The Dead Must Not Be Abused: Yasukuni Shrine, the Prime Minister and the Constitution

Extract

Approximately 6,000 people in Japan and overseas have filed lawsuits in six district courts, charging that Prime Minister Koizumi Junichiro's repeated visits to Yasukuni Shrine in his capacity as Prime Minister violates principles of freedom of religion and the separation of politics and religion enshrined in Japan's Constitution. Plaintiffs include Korean residents of Japan, whose fathers died in the Asia-Pacific War and who the Japanese state has enshrined as gods at Yasukuni Shrine, in violation of their families’ wishes. On 27 February, the Osaka District Court ruled that the Prime Minister's visit was made not as a private citizen but in his official capacity. A ruling by the Fukuoka District Court on April 16 declared the visits unconstitutional for violating the separation of religion and state. Both courts rejected payment of damages to the plaintiffs. The Prime Minister responded that he would continue his visits to the shrine in violation of the court judgments and despite (or perhaps because of) protests by the Chinese, Korean and other Asian governments. This article analyses the Yasukuni visits in relation to the Koizumi administration's decision to send Japanese troops to Iraq. It also inquires into the cultural and political meaning of enshrining Korean and Taiwanese soldiers in Japan's imperial army as gods at Yasukuni.