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Yasukuni Jinja Yushukan
The two main objectives of the Yushukan, founded in 1882 and
Japan's oldest museum, are to honor the war heroes of Japan who gave their
lives for their country and to make clear the truth about modern Japanese
military history [1]. The Yasukuni Jinja, founded as a Shinto shrine in 1869
for the worship of the divine spirits of those persons who sacrificed
themselves for their country, operates the Yushukan museum. During World War
II, many members of suicide attack corps and other Japanese soldiers referred
to Yasukuni (meaning "peaceful country" in Japanese) as the place
where they would meet their families and fellow soldiers after their death in
battle. The Yasukuni Jinja occupies a large plot of land in central Tokyo and
has several buildings, including the main shrine and the Yushukan.
The Yushukan summarizes Japan's military history and
displays related items starting with the Meiji Restoration, the Satsuma
Rebellion, and the founding of the Yasukuni Jinja in the 1860s. The museum also
has a few exhibits related to the Samurai spirit and Japan's military
traditions prior to the 1860s. After the addition of a new building and a
complete renovation in 2002, the two-floor museum now has two large exhibition
halls, twenty exhibition galleries, two theaters, and two special exhibition
galleries.
Yasukuni Jinja continues to be the center of controversy
between Japan and its Asian neighbors such as China and Korea. The shrine
serves as a symbol of Japanese colonialism and nationalism, and visits by
Japanese prime ministers to Yasukuni remind these Asian countries that Japan
has been slow to apologize for wartime atrocities and to publish school
textbooks that give a balanced history of the war. About 2.5 million spirits of
individuals who sacrificed themselves for Japan are worshipped at the shrine,
but the inclusion of convicted war criminals such as Hideki Tojo causes the
most controversy.
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The Yushukan honors all of Japan's war heroes, and only one
display case deals exclusively with the special attack corps, which carried out
suicide attacks in World War II. This case explains the history of the
formation of the first special attack corps in the Philippines in October 1944.
Six exhibition galleries and the Great Exhibition Hall contain displays of some
photos, letters, or other items related to the special attack forces.
The three thousand or so small photos displayed in three
exhibition galleries at the Yushukan include war dead from both the Imperial
Japanese Navy and Army, whereas other Japanese museums with displays about
kamikaze attacks cover only Navy or Army operations. Each photo gives the
person's name, military branch (Navy or Army), rank, date and place of death,
and home prefecture. Unlike other museums with photos of kamikaze pilots, the
Yushukan does not identify whether the person was part of the special attack
corps and does not give the person's age at death. The photos have no
particular order, but the museum has books in several places where one can
search for a person by alphabetical order of names or by home prefecture. The
photos include several women who died in the line of duty while supporting the
military. There is no explanation as to why certain photos are displayed out of
the total of 2.5 million persons who gave their lives in battle for Japan.
Although most people associate Japan's wartime suicide
attacks with planes, the Navy and Army had other special attack corps used in
suicide attacks. The museum has several exhibits about these other special
attack corps, such as motorboats with explosive charges. The Great Exhibition
Hall displays two weapons with explosive charges used in suicide attacks, an
ohka (manned glider with three rocket engines that fired for nine seconds each)
and a kaiten (manned torpedo) recovered by the U.S. Navy and on permanent loan
to the Yushukan. The museum also has a memorial to those who died in the
fukuryu special attack corps. These were sailors wearing protective underwater
gear who were to be waiting in shallow water to destroy the enemy's landing
craft with explosives attached to the top of a bamboo pole. The Navy never
deployed this weapon, but many sailors lost their lives in unsuccessful trials
of this suicide attack weapon.
Yasukuni Jinja's museum presents a slanted view of Japan's
military history, with highlights of heroic moments but no mention of negative
incidents such as foreign comfort women and Unit 731 in Manchuria. The museum
gives the nationalist perspective of Japan's war history and tries to portray a
military history of which Japanese people should be proud. A theater has
continuous showings of a 50-minute film entitled "We Shall Not
Forget," which gives the Japanese nationalist perspective that Japan was
not at fault in the Nanking massacre in 1937 and that Japanese leaders were
wrongly convicted at the Tokyo war crimes trials. The museum has an exhibit
that portrays Japan as the key to the liberation of other Asian countries from
the U.S. and European powers (Yasukuni Jinja 2003, 84). The links to web pages
listed below provide more details on the slanted perspective of Japan's military
history portrayed at the Yasukuni Jinja and the Yushukan.
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Zero Carrier Fighter
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Before completion of the museum's expansion and renovation
in 2002, the Yushukan had very few English translations, but now the museum has
extensive English explanations of Japan's military history. The museum director
says, "We want more foreigners to visit so we can teach them about Japan's
history and why Japan fought" (Murphy 2002). However, many of the letters
and other items related to the special attack forces remain without translations.
One room has available for reading a book with twenty English translations of
letters, diary entries, and other personal papers of "Japan's War Heroes
in Their Own Words," which includes items by six kamikaze pilots. These
twenty items come from books of letters published by Yasukuni Jinja give
foreign visitors a flavor of the contents of the letters displayed at the
museum. The large museum bookstore sells many books on Japan's military
history, including a few books on the special attack corps, and a wide variety
of other books and souvenir items. Eight volumes of letters and diary entries
written by Japan's war dead, including many kamikaze pilots, are on sale. An
average of one thousand people per day visit the museum (Murphy 2002), and
admission costs 800 yen (about $7).
Yasukuni Jinja's web site has a very impressive summary of
the contents of the museum, including a three-dimensional-like map of the
museum and a separate page for each exhibition gallery giving an overview and
photos. The pages are available in both Japanese and English. However, the
design may be too fancy since in some places the text and photos get cut off on
the screen or overlap the internal borders. The web site contains many
statements that reflect Yasukuni Jinja's mission to preach its nationalistic
view of Japanese military history, such as the following quote from the home
page, "Japan's dream of building a Great East Asia was necessitated by
history and it was sought after by the countries of Asia" (Yasukuni Jinja
2004).
Dates of Visits: January 30, 2005; July 2, 2004; May 24, 2003; April 9, 2000
Link
Note
1. From museum brochure in Japanese.
Sources Cited
Murphy, Paul. 2002. Yasukuni Museum Tugs At
Heartstrings To Keep Military Memories Alive. Asahi Shimbun News Service.
August 25. <http://www.rense.com/general28/tudg.htm> (February 9, 2004).
Originally available at:
<http://www.asahi.com/english/feature/K2002081500254.html>
Yasukuni Jinja. 2003. Yasukuni Jinja Yushukan zuroku
(Yasukuni Jinja Yushukan in Pictures). Tokyo: Yasukuni Jinja.
Yasukuni Jinja. 2004. Yasukuni Jinja's Home
Page. <http://www.yasukuni.or.jp/english/> (July 8, 2004).
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