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ANALYSIS – Shinzo Abe’s visit to the Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo last week angered many – friends and foe alike.
Predictably, China for whom the men that are honoured as men that died for the sacred Japanese nation in the second world war are nothing more than war criminals.
The same is of course true for South Korea with whom Tokyo is allied with, in fear of the rise of China.
And on that score, there is also Vietnam.
So, what was America’s position, as the Japanese internal affairs minister made the trip to the house of the dead souls yesterday?
Well, the state department has urged calm and called for dialogue.
Those who are predicting future conflict in Asia between China and the US may point to such visits by senior Japanese ministers to the site denounced by the world – that includes China – as the starting point for a conflict that could embroil all the key powers of South Asia.
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The trouble with complaining about visits to war memorials like this is that, while some of the Japanese soldiers commemorated there will have been war criminals, others are not. Should an American president not visit the Vietnam memorial in Washington because some – many – American soldiers undoubtedly committed abuses during that war?
You could argue there’s a difference in scale but I doubt that argument would cut much ice with the Vietnamese. There’s a great deal of hypocrisy and double standards about the war crimes issue which Western countries are reluctant to face up to.
I think on the future conflict issue there is growing nationalism in both China and Japan which is inflamed more by issues such as conflicting territorial claims in the Yellow Sea and elsewhere. But conflict between the US and China seems to me very unlikely given their nuclear arsenals and huge economic interdependence. It’s not like Russia and America in the Cold War.
Thank you for your view – the trouble with Japan and its invasion of China, is that it was a war of aggression and that it was completely unprovoked, something the Japanese have still not admitted to. Let’s hope you are right about China and the USA.