Yasukuni a domestic issue
U.S. Ambassador to Japan Thomas Schieffer has declared that the Yasukuni issue is a Japanese domestic issue, and that it is up to Japan deal with the problems that it causes.
Addressing an audience of about 100 people at a meeting of the nonprofit International Friendship Exchange Council in Tokyo, Schieffer declined to outline the U.S. stance on Yasukuni Shrine, stressing that the issue was “a decision for the Japanese people.”
“It’s not particularly helpful for the United States or others to tell them how they can resolve the issue,” he added.Schieffer also said: “I believe Japan is trying to figure out how it can honor the people who died for the country, without embracing the cause (of the war). Japan has not quite figured out how it wants to do that.”
totally agreed. we don’t need another country criticizing our cultures. China and Korea doesn’t quite understand that for Japanese, it is not in our blood to spit over someone’s graves whether they were good or bad. We honor the death, not the crimes they have commited.
May 26th, 2006 at 9:42 amExactly. Perhaps in China where it’s rummored to be okay to spit on the ancestors of criminals from over 1,000 years ago this looks like Japan honoring crimes, but Japan isn’t China. It’s actually, I think, similar to the Mohammed cartoon issue. For Muslims, it’s a great crime to depict Mohammed, but I’m not Muslim, so what does it matter to me? In China it would be honoring a crime, but Japan isn’t China, and in Japan it’s honoring a dead person who is neather good nor evil, just a dead spirit.
May 26th, 2006 at 5:53 pmSaying the Yasukuni visit is a “domestic issue” means Japan shouldn’t decide what to do about the Yasukuni issue according to what China, Korea or any other country wants it to do.
“It’s a domestic issue” doesn’t mean “it’s OK, so shut up.”
The Yasukuni issue is a very controversial issue within Japan, and many Japanese are opposed to the Prime Minister’s visits. In a survey done in June 2005 by the Nihon Keizai Shimbun (newspaper), 42% of those polled said they were against PM Koizumi’s shrine visits, while 38% supported the visits. (Nikkei Shimbun, June 19, 2005)
Clearly, this isn’t a case of “Japanese culture allows this while Chinese (or Korean) culture does not.” Certain conservative-minded people in Japan see it as in their interest to play the “Japanese culture” card when explaining why Class A criminals are interred at Yasukuni.
Fact remains: Yasukuni is a problem for Japan both domestically and internationally. It needs to be solved, not magically swept away with “it’s none of your business.”
May 29th, 2006 at 11:51 amdo something. this issue is really getting old.
May 29th, 2006 at 2:57 pmKudan, Yasukuni isn’t a problem at all. Anyone who thinks it is needs to get some real problems.
May 30th, 2006 at 5:41 amIf it wasn’t this issue,(Yasukuni)both parties (China/Japan) would very rapidly find something else to squabble about.Cynical but true.
May 30th, 2006 at 6:33 amOK, I’ll bite. Paul, do enlighten us: what qualifies as a “real problem” and why doesn’t Yasukuni fit the bill?
Protests in two countries apparently doesn’t do it. Divided public opinion on the issue within Japan doesn’t do it. Third-party countries, such as the United States, feeling that commenting on the issue may offer help doesn’t do it. Debate within the Japanese government over the issue doesn’t do it.
Well, what does?
May 30th, 2006 at 9:55 am