Yasukuni Shrine

Yasukuni Shrine is a Shinto shrine in central Tokyo, and it is one of the most visited, and one of the most controversial, places of remembrance in the world. Founded in 1869 by the Emperor Meiji, it enshrines the souls — the mitama — of more than 2.4 million Japanese men and women who died in the service of the Emperor and of Japan, from the civil wars of the nineteenth century to the Second World War.

For many Japanese, it is a sacred place: a shrine where the families of the dead come to pray, where the souls of the fallen are honoured as eirei — heroic spirits — and where the nation remembers its war dead, as other nations remember theirs at Arlington, at the Cenotaph, or at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

For many people outside Japan — above all in China and in Korea, the countries that suffered most from Japanese aggression — it is a symbol of something very different: a shrine that, since 1978, has enshrined fourteen Class A war criminals, including the wartime prime minister Hideki Tojo, alongside the ordinary soldiers, and that, through its museum, the Yushukan, presents a view of the war in which Japan was, in the words of its critics, the victim rather than the aggressor.

This article presents Yasukuni as it is: a place of religion, of history, and of politics, and a place whose meaning depends, to a remarkable degree, on who is looking at it. It describes the shrine’s history, from its founding in 1869 to the present day; it describes what visitors see — the great torii gate, the hall of worship, the Yushukan museum, and the gardens; it explains the Shinto beliefs that underlie the enshrinement of the dead; and it examines the controversy — the enshrinement of the war criminals in 1978, the visits of Japanese prime ministers, and the protests of China and Korea — presenting the arguments of both sides, and the evidence on which they rest.

Yasukuni is, in the end, a test of how a nation remembers a war, and of how its neighbours remember the same war, and this article does not take sides: it presents the facts, and it leaves the judgement to the reader.

1. Key Facts

Founded	1869, as Tokyo Shokonsha, by Emperor Meiji; renamed Yasukuni Shrine in 1879
Where	Kudankita, Chiyoda Ward, central Tokyo, Japan
Enshrined	More than 2.4 million souls (mitama) of those who died in the service of Japan, from 1853 to 1945; the commonly cited figure is 2,466,532
War criminals	1,068 convicted war criminals enshrined, including 14 Class A war criminals (among them Hideki Tojo), enshrined in a secret ceremony on 17 October 1978
Museum	The Yushukan, founded 1882, the oldest military museum in Japan
Status	A private religious corporation under Shinto, since the separation of state and religion in 1946; formerly a state shrine under the Imperial Household
Festivals	Spring and autumn grand festivals; the Mitama Matsuri (Festival of Lanterns) in mid-July
Visits	Official visits by Japanese prime ministers are a recurring source of diplomatic controversy, above all with China and South Korea

2. History: From 1869 to 1945

Founding by Emperor Meiji

Yasukuni was founded in June 1869, in the aftermath of the Boshin War — the civil war that restored the Emperor Meiji to power and ended the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate — when the Emperor ordered the construction of a shrine in Tokyo to honour those who had died in the service of the new imperial government.

The shrine was originally called Tokyo Shokonsha — “the shrine for inviting the spirits” — and it was, from the beginning, a shrine of a new kind: it did not enshrine a god, or a hero of legend, but the souls of ordinary soldiers who had died for the Emperor.

In 1879 the shrine was renamed Yasukuni — “the shrine of the peaceful country” — and it became, under the Meiji constitution, a state shrine, administered by the army and the navy, and visited, on formal occasions, by the Emperor himself.

The shrine grew with the wars of the Meiji era: the Sino-Japanese War of 1894–1895, the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–1905, and the First World War, in which Japan fought on the side of the Allies. By the 1930s, the shrine enshrined the souls of hundreds of thousands of men, and it had become, in the words of one historian, “the spiritual centre of the Japanese military”.

The Second World War

During the Second World War, Yasukuni became the shrine to which the families of the dead came to pray, and to which the souls of the fallen were, in the belief of the time, brought after their deaths. The Japanese military told its soldiers that if they died in battle, their souls would be enshrined at Yasukuni, and that they would be honoured, for all time, as eirei — heroic spirits — and the promise of enshrinement was, for many soldiers, a consolation in the face of death.

By the end of the war, in August 1945, the shrine enshrined the souls of more than 2.4 million men and women — the great majority of them soldiers who had died in the war with China and in the Pacific War, and including, in smaller numbers, women who had served as nurses, and civilians who had died in the service of the military.

