Naïve Idealism over Yasukuni

Considering the balance of the gain and the loss, the ministers’ visit of Yasukuni Shrine on Sunday were obviously mistake at the time when Japanese diplomacy was not working well, and when stimulating the sentiments of neighbors would yield nothing productive. Without any vision of reconstructing diplomacy, the ministers simply visited the shrine because they wanted to do that. Even a small child avoids doing what his/her friend does not want to be done. The ministers who visited the shrine uphold naïve idealism of isolated self-determination.

The ministers who visited Yasukuni Shrine were Taro Aso, the Deputy Prime Minister and the Minister of Finance, Yoshitaka Shindo, the Minister for Internal Affairs and Communications, and Keiji Furuya, the Chairman of the National Public Safety Commission. The Prime Minister, Shinzo Abe, who has been saying that he deeply regretted not having visited the shrine during his first term of PM, did not visit the shrine, but submitted symbol tree called Masakaki, which would be used in Shinto ceremony.

The visit itself should not be blamed in terms of freedom of religion. It does not make sense for foreign countries to blame what those ministers do for their genuinely religious activities. As a symbol of prayer for war victims, however, Yasukuni enshrines A-class war criminals of World War II. China or South Korea has been critical against ministers’ visits from the perspective of political implication, the argument which has been recognized as intervention of internal affairs by the conservatives in Japan.

This time, China blamed Japan of lack of regret for historical invasion. The visit of legislators to China early May was cancelled, obscuring Abe’s diplomatic policy toward China. South Korea responded to it by cancelling the Foreign Minister’s visit to Japan, reflecting its wariness against this conservative prime minister. Japanese diplomacy, already in impasse, suffered from further damage by politicians.

What they need to understand is realism of international politics. Japan needs to keep diplomatic channel with China and South Korea for sending common message to North Korea, the country intimidating neighbors by preparing for missile launch and nuclear test. It is obviously unwise to let China and South Korea cooperate each other for criticizing Japan, while Japan holds territorial arguments with each of them. Ill relationship with those countries does not please the closest ally, the United States. The biggest problem is naïve recognition of those ministers, who put priority on their own individual beliefs, and potential discrimination against Chinese and Korean people.