Abe's shrine visit damages Japan's image
- By Huang Xingyuan
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E-mail China.org.cn, January 14, 2014
As for the question about whether Japan is reviving militarism, I don't want to talk about Japan's recent aggressive military and security activities. I would just repeat something I once said on TV. I strongly supported young Chinese director Li Ying, who spent 10 years making the documentary movie "Yakusuni." Later I wrote the preface for his book with the same title. The book was very popular in China, but the movie was suppressed in Japan, although it won international awards. The documentary's success was not about what it revealed or criticized; it was because it used materials related to the Yasukuni Shrine over the past ten years which make people think twice. A young Japanese told me that he had never been to the shrine and never understood why China and South Korea never let go of this issue, but after viewing the film, he felt a kind of war terror and shame, especially during the scenes of Shintaro Ishihara's hysterical behavior and the former soldiers' war hullabaloo at the gate of shrine as well as the instructions at the Yushukan (a Japanese military and war museum at the shrine) which confound right and wrong. He said it was no wonder that "foreign friends couldn't understand us, because even we cannot accept this." I hope the politicians who want to visit the shrine can also watch the film.
I worked as a spokesman for the Chinese consulate in Japan for five years, and during that time, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi insisted on visiting the shrine. After 14 war criminals were sneaked into the shrine for people to pay tribute to in 1978, this controversial place should not have been visited by politicians, especially Japan's prime ministers. I have also heard that relatives of the war criminals don't want the politicians to visit the place for their own gains. Chinese people have always said, when you are once bitten by a snake, you will feel sorrow afterwards even when you just see a rope. When you think about Japan's history of invasion and look at what Japanese leaders have done now, who can believe that a right-wing Prime Minister with wrong views of history will pray for peace when he visits a shrine hosting the biggest war criminals? If you also think that the Japanese regime now wants to change the Constitution and forcibly pass a law on state secrets, you will not wonder why victim nations are worrying about Japan reviving militarism.
Now I will take Soichiro Tahara's question. The Sino-Japanese relationship will develop as long as there is a political basis, emotional bonds and common interests. But now we discover that the political basis has been damaged by Japanese even including the Prime Minister, the emotional bonds are hurt at will and even torn apart, then, and how can we maintain the common interests? We don't worry about small troubles between China and Japan, but we don't wish to see someone starting something on issues relating to China's core interests and the political basis of the Sino-Japanese relationship.
When Abe came to power, I published articles in China on Dec. 26, 2012, saying his administration may be the opening of Pandora's Box. A year later, what he has done proves people's worries. I wrote in my articles that I hope Abe will not take risks on the territory issue and shrine visit, and will not risk relationships with neighbors while only caring about the United States. Of course, I know Abe will not listen to my advice, though he asked someone to tell me that he read my articles. But he should at least listen to domestic and international voices, and think about the future for the Japanese people. Don't smash a pot to pieces just because it's cracked.
I actually have a question for Abe: When you visit the shrine, you violate Japan's principle of separation of religion and politics and international law. In China, South Korea and even the United States, people have a more negative image of Japan. Don't you care? How can Japan, with such a right-wing leader who insists on his own opinion, reassure the international community that it wants to perform more on the international stage?
This article was first published in Chinese and translated by Zhang Rui.
Opinion articles reflect the views of their authors, not necessarily those of China.org.cn.
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