By Feng Zhaokui
On August 15, the 61st anniversary of Japan's unconditional
surrender to the allies in 1945, Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro
Koizumi again paid tribute to the Yasukuni Shrine, which honors 14
Class-A war criminals among Japan's war dead.
This was his sixth visit to the war shrine since 2001. But the
previous visits all steered clear of the sensitive date of August
15.
Koizumi's outrageous act, in defiance of strong opposition from
the international community particularly Japan's neighbors, which
fell victim to Japan's aggression in history and from many Japanese
citizens, was naturally condemned at home and abroad.
The editorial of France's La Liberation, for example, lashed out
at Koizumi's paying homage to the war shrine, comparing him to Jorg
Haider, Austria's far-right politician. The editorial went on to
say that the Yasukuni visit would orientate Japan's nationalist
sentiment towards becoming more aggressive. It is by no means
accidental that the French media produced such incisive criticism,
as France suffered enormously during World War II.
?
Some Japanese call Koizumi a "political magician." Professor
Masahiko Fujiwara says in his best-selling "Nation's Dignity" that
Adolf Hitler won the support of Germans when he annexed Austria in
1938 not because he was domineering but because he deftly
manipulated the Germans' nationalist feelings to his own ends.
Hitler was a political magician good at playing tricks of
"democracy."
Why does Koizumi cling to the Yasukuni Shrine? Because the war
shrine, in the eyes of Japan's right-wing politicians, constitutes
the best stage prop in their political magic show.
Koizumi deliberately provokes China and the Republic of Korea
(ROK), both Japan's war victims, and stings the feelings of their
citizens, by repeatedly visiting the war shrine.
Conversely, Koizumi twists the protests from China and the ROK
into pressure constantly exercised on the Japanese nation, which is
aimed at subjecting Japan to eternal humiliation. So, he time and
again vows that he will "never bow to China," in a bid to whip up
antagonist feelings among the Japanese and, in turn, win the most
possible political support for his successor who, he expects, will
follow his right-wing political line.
In view of all this, Koizumi's protestations that he pays homage
to the Yasukuni Shrine purely out of his "personal convictions" are
nothing but sophism. His war-shrine visits are motivated by
political purposes and are, therefore, purely political acts, not
personal options.
Polls conducted on the very day of Koizumi's Yasukuni visit this
year indicated that those who opposed the visit accounted for more
than 50 percent of those surveyed, while those who were in favor
made up 40 percent. The fact that 40 percent of the Japanese are in
favor of Koizumi's shrine visit shows that his political magic
tricks have indeed had some effect. His hardline attitude that he
would "never bow to China" has the sympathy of those Japanese who
subscribe to his lie that China has ever been pressuring Japan.
On the other hand, the fact that 50 percent of the Japanese
oppose Koizumi's Yasukuni visit shows that his political magic show
is far from successful. Some Japanese are really worried that Japan
is faced with the risk of going into war if this state of affairs
continues.
At each of his visits to Yasukuni, Koizumi has harped on the
same string: Japan's prosperity today is based on sacrifices made
by those who fell on the battleground. As a matter of fact, Japan's
post-war economic success is the direct result of the country's
embarking of the road of peaceful development shortly after World
War II.
Koizumi's attribution of the current prosperity to the war is
pure whitewashing of the aggressive wars launched by Japanese
militarists. His behavior is also tantamount to forsaking the San
Francisco Peace Treaty and the outcomes of the trials at the
International Military Tribunal for the Far East.
A string of Koizumi's hawkish policies lay bare his true purpose
of whitewashing the war of aggression on the one hand and negating
peace on the other. Fortunately, more and more Japanese have come
to see through Koizumi's political tricks.
Magicians' tricks are doomed to be laid bare. And it will by no
means be easy for Koizumi's successor to put on such magic shows in
the future.
The author is a senior research fellow from the Chinese
Academy of Social Sciences.
(China Daily August 24, 2006)
