Yasukuni Shrine

Yasukuni Shrine (靖国神社 or 靖國神社, Yasukuni Jinja, lit. 'Peaceful Country Shrine') is a Shinto shrine located in Chiyoda, Tokyo. It was founded by Emperor Meiji in June 1869 and commemorates those who died in service of Japan, from the Boshin War of 1868–1869, to the two Sino-Japanese Wars, 1894–1895 and 1937–1945 respectively, and the First Indochina War of 1946–1954. The shrine's purpose has been expanded over the years to include those who died in the wars involving Japan spanning from the entire Meiji and Taishō periods, and the earlier part of the Shōwa period.
The shrine lists the names, origins, birthdates and places of death of 2,466,532 men. Among those are 1,066 convicted war criminals from the Pacific War, twelve of whom were charged with Class A crimes (the planning, preparation, initiation, or waging of the war). Eleven were convicted on those charges with the twelfth found not guilty on all such charges though he was found guilty of Class B war crimes. The names of two more men charged with Class A war crimes are on the list but one died during trial and one before trial so they were never convicted.
Another memorial at the honden (main hall) building commemorates anyone who died on behalf of Japan and so includes Koreans and Taiwanese who served Japan at the time. The Chinreisha ("Spirit Pacifying Shrine") building is a shrine built to inter the souls of all the people who died during World War II, regardless of their nationality. It is located directly south of the Yasukuni Honden.
The enshrinement of war criminals, as well as the shrine's historical association with State Shinto, has made the shrine highly controversial within East Asia. The Emperor Shōwa, under whom Japan fought during World War II, visited the shrine 8 times between the end of the war and 1975. However, he thereafter boycotted the shrine due to his reported displeasure over the enshrinement of top convicted Japanese war criminals. His successors, Akihito and Naruhito, have never visited the shrine. The Japanese Government's involvement with the shrine remains highly controversial, with the most recent Japanese Prime Minister to visit the shrine while in office being Shinzo Abe in 2013.
The site for the Yasukuni Shrine, originally named Tōkyō Shōkonsha (東京招魂社, "shrine to summon the souls"), was chosen by order of the Meiji Emperor. The shrine was established in 1869, in the wake of the Boshin War, in order to honor the souls of those who died fighting for the Emperor. It initially served as the "apex" of a network of similar shrines throughout Japan that had originally been established for the souls of various feudal lords' retainers, and which continued to enshrine local individuals who died in the Emperor's service.
Following the 1877 Satsuma Rebellion, the Emperor had 6,959 souls of war dead enshrined at Tōkyō Shōkonsha. In 1879, the shrine was renamed Yasukuni Jinja. The name Yasukuni, quoted from the phrase「吾以靖國也 in the classical-era Chinese text Zuo Zhuan (Scroll 6, 23rd Year of Duke Xi), literally means "Pacifying the Nation" and was chosen by the Meiji Emperor. The name is formally written as 靖國神社, using the kyūjitai character forms common before the end of the Pacific War.
The enshrinement of war dead at Yasukuni was transferred to military control in 1887. As the Empire of Japan expanded, Okinawans, Ainu and Koreans were enshrined at Yasukuni alongside ethnic Japanese. Emperor Meiji refused to allow the enshrinement of Taiwanese due to the organized resistance that followed the Treaty of Shimonoseki, but Taiwanese were later admitted due to the need to conscript them during World War II. In 1932, two Sophia University (Jōchi Daigaku) Catholic students refused visit to Yasukuni Shrine on the grounds that it was contrary to their religious convictions.
In 1936, the Society for the Propagation of the Faith (Propaganda Fide) of the Roman Curia issued the Instruction Pluries Instanterque, and approved visits to Yasukuni Shrine as an expression of patriotic motive. This response allowed the Jesuit university to avoid potential repercussions, though it aligned the institution with the prevailing national policy.
By the 1930s, the military government sought centralized state control over memorialization of the war dead, giving Yasukuni a more central role. Enshrinements at Yasukuni were originally announced in the government's official gazette so that the souls could be treated as national heroes. In April 1944, this practice ended and the identities of the spirits were concealed from the general public.
The shrine was used as a focal point for fostering military and civilian morale during the war era, often emphasizing dedication to the Emperor. Enshrinement at Yasukuni signified meaning and nobility to those who died for their country. During the final days of the war, it was common for soldiers sent on kamikaze suicide missions to say that they would "meet again at Yasukuni" following their death. Some wartime military songs referenced Yasukuni, such as Doki no Sakura(同期の桜) and Calming the country(国の鎮め). At that time, however, the coalition saw that Japan, which was in a tight corner, was using Yasukuni for propaganda purposes. During wartime, Yasukuni Shrine was used as a symbolic motivator for soldiers, with some references in military rhetoric linking enshrinement to notions of sacrifice.
