Yasukuni mondai (review)

The sixtieth anniversary of the end of World War II was observed in 2005. One might think that 60 years is a sufficient length of time to come to terms with the causes and consequences of that terrible event, but such is not the case for Japan. To be sure, the Japanese people have processed and incorporated many of the hard lessons of the war, but the Japanese state has yet to resolve one of the war's most crucial and longstanding issues: how to memorialize and commemorate the military dead in a way that acknowledges their service to the nation and emperor, yet does not glorify or distort the mistaken cause for which they fought and died.

A flurry of documentaries, ceremonies, and publications marked the sixtieth anniversary, but few received the kind of sustained attention achieved by a single book (the subject of this review) dealing with Yasukuni Shrine—that religious site founded by the Japanese state for the ostensible purpose of enshrining the spirits of the military dead as guardians of the nation. From 2001 to 2006, the shrine had once again rocketed to media and political prominence because of official visits by then-Japanese prime minister Koizumi Jun'ichirō. Because of the uproar caused internationally as well as domestically by these visits, the Japanese media and reading public were hungry for analysis, explanation, and discussion, none of which was particularly forthcoming from the prime minister or his spokespersons.

As most readers know, these six highly provocative visits plunged diplomatic relations with China and South Korea into a deep freeze and caused tangible consequences for interregional trade, cultural exchange, joint-military exercises, the safety of Japanese residing in China, and the telling of history regarding the war. Not only were there no meetings between the top leaders of China and Japan for five years but the tensions created by Koizumi's visits resulted in renewed nationalistic rhetoric and agitation in all three countries. As if taking a page from the playbook of the administration of George W. Bush on how to alienate one's allies, the Japanese government found itself isolated, distrusted, and seen as arrogant in pursuing what the prime minister insisted were "spiritual matters."

Published in April 2005, Yasukuni mondai by Takahashi Tetsuya provides a well-written, clearly organized, and (until the conclusion) mostly dispassionate book about the problem of memorializing and commemorating the military war dead in Japan. Its author is a philosopher at the University of Tokyo whose research has included the work of Jacques Derrida, so he is well acquainted with complexity, nuance, and the occasional conceptual roadblock, all characteristics of the impasse that Yasukuni Shrine presents for Japanese society. The book quickly went through 12 printings by August, with over 200,000 copies sold. Its ¥720 price and novella format made it highly accessible to the reading public, where it was acclaimed a bestseller.

With this kind of popularity, it is important for scholars of contemporary Japanese politics, society, and culture to understand the book's paradigm shifts in how to think about the so-called "Yasukuni mondai" (Yasukuni problem). To begin with, Takahashi reframes the issue of mourning and honoring the spirits of the military dead at the shrine. Second, he expands the "problem" to include historical contexts beyond the war and postwar years. Finally, Yasukuni mondai states clearly that the current controversy is neither a cultural nor religious problem but a thoroughly political one. While we have encountered some of these ideas before in various publications, to my knowledge this is the first to assemble them in a succinct and compelling narrative.

Takahashi begins his analysis by focusing not on history but on the role emotion plays in complicating and prolonging the Yasukuni problem. The first chapter's title, "The Problem of Emotion: Between 'Commemoration' and 'Veneration'" (Kanjō no mondai: suitō to kenshō no aida), emphasizes a fundamental difference between two words applied to the memorialization of the spirits of the military dead: suitō (commemorate) and kenshō (honor, venerate). Yasukuni's rituals...