The shrine survived the war: it was not, as some had feared, destroyed in the American bombing of Tokyo, and it stood, in 1945, as a reminder of a war that had cost Japan more than two million lives, and that had ended in defeat.

3. Shinto Beliefs and Enshrinement

What Enshrinement Means

In Shinto, the indigenous religion of Japan, the souls of the dead — the mitama — are believed to continue after death, and to be capable of being enshrined in a shrine, where they are honoured as kami, or deities.

Enshrinement at Yasukuni is, in Shinto terms, the transformation of the dead into eirei — heroic spirits — who are honoured, not as individuals, but as a collective, and whose names are recorded in the shrine’s register, the Reijibo, but whose souls are, in the belief of the shrine, united in a single, divine presence.

The enshrinement is, in the shrine’s own terms, irreversible: once a soul is enshrined, it cannot be removed, and the shrine has, on this ground, refused all requests — from the Japanese government, from the families of the dead, and from foreign governments — to remove the war criminals from the register.

The belief is, for many Japanese, a matter of religion, and for many others, a matter of tradition: the dead are honoured, and their souls are at peace, and to remove them would be, in the words of the shrine, “a desecration”.

Who Is Enshrined

The shrine enshrines, in total, more than 2.4 million souls, of whom the great majority — more than 2.1 million — died in the Second World War, in the war with China and in the Pacific War. The remainder died in the earlier wars of the Meiji era, in the Russo-Japanese War, in the First World War, and in the civil wars of the nineteenth century.

The enshrined include, in addition to soldiers, a small number of women — nurses and others who served with the military — and a small number of civilians, including, controversially, the 1,068 convicted war criminals, of whom fourteen were Class A war criminals, convicted by the International Military Tribunal for the Far East at Tokyo.

The Class A criminals include Hideki Tojo, the wartime prime minister, who was hanged in 1948, and who was enshrined, with the other thirteen, in a secret ceremony on 17 October 1978 — a ceremony that was not, at the time, made public, and that was not revealed until 1979, when it was reported in the Japanese press.

The enshrinement of the war criminals is, for the shrine, a matter of religion: the shrine enshrines all who died in the service of the Emperor, without distinction, and it does not, in its own terms, judge the dead. For China and Korea, it is a matter of politics: the enshrinement, in their view, honours the men who ordered the invasion of their countries, and it is, in their words, “an insult to the victims”.

4. The Shrine Today: What Visitors See

The Grounds and the Buildings

Visitors to Yasukuni today enter through the great torii gate — the first torii, built in 1921, is one of the largest in Japan, at 25 metres high — and they walk along the approach, past the second torii and past the statues of the war dead, to the hall of worship, the haiden, where they can pray, and to the main sanctuary, the honden, where the souls are enshrined, and which is not open to the public.

The grounds include, in addition to the shrine itself, the Yushukan museum, the gardens, and the statues — including the statue of Ōmura Masujirō, the founder of the modern Japanese army, and the statue of a kamikaze pilot, which is, for many visitors, a reminder of the war.

The shrine is, on an ordinary day, a quiet place: families come to pray, school groups come to learn, and tourists come to see one of the most famous shrines in Japan. On the festival days — the spring and autumn grand festivals, and the Mitama Matsuri in mid-July, when thousands of lanterns are hung in the grounds — the shrine is crowded, and it is, in the words of one visitor, “a place of celebration, and of remembrance, at the same time”.

The Yushukan Museum

The Yushukan, founded in 1882, is the oldest military museum in Japan, and it is, for many visitors, the most controversial part of Yasukuni. The museum’s exhibits — which include a Zero fighter aircraft, a Kaiten human torpedo, a locomotive from the Thailand–Burma Railway, and the personal effects of kamikaze pilots, including their farewell letters — tell the story of Japan’s wars from the Meiji era to the Second World War, and they do so, in the words of the museum’s critics, from the point of view of the Japanese military: the war with China is presented as a war to liberate Asia from Western colonialism, the attack on Pearl Harbor is presented as a response to American provocation, and the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki are presented as the great crime of the war, while the crimes of the Japanese army — the Nanjing Massacre, the comfort women, Unit 731 — are, in the words of the critics, “omitted, or minimised”.

The museum’s defenders argue that the Yushukan is a museum of the Japanese military, and that it presents the war as the soldiers who fought it saw it, and that it is, in the words of one defender, “a memorial, not a history textbook”.

