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  >  Trip 2013 (Page 34)

The Yushukan museum at the Yasukuni shrine provides a particular perspective Japanese military history. We spent a fascinating couple of hours wandering through its martial exhibits. The whole thing certainly starts off on a slightly discordant note, with the locomotive from the slave-labour constructed Thailand-Burma railway proudly displayed in the lobby (see previous post) While we were obviously unable to read what the Japanese language exhibits said, the English counterparts were masterpieces in blame-shifting and outright elision of key events. For example, the Rape of Nanking (the Nanking “Incident” according to the museum) was treated, in approximately 50 words, as a

The Yasukuni-jinja. According to Shinto belief, the souls of all Japanese war dead are enshrined here. (Carrier pigeons are honoured, but not enshrined). A beautiful, peaceful site. Controversial, too. Included in those war dead are hundreds of convicted war criminals, responsible for some of the most appalling atrocities of the Second Sino-Japanese War and World War II. So when politicians come and pay their respects at the shrine (as will likely happen this coming weekend), the Chinese and Koreans are less than impressed…