Yasukuni Shrine

On Jan. 13th, Raymond didn't have class, so we decided to go exploring.  He finished an assignment he had by 1 p.m., and off we went.  We wanted to visit the Shinto shrine called Yasukuni.
We took the Stupid Metro and then had to walk about a mile to get there.  We knew we were close to the shrine when we came up to this wall on the left that was decorated with Japanese lanterns.  The street lights all bore a Japanese flag as well.

Saw these adorable little school children just outside of the shrine entrance.  We love their cute little uniforms and hats!  So cute!

All children who attend school in Japan are required to buy a special backpack called a randoseru.  They are extremely expensive!  The ladies at church were complaining about the cost of these backpacks.  The cheap ones with hard plastic on the bottom are around 60,000 yen ($600), but if you want one with wood on the bottom--and most likely to last--you will pay around 120,000 yen ($1200)!!  Kids start using a randoseru at age 6 – the first year of elementary school – and are expected to use the same bag through sixth grade.  Still doesn't justify the price, in my opinion.  Yet another reason why we are homeschooling!
But the school children are still really cute. 

Back to the Yasukuni Shrine.  This was the gate to the entrance to the shrine.  We all love Japanese lanterns.  The kids get excited every time they see them.

The gate was guarded by these statues on either side of the entrance.

We posed for a picture before going in.  (Caitlin had a really big canker sore just inside her lip and it had made her lip swollen, so she wore a mask to cover it.  Japanese people are extremely considerate of others and therefore will wear a mask in public if they have a cold.  This was a perfect cover-up for her swollen lip that she was self-conscious about.)

Per Shinto custom, we poured a small amount of water on three fingers of each hand and also took a small sip and spit it out to cleanse ourselves in preparation of entering the sacred shrine.

We then went over to this area and ate lunch--since Nathan was starving.  Lunch was some sugar peas and mini pigs-in-a-blanket that the girls and I had made at the house.

 We went to use the facilities before going exploring....it turned into an interesting adventure.  See that machine that Nathan is standing next to?  It's where you buy t.p.--that's right.  There was no toilet paper in the stalls.  A small package of toilet paper cost 100 yen.  We laughed and were a little irritated at the same time.....

...but then we went into the stalls.  Both the boys' and girls' bathrooms had ONLY squatty potties.  Most of us decided that we didn't need to use the bathroom that bad. 
We couldn't believe that something as important as Yasukuni wouldn't have better bathroom facilities than this.

 The torii gate right in front of the shrine.

 Tayla snapped this picture right before a guard came up to us and told us no pictures.  This was a first for us, and let us know once again that this shrine is held in greater esteem than the other shrines we have visited so far.  We haven't seen any guards at other shrines.

The Yasukuni Shrine was built in 1869, by order of Emperor Meiji.  When the Emperor Meiji visited it for the first time on January 27 in 1874, he composed a poem: "I assure those of you who fought and died for your country that your names will live forever at this shrine in Musashino".

As can be seen in this poem, Yasukuni Shrine was established to commemorate and honor those who gave their precious lives for their country. The name "Yasukuni," given by the Emperor Meiji, represents wishes for preserving peace of the nation.  In comparison, this is like America's Arlington Cemetery, except that we don't worship those buried at Arlington. 

Currently, more than 2,466,000 Japanese people are enshrined here at Yasukuni Shrine. These are souls of men who made ultimate sacrifice for their nation since 1853 during national crisis such as the Boshin War, the Seinan War, the Sino-Japanese and Russo-Japanese wars, World War I, the Manchurian Incident, the China Incident and World War II. Besides soldiers, ordinary citizens, children and animals who became victims of war are also enshrined.  These people, regardless of their rank or social standing, are considered to be completely equal and worshipped at Yasukuni.  

 

Visiting this shrine was a big deal to us, because of its historical significance to Japan and the ongoing controversy that continues to surround it.  This shrine was a very sacred place for many years, but in 1978, about 1,000 WWII class A war criminals who were tried, found guilty, and executed were secretly enshrined here.  Once it became known, many countries such as China and Korea were furious.  They felt that enshrining those who had done such unspeakable atrocities in such a honorable place was terrible.  Since then, the emperor and the prime minister hasn't been able to visit without causing an uproar from China and Korea.

 We went up the steps of the Haiden and threw in a coin like everyone else.  This is the picture that I took out of the watchful eye of the guard. 

There are millions of little papers tied to wires to the right of the shrine.  We don't know what these papers are for sure, but we do know that they are little notes that are left, perhaps to those enshrined here.  We have seen these papers at other shrines as well.

There was a large area with wooden plaques hanging.  Maybe this is where the names of the people enshrined here are located.  We read on a website that the names of those enshrined at Yasukuni are displayed in form of written records, which note name, origin, and date and place of death. 

Japanese people are known for their respect to the world that surrounds them, that is why animals' contributions during the war periods are also honored with three statues.  The first of the three is a horse statue that was placed at the Yasukuni Shrine in 1958 to honor the memory of the horses that were utilized by the Japanese military. Presented in 1982, the statue depicting a pigeon atop a globe honors the homing pigeons of the military. The last statue, donated in March 1992, depicts a German shepherd and commemorates the soldiers' canine comrades.