The debate over the Yushukan is, in the end, a debate over how a museum should tell the story of a war — and over whose story it should tell.

The Exhibits

The Yushukan’s most famous exhibits are the Zero fighter, which stands in the entrance hall, and the Kaiten human torpedo, which is displayed in the main hall, and the farewell letters of the kamikaze pilots, which are, for many Japanese visitors, the most moving part of the museum.

The letters — written by young men, many of them in their early twenties, on the eve of their deaths — are, in the words of one visitor, “a reminder that the men who died were, in the end, young men, who loved their families, and who did not want to die”.

The museum also displays, in its upper floors, the history of the Japanese military from the Meiji era, including the uniforms, the weapons, and the photographs of the wars — and it is, in the words of one historian, “a museum that tells the story of the Japanese army, from the army’s point of view, and that does not, for the most part, tell the story of the army’s victims”.

The visitor who comes to the Yushukan should, for that reason, come with an open mind, and with a knowledge of the history that the museum does not tell.

5. The Controversy: The War Criminals

The Enshrinement of 1978

The controversy over Yasukuni centres, above all, on the enshrinement, in 1978, of the fourteen Class A war criminals. The enshrinement was carried out in secret, on 17 October 1978, by the head priest of the shrine, Matsudaira Nagayoshi, who had, in the words of one historian, “a personal conviction that the war criminals were not criminals, but martyrs”.

The enshrinement was not made public at the time, and it was not revealed until 1979, when it was reported in the Japanese press, and it was not, at first, a matter of public controversy: the Emperor Hirohito, who had visited the shrine regularly until 1975, stopped visiting after 1978, and it is widely believed — though it has never been officially confirmed — that he stopped because of the enshrinement of the war criminals.

The Emperor Akihito, who succeeded Hirohito in 1989, has never visited the shrine, and the Emperor Naruhito, who succeeded Akihito in 2019, has not visited it either. The enshrinement of 1978 is, in the words of one historian, “the single most important event in the history of Yasukuni”, because it transformed the shrine, in the eyes of China and Korea, from a place of remembrance into a symbol of Japan’s refusal to confront its past.

The Arguments on Both Sides

The arguments over the enshrinement are, in the end, arguments over two different views of the war. The shrine, and its supporters in Japan, argue that the enshrinement is a matter of religion, that the shrine enshrines all who died in the service of the Emperor, without distinction, and that the war criminals, like the ordinary soldiers, died for Japan, and should be honoured as such.

They also argue that the Tokyo Trial, at which the Class A criminals were convicted, was, in the words of one supporter, “victor’s justice”, and that the convictions should not be accepted as a judgement on the dead. China and Korea, and their supporters, argue that the enshrinement honours the men who ordered the invasion of their countries, the massacre of their civilians, and the enslavement of their women, and that it is, in their words, “an insult to the victims, and a denial of history”.

They argue that the Tokyo Trial was a legitimate trial, that the convictions were just, and that the enshrinement of the convicted men is, in itself, a political act — a statement that Japan does not accept the verdict of history. The debate is, in the end, a debate over memory, and over who has the right to remember, and how.

6. The Controversy: Prime Ministers’ Visits

Koizumi, Abe and the Diplomacy of Visits

The second great controversy over Yasukuni concerns the visits of Japanese prime ministers to the shrine. The visits have, since the 1970s, been a recurring source of diplomatic tension, above all with China and South Korea, which regard an official visit by a prime minister as an endorsement of the shrine, and of the enshrinement of the war criminals.

The most controversial visits were those of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, who visited the shrine every year from 2001 to 2006, and of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who visited in December 2013 — visits that led to formal protests from China and South Korea, and to a cooling of Japan’s relations with both countries.

The prime ministers who visit argue that they are visiting in a private capacity, to honour the war dead, and that they are not endorsing the war criminals; China and Korea argue that a visit by a prime minister, in whatever capacity, is an official act, and that it is, in their words, “a provocation”.

The Japanese courts have, on several occasions, ruled on the visits, and they have, for the most part, found that the visits, when made in a private capacity, do not violate the constitutional separation of state and religion — but the diplomatic controversy continues, and it is, in the words of one historian, “the most persistent diplomatic dispute in East Asia”.

