Thousands of veterans, relatives of the dead and far-right groups will visit the Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo to commemorate Japan's surrender and the end of the war in 1945. Julian Ryall reports.
Image: Getty Images/AFP/K. Nogi
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Hiromichi Moteki can still recall the urgent ringing of the air raid alarm bell in his mountain village and, when the wind was blowing in the right direction, the very faint drone of American bombers approaching the distant urban sprawl of Tokyo and Yokohama.
Now 79 years old, he will pay his respects at the Yasukuni Shrine on Saturday, the day on which the nation will mark Japan's surrender and the end of World War II.
"My memories are rather vague, but I know that I was evacuated from Tokyo to my father's village in the mountains of Gunma Prefecture in 1941," he told DW. "I remember we were all issued with thick padded hats and when we heard the alarm we all had to go outside and take shelter in a trench."
Aged just 4 when Emperor Hirohito addressed the nation for the first time and called on his subjects to "endure the unendurable" with Japan's surrender, Moteki says he has no recollection of the day itself — but he knows there was relief throughout his family that not one of their number had been killed in a conflict that claimed the lives of an estimated 3.1 million Japanese, both civilian and military personnel.
"My family was," he admits, "very lucky."
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Criticism from abroad
Nevertheless, he will go to Yasukuni on Saturday to pay his respects to all those who did die — and he brushes away criticism from some of Japan's neighbors that the shrine is a symbol of the nation's militaristic past and revels in memories of an empire which, at its peak, stretched across a vast swathe of Southeast Asia and the Pacific Ocean.
"It is our duty to remember and pay our respects to all those who died for the nation," he said. "Our ancestors are enshrined at Yasukuni and it is important to me and, I would hope, most Japanese, that we reflect on their sacrifices."
Yasukuni Shrine was founded in 1869 and is dedicated to more than 2.46 million men, women and children who have died in all of Japan's wars since. It is controversial to neighboring states because it is also considered the last resting place of the souls of 1,068 convicted war criminals, including 14 who were tried and convicted of Class A war crimes in World War II.
In part because of that controversy, the office of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has announced that, once again, he will not visit the shrine on the anniversary of Japan's surrender but will send a personal offering instead.
Abe has visited the shrine only once since he took office in December 2013, a visit that triggered outrage in China and South Korea, both of which insist that Japan has not done enough to atone for its invasion and frequently brutal subjugation of their populations in the early decades of the last century.
PM Abe has visited Yasukuni only once since he took office in December 2013, a visit that triggered outrage in China and South KoreaImage: Getty Images/T. Ohsumi
Conservative politicians
Even if the prime minister does not attend in person, dozens of conservative politicians will pay their respects at the shrine on the day. It is likely that Beijing and Seoul will both issue critical statements if any of the politicians are relatively senior, such as members of Abe's cabinet.
For Moteki, Japan's war dead deserve better.
"The prime minister should be seen there and I also believe the emperor should pay his respects at Yasukuni every year," he said. "I know Queen Elizabeth attends Remembrance Day events in England every year; why should Japan be any different?"
On August 15 every year, the spacious grounds of Yasukuni are thronged with people paying their respects. There are still a few veterans who make the journey, some wearing their uniforms and their medals, but their numbers shrinking every year. Others are the relatives of soldiers, sailors and airmen who died, or the descendants of civilians killed in the bombing of Japanese cities.
There are also always representatives of the far-right. Groups of shaven-headed men in military-style fatigues with armbands and combat boots march up to the steps of the main shrine, bow in unison and then march away again. On the fringes of the event are, inevitably, members of the "yakuza" organized crime groups that still proliferate and have nationalistic tendencies.
Ken Kato is a Tokyo businessman and he will also be at Yasukuni over the weekend, to visit his grandfather, he says.
Japan's revered war criminals
The souls of 14 convicted war criminals are worshiped as martyrs in Japan's Yasukuni Shrine. DW takes a look at the perpetrators and what they were accused of.
Image: Keystone/Getty Images
Hideki Tojo
Hideki Tojo was Japan's prime minister from 1941 to 1944 and Chief of Staff of the Japanese Imperial Army. He was accused of being responsible for the killing of 4 million Chinese as well as conducting biological experiments on prisoners of war. Following his country's surrender in 1945 he tried to kill himself with a pistol. However, he survived, confessed to the crimes and was hanged in 1948.
Image: Keystone/Getty Images
Kenji Doihara
The "China expert" began his career in 1912 as a secret agent in Beijing. Doihara, who spoke Mandarin and several Chinese dialects fluently, founded the "Manchurian Empire" together with China's last emperor, Puyi. It was a puppet regime under Japanese control. In 1940, Doihara backed the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. He was hanged eight years later.
