Eric's Beijing Diary

Yasukuni Shrine. It's located in Kudanshita, just a stone's throw from the subway station. I wouldn't doubt if the Yasukuni Shrine is better known in China than it is in Japan. This is because the controversial visits to the shrine by Koizumi, the Japanese prime minister. But I wasn't interested in the shrine. I don't know... maybe I'm getting a bit cynical, but somehow, when you've seen one pagan religious site, you've seen them all. So I walked past the shrine to the war museum. The war museum at the Yasakuni Shrine is something everyone should see. It is very well laid out and contains lots and lots of information. The videos were all in Japanese, and my Japanese is pretty rusty, because I haven't lived in Japan since I was thirteen years old. So I can't say a lot for the video portion, but the text descriptions for the displays were less offensive than I expected for all the attention the Yasukuni Shrine has gotten. Having said that, the presentations are not objective. They do contain a lot of useful information, but they also present the historical events in a manner that attaches an inevitability to those events that is just not justifiable. I was primarily interested in two events. The first is what has come to be called the "Rape of Nanking." The other is the bombing of Pearl Harbor. In discussing the Rape of Nanking, the presentation doesn't come right out and say that it was inevitable, but the atrocities with which any historian worth his salt is familiar are not even mentioned, and the presentation suggests that any bloodshed was the fault of the commander who refused to surrender. What the presentation doesn't mention is that the local commander sought permission from Chiang Kai-shek to surrender to avoid what he foresaw as a major conflict, which, being unwinnable, would result in massive, needless loss of life. I know hindsight is 20-20, but I think he was right, and that Nanking should have been made an open city. But Chiang Kai-shek felt that it would be politically unacceptable to surrender, issued the order from his mountain retreat that the commander on the scene should fight it out. When this led to disaster, he then ordered a retreat after it was too late to implement. But again, the most serious omission is the horror of the atrocities committed against women and children by members of the Japanese military. Not a word is said about it. Regarding the bombing of Pearl Harbor, the presentation says quite forcefully that Roosevelt was determined to manipulate the situation so as to force Japan to take the first step. In other words, Japan's bombing of Pearl Harbor was inevitable. Nonsense. But I won't go there--it's a waste of time. Interestingly enough, the War Museum has generated far less controversy than the Shrine itself, because of the frequent visits by the current prime minister of Japan, Junichiro Kuizumi. These visits are an offense primarily to Korea and China. So how do we resolve this issue? Is it appropriate for the Japanese prime minister to visit the Yasukuni Shrine? The short answer is simple. I am a Christian. I don't think anyone should worship at a Shinto Shrine. But the larger political issue is really not related to religion. Some have suggested that Japan should establish a national cemetery like Arlington, to resolve the separation of church and state issue. But the church/state issue is secondary. The problem for Korea and China is that the Yasukuni Shrine is a memorial to all soldiers, including war criminals. China especially objects strenuously to the Japanese prime minister memorializing war criminals and treating them like heros. So how do we resolve this? Who gets to decide what constitutes a war criminal, and what should be done with their memory? War criminals are determined by war crimes trials, and war crimes trials are prosecuted by the victors. So America, having always been a victor (until the Korean War), has no war criminals. Is this fair? Is this historically accurate? I don't think so. There are many, many examples in US history, especially if you consider the Indian Wars. One that comes to mind is the Sand Creek Massacre, where a group of Indians who were peaceful, and had already surrendered, were slaughtered by the Cavalry under Colonel Chivington, an ordained Methodist minister. When Chivington was asked why he killed everyone, including women and children, a soldier in his army quoted him as saying, "Nits grow into lice." There is no question in my mind that Chivington was a war criminal. But the Indians were the losers in that great struggle, so they did not get to decide who the war criminals were. So American presidents can go to Arlington Cemetary without being accused of memorializing war criminals because there are no American war criminals. It's a complicated issue, but I don't think it works for countries like Korea and China to tell the Japanese what do to about their war dead. The museum is another thing. I think perhaps a bigger issue could be made about how the history is presented (or omitted). At any rate, I do recommend the tour. I had never seen the human torpedo (basically a suicide bomb) before, and there was also a very good Mitsubishi Zero that had been recovered from a pacific island. In its time, the Zero was the best carrier based fighter in the world. Before going to the museum, I had stopped for lunch at a little roadside restaurant. But when I noticed the prices, I had second thoughts. One thousand yen for a bowl of katsu (fried pork). Oyako was a little cheaper, but not much. When I was a kid, dishes like oyako and katsu were "everyman's" food. Can't remember exactly what we paid for it in those days, but one thousand yen would be unthinkable. I just couldn't bring myself to do it. Right next to this little restaurant was another little place. McDonald's. Big Mac, chocolate shake and a cup of coffee for 450 yen. Less than half the price. As I sat there eating my hamburger, I pondered the irony of being in the middle of Tokyo, condemned to a mundane American lunch because I was too cheap to pay for the common man's lunch in Japan. How times have changed!

Labels: Japan