Tojo defends Yasukuni on Korean TV

NO, NOT former Prime Minister Hideki Tojo; it was his granddaughter Yuko Tojo.

Kokuryu (Nevin Thompson), my interlocutor in the Intraview page above, send me an e-mail with a link to a YouTube excerpt of a KBS (South Korean) program broadcast on August 13, 2006, in which Yuko Tojo appeared with a woman from Taiwan and a woman from South Korea to discuss the Yasukuni Shrine. Ms. Tojo of course speaks in Japanese, and Japanese subtitles are given for the other two women. I wanted to make a transcript and translate it, but the paying translation work now on my desk prevents me from devoting a lot of time to it.

But since the segment deserves wider publicity, I thought I should at least summarize their statements in English. Please note that I dashed this off very quickly late at night. If anyone thinks I’ve made a mistake or left out important information, feel free to send me a note or make a comment and I’ll incorporate it.

Here’s the link to the YouTube segment (it’s about 10 minutes). The summary follows.

YT: Yuko Tojo
TW: Taiwanese woman
KW: South Korean woman

YT: Many people misunderstand Yasukuni Shrine. There are no ashes or bones there. The spirits of the war dead are enshrined as if they were all on the same zabuton (cushion for sitting on the floor).

TW: I think many Japanese feel the same way you do, but here’s the real Yasukuni. (Holds up book.) The wood used here was plundered from a mountain on Taiwan. (Note: I think she is referring to the wood used to make the torii at the front of the shrine.)

YT: Taiwan and Korea were occupied in accordance with international law at the time.

TW: From 1896 to 1920, the Japanese conducted 138 “wars” against Taiwan’s aboriginal inhabitants. (This is an error in the Japanese translation. She obviously means military operations.) 7,000 were killed. The number of killed and wounded totaled about 1/8th of Taiwan’s population at the time.

YT: Japan worked to create an infrastructure and bring the local educational level up to the level in Japan.

TW: Anyone who could say that has no conscience. The Japanese brainwashed the aboriginal Taiwanese to think of themselves as Japanese. What do you think would happen if Hitler and the Jews were memorialized in the same place?

YT: That was a different situation. Hitler killed his own countrymen. Japan was forced into the war by anti-Japanese sentiment in the U.S. and the encirclement by the ABCD powers. (America, Britain, China, and the Dutch) A comparison with Hitler and Germany is nonsense.

KW: The problem is that no one told the (foreign) families of the enshrined they were dead to begin with.

YT: Yasukuni was not responsible for that; the enshrinement was done in accordance with Japanese rules. Also, I am not excusing this (moshiwake arimasen), but Taiwan and South Korea were a part of Japan at the time. The Korean and Taiwanese were enshrined at Yasukuni together without discrimination.

KW: Yasukuni is not the problem; the problem is enshrining the Taiwanese and Koreans.

YT: We are treating them the same way we treat Japanese. They fought as Japanese. People would ask why they were not enshrined if they fought as Japanese.

KW: That concept is a mistake. They were forced to fight as Japanese.

YT: I understand what you mean very well. They overcame their sadness as Koreans and Taiwanese and (literally) did Japan the favor of fighting as Japanese. Japan is thankful for that.

KW: Don’t be thankful. I want to hear what you have to say about your grandfather as a war criminal.

YT: According to an act of the Japanese Diet agreed to by all political parties, they are not considered war criminals but war fatalities. We must treasure your father’s sacrifice. To remove your father’s spirit from Yasukuni would be to ignore (his sacrifice). People can’t be taken out separately. They have to be enshrined together. The word goshi (enshrined together) is in the dictionary. There is no word in the dictionary for being enshrined separately.

KW: Are you proud of it? (This enshrinement)

YT: Yes, I am. Your father is resting in peace. Do you think he would be happy at your anger? I think he would be sad.

(Taping concludes)

KW: I’ve had enough! I’m finished! (YT keeps asking her to sit down and talk some more.)

TW: Take the names of the Taiwanese out of Yasukuni.

YT: Listening to people get so emotional while trying to talk to them was frightening!

My very quick take:
Too often in the media, especially overseas, old-line Japanese are portrayed as firebrands, and it is implied that they’re only too ready to march back into Asia again.

For that reason, I’m glad this is available for people to see. After watching the whole thing—especially Ms. Tojo’s last comment–the first thing that came to mind was Arsenic and Old Lace. This is hardly militaristic.

This had to have been a longer program. I’d be curious to see the whole thing, especially to see how it was edited.

As it turns out, Yuko Tojo announced yesterday she will run for a seat in Japan’s Upper House elections this July, as an independent if necessary. I’m sure there will be some who enjoy getting upset by this and warn that Japan is creeping back to its old ways, but face it folks, she is unlikely to win. Also, it should be pointed out that the Upper House has little real power, and is often the political equivalent of a vanity license plate, as this previous post explains. There have been more than a few single-issue celebrity candidates elected to the Upper House, but their election seldom furthers their pet causes.

Here’s a quick profile of Yuko Tojo that appeared a couple of years ago. While looking for a suitable article, I ran across a comment by a Western blogger in Tokyo who is suffering under the illusion that she is a “hero” in Japan.

Moshiwake arimasen, but that only reinforces what I said earlier this week about bloggers. As Yuko Tojo would put it, that’s nonsense.