The Emperors’ Absence

The absence of the Emperors from Yasukuni is, in itself, a significant fact. The Emperor Hirohito visited the shrine eight times between 1945 and 1975, and then he stopped, and it is widely believed that he stopped because of the enshrinement of the war criminals in 1978 — though the Imperial Household Agency has never confirmed the reason.

The Emperor Akihito, who reigned from 1989 to 2019, never visited the shrine, and the Emperor Naruhito, who has reigned since 2019, has not visited it either. The Emperors’ absence is, for the shrine’s critics, evidence that the enshrinement of the war criminals was wrong, and that the shrine has, in their words, “lost the confidence of the Imperial Household”.

For the shrine’s supporters, the absence is a matter of politics, and of the Imperial Household’s desire to avoid controversy, and it does not, in their view, affect the religious significance of the shrine. The fact remains: the Emperors, who were once the shrine’s most honoured visitors, have not visited it for nearly fifty years, and their absence is, in itself, a statement about the shrine and about the controversy that surrounds it.

7. Visiting Information

How to Visit

Yasukuni Shrine is open to the public, free of charge, every day, from early morning until late afternoon, and it is, in the words of one guidebook, “one of the most accessible, and one of the most moving, places in Tokyo”.

Visitors enter through the great torii gate, and they can pray at the hall of worship, walk in the gardens, and visit the Yushukan museum, for which there is a small admission fee. The shrine is, in the words of the shrine’s own guide, “a place of prayer, and of remembrance”, and visitors are asked to behave with respect: to bow at the torii, to wash their hands at the purification fountain, and to remember that the shrine is, for many Japanese, a sacred place, where the families of the dead come to mourn.

The shrine is easily reached by public transport: it is a short walk from Kudanshita Station, on the Tokyo Metro, and from Ichigaya Station, on the JR line. The best times to visit are the spring and autumn festivals, and the Mitama Matsuri in mid-July, when the grounds are lit by thousands of lanterns — but visitors should be aware that, on the anniversary of the end of the war, 15 August, the shrine is crowded, and it is, in the words of one guidebook, “a place of political demonstration, as well as of remembrance”.

The Mitama Matsuri / Mitama Matsuri

The Mitama Matsuri — the Festival of Lanterns, or, more literally, the Festival of the Souls — is held every year in mid-July, and it is, in the words of one visitor, “the most beautiful, and the most moving, festival in Tokyo”.

During the festival, some 30,000 lanterns are hung in the grounds of the shrine, each bearing the name of a person or a company that has donated it, and the shrine is lit, at night, by their soft light. The festival is, in the words of the shrine, “a festival to console the souls of the dead”, and it is attended by thousands of people, who come to pray, to remember, and to enjoy the summer evening.

The Mitama Matsuri is, for many Japanese, the most important event in the shrine’s year, and it is, for many visitors, the best time to see Yasukuni as it is meant to be seen: not as a place of controversy, but as a place of remembrance, and of peace.

8. Commemoration and Memory

Yasukuni in Japanese Memory

In Japanese memory, Yasukuni is, above all, a place where the families of the dead come to remember. For the families — the widows, the children, and now the grandchildren of the men who died — the shrine is, in the words of one bereaved family member, “the place where my father is”, and it is, for them, a place of personal grief, not of politics.

The shrine’s supporters argue that the controversy over Yasukuni is, in the end, a controversy created by politicians and by foreign governments, and that it has little to do with the feelings of the bereaved families, who come to the shrine to pray, and who do not, in the words of one family member, “think about politics when they pray”.

The argument is, in the words of one historian, “a powerful one, and a sincere one”: the families’ grief is real, and their right to remember their dead is, in any society, a right that should be respected. The question, for the historian, is whether the right to remember extends to the enshrinement of the war criminals, and to the visits of prime ministers — and that question, like the shrine itself, remains a matter of debate.

Yasukuni in Chinese and Korean Memory

In Chinese and Korean memory, Yasukuni is a very different place. For the Chinese, who suffered the invasion of 1937–1945, the Nanjing Massacre, and the deaths of, by Chinese estimates, more than 20 million people, Yasukuni is, in the words of the Chinese government, “a symbol of Japan’s militarism, and of its refusal to repent”.

For the Koreans, who were colonised by Japan from 1910 to 1945, and who suffered forced labour, forced military service, and the comfort women system, Yasukuni is, in the words of the South Korean government, “a shrine that honours the men who enslaved our people”.