After World War II, the US-led Occupation Authorities (known as GHQ for General Headquarters) issued the Shinto Directive, which ordered the separation of church and state and forced Yasukuni Shrine to become either a secular government institution or a religious institution independent from the Japanese government. Yasukuni Shrine has been privately funded and operated since 1946, when it was elected to become an individual religious corporation, independent of the Association of Shinto Shrines.
Some reports suggest that GHQ considered repurposing the Yasukuni Shrine grounds, but the plan was never implemented. However, Father Bruno Bitter of the Roman Curia and Father Patrick Byrne of Maryknoll insisted to the GHQ that honoring their war dead is the right and duty of citizens everywhere, and the GHQ decided not to destroy the Yasukuni shrine. In 1951, the Roman Curia reaffirmed the 1936 ruling that Catholic visits to Yasukuni Shrine could be acceptable as a patriotic gesture rather than a religious act.
In 1956, the shrine authorities and the Ministry of Health and Welfare established a system for the government to share information with the shrine regarding deceased war veterans. By April 1959, most of Japan's war dead who were not already enshrined at Yasukuni were enshrined in this manner. War criminals prosecuted by the International Military Tribunal for the Far East were initially excluded from enshrinement after the war. In 1951, government authorities began considering their enshrinement, along with providing veterans' benefits to their survivors, following the signature of the Treaty of San Francisco. In 1954, government directed some local memorial shrines to accept the enshrinement of war criminals from their area.
No convicted war criminals were enshrined at Yasukuni until after the parole of the last remaining incarcerated war criminals in 1958. In 1959, the Health and Welfare Ministry began forwarding information on Class B and Class C war criminals (those not involved in the planning, preparation, initiation, or waging of the war) to Yasukuni Shrine. These individuals were gradually enshrined between 1959 and 1967, often without permission from surviving family members.
In 1966, information on fourteen men who had been charged with Class A war crimes was forwarded to the shrine. Eleven were convicted on these charges, one was convicted of Class B war crimes, and two died before completing trial. This group included the prime ministers and top generals from the war era. In 1970, the shrine passed a resolution to enshrine these individuals. The timing for their enshrinement was left to the discretion of head priest Fujimaro Tsukuba, who delayed the enshrinement through his death in March 1978.
In 1978, his successor Nagayoshi Matsudaira, who rejected the Tokyo war crimes tribunal's verdicts, enshrined these fourteen convicted or alleged war criminals in a secret ceremony. Records indicate that after the enshrinement of convicted war criminals in 1978, no Japanese emperor has visited the shrine. In 1979, the details of the enshrinement of war criminals became public, but there was minimal controversy about the issue for several years. No Emperor of Japan has visited Yasukuni since 1975.
The head-priest Junna Nakata at Honzen-ji Temple (of the Shingon sect Daigo-ha) requested the pontiff Pope Paul VI to say a Mass for the repose of the souls of all people in Yasukuni, which would include the 1,618 men condemned as Class A, B and C war criminals, and he promised to do so. In 1980, Pope John Paul II complied, and a Mass was held in St. Peter's Basilica for all the fallen civilians and fallen dead worshiped in the shrine.
The museum and website of the Yasukuni Shrine have made statements criticizing the United States for "convincing" the Empire of Japan to launch the attack on Pearl Harbor in order to justify the Pacific War, as well as claiming that Japan went to war with the intention of creating a "Co-Prosperity Sphere" for all Asians.
See details on related controversy in Controversies surrounding Yasukuni Shrine.
There are over 2,466,000 enshrined kami (deities) listed in the Yasukuni's Symbolic Registry of Divinities. This list includes soldiers, as well as women and students who were involved in relief operations in the battlefield or worked in factories for the war effort. There are neither ashes nor spirit tablets in the shrine. Enshrinement is not exclusive to people of Japanese descent. Yasukuni has enshrined 27,863 Taiwanese and 21,181 Koreans. Many more kami – those who fought in opposition to imperial Japan, as well as all war dead regardless of nationality – are enshrined at Chinreisha.
As a general rule, the enshrined are limited to military personnel who were killed while serving Japan during armed conflicts. Civilians who were killed during a war are not included, apart from a handful of exceptions. A deceased must fall into one of the following categories for enshrinement in the honden:
Although new names of soldiers killed during World War II are added to the shrine list every year, no one who was killed due to conflicts after Japan signed the San Francisco Peace Treaty that formally ended World War II in 1951 has been qualified for enshrinement. Therefore, Yasukuni Shrine enshrines individuals who died in service before Japan’s postwar Self-Defense Forces were established, meaning no post-1951 personnel are included.
Enshrinement is carried out unilaterally by the shrine without consultation of surviving family members and in some cases against the stated wishes of the family members. Some families, particularly from South Korea, have petitioned for the removal of their relatives' names, arguing that enshrinement contradicts their loved ones' beliefs.
Japan has participated in 16 other conflicts since the Boshin War in 1869. The following table chronologically lists the number of people enshrined as kami at the honden (as of October 17, 2004) from each of these conflicts.