Image: Gemeinfrei/Unbekannt
Iwane Matsui
Matsui was accused of being involved in the 1937 Nanjing massacre in which an estimated 300,000 people were killed within a week. Nowadays, historians believe that the decision for the carnage was taken by the imperial family. The family, however, was never charged. A tribunal convicted Matsui of being a "Class B" war criminal. He was executed in 1948.
Image: Gemeinfrei
Heitaro Kimura
In 1939, Kimura waged a brutal war against the armed forces of China's Communist Party in the eastern part of the country. He set up concentration camps in which thousands died. In 1944, he was sent to Burma where he became army commander. He used prisoners of war to build a 415-kilometer-long railway connecting Thailand to Burma. Some 13,000 allied soldiers died. He was hanged in 1948.
Image: Gemeinfrei
Koki Hirota
Hirota was Japan's prime minister until February 1937 and later became foreign minister. He was charged with sanctioning the Nanjing massacre. Hirota (seen here in the middle) was the only civilian politician to be hanged in 1948.
Image: Keystone/Getty Images
Seishiro Itagaki
On September 18, 1931, Itagaki orchestrated a bomb attack on a railway in the northeastern region of Manchuria. Japan used this as a pretext to declare war on China. Itagaki later fought in North Korea, Indonesia and Malaysia until he surrendered in 1945. He was found guilty of escalating the war and was hanged in 1948.
Image: Gemeinfrei
Akira Muto
Ever since the outbreak of the war, Muto fought in China and was later found guilty of taking part in several atrocities, including the Nanjing massacre. According to the judges, Muto not only let prisoners of war starve but also "tortured and murdered" them.
Image: Gemeinfrei
Yosuke Matsuoka
Under his leadership, Japan left the League of Nations after some member states accused Japan of starting the war against China. Matsuoka was foreign minister between 1940 and 1941 and was one of the co-signers of the Tripartite Pact between Japan, Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy. In 1946, he died of tuberculosis before being sentenced.
Image: Gemeinfrei/Japanese book Ningen Matsuoka no Zenbo
Osami Nagano
Marshal Admiral Osami Nagano, a supporter of the Japanese attack on the US naval base at Pearl Harbor, ordered the attack on December 7, 1941. Twelve US warships either sunk or were badly damaged and more than 2,400 American soldiers were killed. Nagano died of pneumonia in 1946 before he could be tried in the Tokyo war crimes trials.
Image: Gemeinfrei
Toshio Shiratori
He was the head of Japanese propaganda. Shiratori was Japan's ambassador to Italy and pushed for an alliance between his country, Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy. As an advisor to the foreign minister, he disseminated his fascist ideals both "on and off the stage." Toshio was sentenced to life in prison where he died in 1949.
Image: Gemeinfrei
Kiichiro Hiranuma
Hiranuma was Japan's prime minister from January to August 1939. During this time Japan strengthened its ties with Germany and Italy. Kiichiro was later considered to be one of Emperor Hirohito's closest advisors. He was sentenced to life in prison, but was released in 1952. He died that same year.
Image: Hulton Archive/Getty Images
Kuniaki Koiso
Koiso was Japan's prime minister between July 1944 and April 1945, and served in China and North Korea. He was sentenced to life in prison although the tribunal was of the view he didn't take direct part in the atrocities committed by the military. The judges, however, ruled that he had been in a position to put a stop to them. Koiso died of cancer in 1950 while serving his jail sentence.
Image: Keystone/Getty Images
Yoshijiro Umezu
From 1939 to 1945, Umezu was in command of the 700,000-strong Guandong Army based in northeastern China. Although he opposed a Japanese surrender shortly before the end of the war, Umezu (seen here in uniform in the first row) was ordered by the emperor to sign the document of unconditional surrender on September 2, 1945. He was sentenced to life in prison and died in jail in 1949.
Image: AP
Shigenori Togo
Togo was an expert on Germany. He spoke German, studied German philology, married a German and was appointed Japan's ambassador to Germany in 1937. He was appointed foreign minister in 1941 and again in 1945, when he advised the Japanese government to surrender. He was sentenced to 20 years in prison and died in 1950 while in jail.
Image: Gemeinfrei
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Paying respects
"My grandfather died in the Philippines just one month before the end of the war, so he was very unlucky," he told DW. "So every year for the past 30 years or more, I have been coming here to have a little conversation with him and to pay my respects."
The Kato family endured great hardships in the years immediately after the war because the breadwinner had been killed, hyper-inflation raged and much of Tokyo had been laid waste by firebombs. But he agrees that it is important to remember the people who died.
"Japan is just like any other country; we believe it is important to remember and pay our respects to all those who made the ultimate sacrifice for the nation," he said. "I consider it my duty to go to Yasukuni once a year to be close to my grandfather's spirit and to remember what he and all those other people did."
