JAPAN: The bitter debate over prime minister Junichiro Koizumi's annual pilgrimages to the controversial war memorial, Yasukuni shrine, was given a new twist yesterday by a remarkable, beyond-the-grave intervention from an unusual critic: Emperor Hirohito.
According to a newly released memo, the emperor expressed "strong displeasure" at the secret decision by Yasukuni's Shinto priests to enshrine 14 class-A war criminals in 1978. He thereafter refused to visit the shrine, which also honours 2.5 million war dead, until his death a decade later.
Written by a former grand steward of the Imperial House, the memo ends the 30-year mystery about why Japan's wartime monarch abruptly stopped going to Yasukuni in the 1970s, and is a severe embarrassment to Mr Koizumi, who has gone five times since taking office in 2001.
Asked last night if the memo would change his views, Mr Koizumi said it would not, calling the visits "an issue of the heart". He added: "Everybody should be free to decide by themselves on such matters." However, confirmation that the monarch, in whose name the second World War was fought, staunchly opposed official pilgrimages to the shrine will put intense pressure on Mr Koizumi to call off a final, politically explosive trip to Yasukuni before he leaves office in September.
Nationalist supporters want Mr Koizumi to visit the shrine on August 15th, the anniversary of Japan's surrender, fulfilling an election pledge made five years ago and laying the groundwork for regular prime ministerial visits by his successor.
China and South Korea, which consider the shrine a memorial to Japan's unrepentant militarism, bitterly criticise the annual pilgrimages and have terminated high-level political exchanges with Tokyo until the issue is resolved.
The two governments say the origins of the dispute date back to the decision to enshrine Japan's wartime leaders, including General Hideki Tojo, in 1978.
The memo was released to the business newspaper Nikkei Shinbun. "Rumours of this memo have been around for some time, so why now?" asked Tetsuro Kato, a professor of politics at Tokyo's Hitotsubashi University.
"It's possible that some in the business world are so worried about ties with the rest of Asia that they want to sabotage the election of Mr Koizumi's successor."