The shrine enshrines those who fought on behalf of the imperial government but does not include members of the Tokugawa shogunate forces or rebel factions from the Boshin War and Satsuma Rebellion. They are enshrined at Chinreisha.
There are a multitude of facilities within the 6.25 hectare grounds of the shrine, as well as several structures along the 4 hectare causeway. Though other shrines in Japan also occupy large areas, Yasukuni is different because of its recent historical connections. The Yūshūkan museum is just the feature that differentiate Yasukuni from other Shinto shrines. The following lists describe many of these facilities and structures.
On the shrine grounds, there are several important religious structures. The shrine's haiden, Yasukuni's main prayer hall where worshipers come to pray, was originally built in 1901 in styles of Irimoya-zukuri, Hirairi, and Doubanbuki (copper roofing) in order to allow patrons to pay their respects and make offerings. This building's roof was renovated in 1989. The white screens hanging off the ceiling are changed to purple ones on ceremonial occasions.
The honden is the main shrine where Yasukuni's enshrined deities reside. Built in 1872 and refurbished in 1989, it is where the shrine's priests perform Shinto rituals. The building is generally closed to the public.
The building located on the right side of haiden is the Sanshuden (参集殿) (Assembly Hall), which was rebuilt in 2004. Reception and waiting rooms are available for individuals and groups who wish to worship in the Main Shrine.
The building located directly behind the Sanshuden is the Tochakuden (到着殿) (Reception Hall).
The building located directly behind the honden is known as the Reijibo Hōanden (霊璽簿奉安殿) (Repository for the Symbolic Registers of Divinities) built in styles of Kirizuma-zukuri, Hirairi, and Doubanbuki. It houses the Symbolic Registry of Divinities (霊璽簿, Reijibo)—a handmade Japanese paper document that lists the names of all the kami enshrined and worshiped at Yasukuni Shrine. It was built of quakeproof concrete in 1972 with a private donation from Emperor Shōwa.
In addition to Yasukuni's main shrine buildings, there are also two peripheral shrines located on the precinct. Motomiya (元宮) is a small shrine that was first established in Kyoto by sympathizers of the imperial loyalists that were killed during the early weeks of the civil war that erupted during the Meiji Restoration. Seventy years later, in 1931, it was moved directly south of Yasukuni Shrine's honden. Its name, Motomiya ("Original Shrine"), references the fact that it was essentially a prototype for the current Yasukuni Shrine. The second peripheral shrine is the Chinreisha. This small shrine was constructed in 1965, directly south of the Motomiya. It is dedicated to those not enshrined in the honden—those killed by wars or incidents worldwide, regardless of nationality. It has a festival on July 13.
There are several different torii and mon (門) gates located on both the causeway and shrine grounds. When moving through the grounds from east to west, the first torii visitors encounter is the Daiichi Torii (Ōtorii). This large steel structure was the largest torii in Japan when it was first erected in 1921 to mark the main entrance to the shrine. It stands approximately 25 meters tall and 34 meters wide and is the first torii. The current iteration of this torii was erected in 1974 after the original was removed in 1943 due to weather damage. This torii was recently repainted.
The Daini Torii (Seidō Ōtorii) is the second torii encountered on the westward walk to the shrine. It was erected in 1887 to replace a wooden one which had been erected earlier. This is the largest bronze torii in Japan. Immediately following the Daini Torii is the shinmon (神門). A 6-meter tall hinoki cypress gate, it was first built in 1934 and restored in 1994. Each of its two doors bears a Chrysanthemum Crest measuring 1.5 meters in diameter. West of this gate is the Chumon Torii (中門鳥居) (Third Shrine Gate), the last torii visitors must pass underneath before reaching Yasukuni's haiden. It was recently rebuilt of cypress harvested in Saitama Prefecture in 2006.
In addition to the three torii and one gate that lead to the main shrine complex, there are a few others that mark other entrances to the shrine grounds. The Ishi Torii is a large stone torii located on the south end of the main causeway. It was erected in 1932 and marks the entrance to the parking lots. The Kitamon and Minamimon are two areas that mark the north and south entrances, respectively, into the Yasukuni Shrine complex. The Minamimon is marked by a small wooden gateway.
(from Kudanshita Station)
Yasukuni shrine is an individual religious corporation and does not belong to the Association of Shinto Shrines. Yasukuni shrine has departments listed below. The Gūji (宮司) controls the overall system, and the Gon-gūji (権宮司) assists the Gūji.
In 1933, Minister of War Sadao Araki founded the Nihon-tō Tanrenkai (日本刀鍛錬会, Japanese Sword Forging Association) in the grounds of the shrine to preserve old forging methods and promote Japan's samurai traditions, as well as to meet the huge demand for guntō (military swords) for officers. About 8,100 "Yasukuni swords" were manufactured in the grounds of the Yasukuni Shrine between 1933 and 1945.