The Chinese and Korean view is, in the words of one historian, “a view from the side of the victims”, and it is, for that reason, a view that cannot be dismissed: the men enshrined at Yasukuni include the men who ordered the invasion of China and Korea, and the shrine’s museum presents a view of the war in which Japan was the victim.

The debate over Yasukuni is, in the end, a debate between two memories — the memory of the bereaved families, and the memory of the victims — and it is a debate that, like the war itself, has no easy resolution.

9. Legacy

A Question with No Answer

The legacy of Yasukuni is, in the end, the legacy of a question that has no answer: how should a nation remember a war in which it was both the victim and the aggressor, and how should it honour its dead without honouring the crimes that were committed in their name?

Yasukuni is, for Japan, a place where the dead are honoured, and where the families of the dead come to pray, and it is, for China and Korea, a place where the men who ordered the invasion of their countries are honoured, and where the history of the war is denied.

The shrine is, in the words of one historian, “a mirror, in which Japan sees itself, and in which its neighbours see Japan” — and the image in the mirror depends on who is looking. The controversy over Yasukuni is unlikely to be resolved soon: the shrine will not remove the war criminals, the prime ministers will, from time to time, visit, and China and Korea will, from time to time, protest.

The shrine will remain, as it has been since 1869, a place of remembrance, and a place of controversy — and a reminder that the history of the Second World War, eighty years after it ended, is still, in East Asia, a living history.

The Yushukan and the Visitor

The legacy of Yasukuni is also, in the end, a legacy of the Yushukan — of a museum that tells the story of the war from the point of view of the Japanese military, and that, in doing so, reminds us that every museum, and every memorial, tells a story, and that the story it tells depends on who is telling it.

The visitor to Yasukuni should, for that reason, visit with an open mind, and with a knowledge of the history that the shrine does not tell — the history of the victims, in China and in Korea, and the history of the war as it was experienced by those who suffered it.

Yasukuni is, in the end, a place that rewards the visitor who comes to learn, and who comes to remember — and who understands that remembrance, like history, is never simple, and never finished.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is Yasukuni Shrine?
Yasukuni Shrine is a Shinto shrine in central Tokyo, founded in 1869, which enshrines the souls of more than 2.4 million Japanese who died in the service of Japan, from the nineteenth century to the Second World War. It is both a place of remembrance and a source of controversy.

How many people are enshrined at Yasukuni?
More than 2.4 million souls are enshrined, with the commonly cited figure being 2,466,532. The great majority — more than 2.1 million — died in the Second World War.

Why is Yasukuni controversial?
Because, since 1978, it has enshrined fourteen Class A war criminals, including the wartime prime minister Hideki Tojo, alongside the ordinary soldiers, and because its museum, the Yushukan, presents a view of the war that China and Korea regard as denying Japan’s aggression.

What is the Yushukan?
The Yushukan, founded in 1882, is the oldest military museum in Japan, located in the grounds of Yasukuni Shrine. It displays a Zero fighter, a Kaiten human torpedo, and the farewell letters of kamikaze pilots, and it tells the story of Japan’s wars from the point of view of the Japanese military.

Do Japanese prime ministers visit Yasukuni?
Yes, from time to time. The most controversial visits were those of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi (2001–2006) and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe (December 2013). China and South Korea regard official visits as an endorsement of the shrine and protest them.

Can I visit Yasukuni Shrine?
Yes. The shrine is open to the public, free of charge, every day. It is a short walk from Kudanshita Station on the Tokyo Metro. The Yushukan museum charges a small admission fee. Visitors are asked to behave with respect, as the shrine is a sacred place for many Japanese.

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Sources

1. Wikipedia, “Yasukuni Shrine” — history, enshrinement, the war criminals and the controversy.
2. Wikipedia, “Yūshūkan” — the museum, its exhibits and the debate over its presentation of the war.
3. John Breen (editor), Yasukuni, the War Dead and the Struggle for Japan’s Past (Hurst, 2008) — the history of the shrine and the controversy.
4. Franziska Seraphim, War Memory and Social Politics in Japan, 1945–2005 (Harvard University Press, 2006) — Yasukuni, the bereaved families and the politics of remembrance.
5. Yasukuni Shrine, official site — the shrine’s history, the enshrined souls and visiting information.
6. The Japan Times and Asahi Shimbun, reports on the prime ministers’ visits — Koizumi (2001–2006) and Abe (2013).
7. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Holocaust Encyclopedia, “The Tokyo Trial” — the Class A war criminals and their convictions.