Tokyo and Yasukuni Jinja
I went to Tokyo on Wednesday and Thursday to present my City Hall presentation to CLAIR headquarters in the Shinjuku ward. And yes, mom, I took these pictures. My host father has been teaching me a thing or two about how to "purdy up" photographs!
This is the infamous Yasukuni Shrine that has continually kept Japanese foreign relations in hot water. Japan's perspective is that it is simply a shrine which commemorates the fallen soldiers of war. Really. . .honestly. . .it seems to be nothing more than that. Other Asian countries continue to express their discontent about Japan's apparent "need" to honor convicted war criminals--whose souls are enshrined here-- claiming that this shrine is an attempt at re-invigorating Japan's wartime past. (Nevermind the fact that hundreds of thousands of other fallen soldiers' souls are also enshrined here.) If that were the case, then Americans are also guilty of being war mongers based solely on the Vietnam Wall. 
War criminals or not, the families of the fallen still need to honor their family name by enshrining the deceased. This shrine PROMOTES peace and DENOUNCES war, not the other way around as so many have construed. Go and see for yourself.
These statues were erected to honor the animals used during wartime: the canines, the carrier pigeons, and the calvary horses. From 1900-1945, the Japanese military lost over 1 million horses to battle. 
This is the Yasukuni Musuem. And I do have to admit, I found parts of the museum to be a little biased. But really, what perception isn't?
The museum chronologically recounts Japan's wartime past from the very beginnings. In every count, there seemed to be a righteous explanation for going to war. From the U.S. perspective, Japan was an imperialistic nation attempting to control the entire Asian region with little regard for their lives of the lives of the conquered.
However, the way Japan sees it, they felt their security--as a nation--was threatened and therefore resorted to war before being attacked themselves. Sound familiar? Perhaps Bush's preemptive strike doctrine wasn't such an original thought after all. . .hmmmm. Could it be that the Japanese also engaged in "preemptive strike" tactics and we just decided to call it imperialism? Let this be a lesson: The U.S. has fought--and it fighting--many wars that we believe have been for righteous reasons, too.
This is the infamous Yasukuni Shrine that has continually kept Japanese foreign relations in hot water. Japan's perspective is that it is simply a shrine which commemorates the fallen soldiers of war. Really. . .honestly. . .it seems to be nothing more than that. Other Asian countries continue to express their discontent about Japan's apparent "need" to honor convicted war criminals--whose souls are enshrined here-- claiming that this shrine is an attempt at re-invigorating Japan's wartime past. (Nevermind the fact that hundreds of thousands of other fallen soldiers' souls are also enshrined here.) If that were the case, then Americans are also guilty of being war mongers based solely on the Vietnam Wall. 
War criminals or not, the families of the fallen still need to honor their family name by enshrining the deceased. This shrine PROMOTES peace and DENOUNCES war, not the other way around as so many have construed. Go and see for yourself.
These statues were erected to honor the animals used during wartime: the canines, the carrier pigeons, and the calvary horses. From 1900-1945, the Japanese military lost over 1 million horses to battle. 
This is the Yasukuni Musuem. And I do have to admit, I found parts of the museum to be a little biased. But really, what perception isn't? The museum chronologically recounts Japan's wartime past from the very beginnings. In every count, there seemed to be a righteous explanation for going to war. From the U.S. perspective, Japan was an imperialistic nation attempting to control the entire Asian region with little regard for their lives of the lives of the conquered.
However, the way Japan sees it, they felt their security--as a nation--was threatened and therefore resorted to war before being attacked themselves. Sound familiar? Perhaps Bush's preemptive strike doctrine wasn't such an original thought after all. . .hmmmm. Could it be that the Japanese also engaged in "preemptive strike" tactics and we just decided to call it imperialism? Let this be a lesson: The U.S. has fought--and it fighting--many wars that we believe have been for righteous reasons, too.
posted by Chadd and Miko at 8:53 PM
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