war criminals and that Japan cannot seem to come to grips with its legacy of atrocities during WWII.

But, hey, George Armstrong Custer is still buried at West Point. Japan’s not the only country that can’t deal.