Yasukuni Shrine

But don't worry, they did get to go to a shrine as well.

According to the Taiwan Nichinichi newspaper, which reported on their visit to the famous Yasukuni Shrine.

People might recognize that name as a place that is controversial in Asia.

They were taken to the shrine's arms museum.

I guess, seriously apologize for because they have apologized in the past, made apologies in the past.

But then, you know, Japanese leaders continue to visit, you know, Yasukuni Shrine and things like that.

So I don't know what will be enough for that.

That's the question, you know, when.

We take their public opinion right now.

Public figures in Japan still keep playing homage to Yasukuni Shrine, where the classic war criminals are enshrined.

And also we see school textbooks keep downplaying wartime atrocities, and right-wing voices keep pushing for what they call the national normalization, treating post-war peace constraints as shackles on Japan.

So the views on history are never purely cultural or just past tense.

And finally, here are, here are photos of iconic site in American and Japanese history.

Our International Center and Yasukuni Shrine.

The current relationship between us is the result of various twists of fate.

In fact, when it came to the events that led to war between the two countries about eighty years ago, both sides actually made the wrong decisions.

Public opinion typically only acts as a policy constraint at particular moments of issue salience and leader vulnerability.

And that means in the context of South Korean-Japanese public opinion, the current trends, we can say two things, right? One is that the warmth that we are currently enjoying is more likely a reflection of the policy restraint on both sides, something that Ayumi just discussed, right? The Lee administration has been careful not to inflame issues over or press issues over the ongoing legal disputes on forced labor, just as the Takahichi administration has been careful avoiding going to the Yasukuni Shrine.

So no, I do not think that public opinion or public sentiments are converging in ways that may outlast leadership.

The polls we are talking about right now are peacetime trends.

But they stand for the same kind of heritage.

This is the same group that in 1954 was plotting how they could get these Japanese war criminals who were executed and whose ashes were burnt to a cinder and then, you know, thrown around the, uh, the ocean so they could not be deified, how they could get them into the Yasukuni Shrine, which they have done.

That gives you an idea of how long and important this was to them, that these kind of fascist, uh, tendencies continue, that they're unapologetic.

So they're pursuing a number of complex, uh, in my opinion, of course, uh, ends here.

Uh, the cosplay ban is being help- is being put into place to help main- tain the solemn and sacred atmosphere of the shrine grounds.

Uh, Ya- this is Yaku- Yasukuni Shrine, one of the most, uh, prominent Sh- Shinto shrines.

Mm-hmm.

Uh, that might sound, you know, might sound heavy-handed, contrasts their generally casual vibe, but Yasukuni is in a uni- uniquely complex position because of the shrine's purpose.

Because with tremendous help of the Soviet, uh, uh, um, infusion of funds, expertise, and materials.

Moving to our next topic today, [clears throat] Japanese Defense Minister Shinjiro Koizumi visited the Yasukuni Shrine last Saturday on the 81st anniversary of Japan's surrender in the Second World War, drawing backlash from neighboring South Korea and China.

The Yasukuni Shrine is the memorial dedicated to 2.5 million deaths in the war, mainly Japanese, and additionally includes convicted war criminals from Imperial Japan during the occupation in the 1930s and '40s, which was likely a key point of issue for both China and South Korea here.

So Miles, unpack this a bit for us here.

Why did the defense minister visit the shrine? Is, is it common for Japanese officials to do so? And why exactly were Chinese and South Korean officials so upset about the domestic visit?

Yasukuni Shrine, as a political potato, uh, has been there for decades.

Uh, in the old days, in the '50s and '60s, there was no doubt there was a portion of Japanese extremists, uh, who tried to use this kind of a shrine visit, uh, to exonerate Japan's war responsibility.

But that, those days are way behind.