These Imperial park benches were reached after about two hours of hard work. I felt quite triumphant and skipped over to the Palace itself. It was closed, and I was on the wrong side of the entire complex--I would have to walk to Yasukuni--but at least I knew where I was, so I was quite happy. I am not responsible for my hair in this picture. I'm not sure how it happened.
I went on a leisurely walk around the palace. November seems to be constant wind and gloom in Tokyo, but it was a relatively nice day for a walk. One thing that was different from Kyoto was the reaction of people to aisatsu. I bowed my head to everyone I passed, a greeting which always meets with smiles in Kyoto. In Tokyo, though, I mostly got cold indifference, and one person actually frowned at me.
Tokyo is a strange place...
Eventually, I arrived at the shrine which has attracted so much controversy. It is best to think of Yasukuni Shrine as the Japanese equivalent of Arlington National Cemetery and ignore crying by Korean and Chinese nationalists. This is the reason why Koizumi visited it and ignored all protests. Japan does not have any other sort of cemetery for all their war dead. However, that doesn't really explain the whole story as I will outline next. The right-wing vans outside the entrance to the shrine were quiet today, but their presence was still prominent.
The shrine itself looks like most other Shinto shrines. The enshrined "class A war criminals" (e.g., Prime Minister Tojo) are certainly not visible anywhere in person. I saw a class of schoolkids come through the shrine, take pictures in goofy poses with the help of their teachers, and pay their respects just like we Americans would at Arlington. The real problem with Yasukuni, though, is the the war museum located within the shrine's premises. I was not allowed to take pictures inside this museum so I will have to wing it from memory.
Much of the museum is dedicated to housing airplanes, missiles, uniforms, guns, samurai armor, and so forth. I feel like the museum does not represent an act of aggression on Japan's part so much as the obsession of some military otaku over defending Japan's military reputation. In the gift shop you can buy some book "disproving" the Nanking Massacre... and soldier/pilot Kewpie dolls.
The museum has very high production quality with many clouded glass panels carrying poems by old samurai and shoguns about death in the service of the Emperor. It describes how Commodore Perry and other Westerners forced Japan to open its borders to trade with "imperialist" techniques... and then justified Pearl Harbor by saying that the United States had closed off its borders to trade that Japan needed. The panel I found grossly offensive, though, was the one at the very end of the museum. It said that Japan's uncalled-for invasion of China had proven to the world that "indepence from imperialism" was possible and claimed that it set off all the independent movements of the 20th century, including one by a certain Mohandas Gandhi. This was illustrated with a map showing all the independence leaders and nations color-coded by the date they achieved independence. Curiously enough, Korea itself appears on this map... without its correct color. I don't know what kind of half-assed compromise that is, but it definitely did not resolve any of the major issues with the panel.
There was also a very poorly produced anime at the end of the tour about the virtue of dying to save one's beautiful country. But Japan lost in the end. Didn't those people die in vain? Well, I suppose their valiance demonstrated to the United States that the Japanese were crazy and would not accept foreign rule. That does count for something.
Luckily, the elementary school kids did not go to this museum.
P.S. Sumo dude is actually somewhat scarier today than yesterday. Also his feet smell painfully bad.
