Had wanted to go there early in the morning, but due to my nocturnal nature with me sleeping after 2am, I only managed to get up around 9am.. :p Had my breakfast and went out before 10am. Took a train to Ichigaya Station (市ヶ谷) and walked my way there..
Came in through the side entrance actually.. Many people were already there.. mostly elder folks.. Some photos..
As usual, the main shrine was full of people showing respects and praying.. I didn't. I wanted to, but I couldn't bring myself to do it.. I don't think I would forgive myself for praying at a shrine that commemorates war dead, especially those who did horrible things to the civilians..
I then visited Yushukan (遊就館) which is the museum that keeps all the articles pertaining all the wars that Japan had fought and the people who had died in them..
The famous zero fighter..
It was indeed an eye-opening experience.. There were so many personal artifacts donated by the deceased's families.. Almost every photo has a story attached to it - clothes, hats/gloves, diaries, letters to family, final words, even the bullets/shrapnel that killed him/her! It was so surreal.. and eerie at the same time.. Even mundane items like toothbrushes, eye-glasses or comb somehow conveyed a sense of grimness.. These people were just like you and me, everyday-Joe/Jane!
There are walls and walls of photos of the soldiers who died during the wars... Each photo has a name, his/her rank, where he/she was from, and also where, when and how he/she died. Many were 戦死 (killed in combat) or 戦病死 (died of disease contracted at the front) while a couple of them were 公務死 and 法務死 (not too sure about these two terms). Of course, I saw the photos of the war-criminals that had been the center of all the controversies..
Looking at the museum and the way they portrayed those involved, no wonder it was hard for the people of Japan to believe that these "patriots", some were wide-eyed college graduates barely into their twenties, were capable of those horrendous deeds reported during the war.. yet, I think they are still unwilling to take their portion of the responsibility for the war.. In my opinion, there is nothing wrong with honoring and paying respect to the dead, that is filial piety, but they have to separate the person and the deeds.. These people might be their relatives and families, but there is no doubt whatsoever that some of them really did perpetrate heinous deeds that had no justification..
Unlike Germans, who had taken full responsibility for the atrocities that the Nazis had perpetrated, the Japanese still thinks of themselves as the victims.. that is the feel that I get from this visit... The way they sort of "not telling" their young the facts is not helping them at all in the international arena.. Like they say, first one must admit that one has a problem before being able to fix it.. unless they never thought of fixing anything!!
Although I strongly believed that history is written by the victors and will always be unfair to the defeated, there are still some truth in the history as we know now.. I do not believe that the Japanese did what they did because they liked it.. I believed that they were forced to invade other countries because they had no other choice..(That is what I think after reading a book by Helen Mears, Mirror for Americans: Japan) but there were no grounds for them to be so cruel and monstrous to their enemies/colonies. The Japanese needs to get the world to understand their reasons/circumstances for starting/joining the war. But they can't do that with their heads buried in the sands.. Own up and apologize, then every one can move on.. Is it that difficult??
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