This is the Statue of War Widow with Children.  Completed in 1974, this statue is a tribute to the many war widows, who made supernatural efforts in raising their children after their husbands' death. The monument is a donation from those mothers' children to the Yasukuni Shrine as a symbol of their gratitude.   It was a touching statue, and we liked that the mother was wearing a kimono.

A cannon used in the late 1800s.

This monument was honoring Justice Pal.  Justice Pal was the Indian member appointed to the International Military Tribunal for the Far East's trials of Japanese war crimes committed during the second World War. Out of all the judges of the tribunal, he was the only one who submitted a judgment which insisted all defendants were not guilty. Because of his dissent in favor of the war criminals, Pal is revered by Japanese nationalists. 



Next, we went into the Yushukan Museum.  It was established in 1889 to honor the success of the Imperial Japanese Army in defeating the Shogunate. The original building was destroyed by the Great Kanto earthquake in 1923 and was rebuilt in 1932.
This museum is controversial internationally because it describes Japan as a peace loving nation that was forced to enter World War II by America and occupied several South East Asian countries to save them from European colonists.  This made a few of us in the family mad, but we were here to learn, not to agree with everything.  The bottom floor of the museum was free, you only paid to enter the second floor.  Since we weren't giving any money to the support of the lies this museum tells the cute Japanese school children who visit every year, we went ahead and went inside the bottom floor only.

 As soon as we walked in, we were faced with this 1940 Japanese carrier-based fighter called Zeros.  I had a reaction when I saw this, as did Caitlin.  It was emotional to see this plane, knowing the stories of relatives who fought during WWII and seeing first-hand their permanent emotional scars decades later. 

 This steam locomotive was also here.  It seemed out of place in a museum full of war stuff.  The plaque in front of it just stated that it was rescued from Thailand.  Why display it in a war museum?  When we got home, I nosed around a bit on the internet and found out that it came from the area in Thailand where the Burma Railway was built by POWs for the Japanese military during World War Two.  Wow.  The railway line was completed in just a year, but it cost the lives of around 13,000 POWs and 100,000 native labourers. One man died for every sleeper laid. 

 Next to the locomotive was this Memorial to Heavy Artillery.  This gun was owned by the 100th Independent Heavy Artillery Battalion, who died in the defeat of Okinawa.  It was excavated from the inside of a cave after the war and is the only one in existence now. 

 Christopher was really fascinated by it.

 The great number of bullet marks all over the gun gives an indication as to the intensity of the battle.

The Museum also has a collection of Samurai war weapons and memorabilia from the civil war that followed the Meiji restoration. There are exhibits and weaponry used in the Russo Japanese War and the Sino Japanese War.  Behind glass, there was this impressive Samurai armor on display.  While the make up of the armor was for protective purposes, they are truly works of art.  Really cool to see in person. 

 There was also a collection of neck plates.  They were so intricate, so beautiful.  Hard to believe that they were to protect a soldier during war.

 These were stirrups used while riding a horse.  So different in shape than what we use in America.  Notice the detail in the metal, typical of the Japanese--always pleasing to the eye.

There were many samurai swords on display, but I will only put in a few pictures.  Samurai warriors traditionally had two swords, a large one and a small one.  This is the small one.   I also read somewhere that the smaller sword was not used in battle, it was used only if the need arose to kill one's self to avoid being taken prisoner.  Being a prisoner was very dishonorable and shameful.

The swords were all void of their wooden handles. 

They were all carved and beautiful, however.  It was really neat to see them. 

We wandered around the shrine grounds on our way out, noticing this beautiful lantern.  There were some gardens to see, but the kids were done being here and wanted to move on.  Maybe later in the spring we can go back.

We went out the main entrance to Yasukuni.  For some reason, we always end up entering these places in the side entrance and never the main entrance.
There are four torii gates leading up to the main entrance.  This is the second one.

I zoomed in with my camera to the first gate.  In front of the torii gate is a statue of Ōmura Masujirō.  He was a Japanese military leader.  Regarded as the “Father of the Modern Japanese Army”, Omura Masujirois put in a great deal of effort into the establishment of Yasukuni Shrine. Soon after his death, a bronze statue was built in his honor by Okuma Ujihiro and placed in the monumental entry to Yasukuni Shrine. Although Ōmura died before having the opportunity to enforce many of his radical ideas, his influence led to his policies and ideas shaping the making of the Meiji military years later. 

I got distracted by the cute school children again!

The main entrance was framed by these HUGE lanterns.  Nathan and Logan are in front of them, just to give an idea as to the size of them.

From the huge lanterns, this is the view of the main entrance looking toward the Haiden.  The large wooden main gate is called the Shinmon.  It is said that this is one of the most beautiful among temple/shrine gates in Tokyo.  It is a 6 meter tall structure made entirely of Japanese cypress wood called the Hinoki cypress. It was built in 1934 before the 2nd World War. The doors have a large gold chrysanthemum crest which is the imperial seal of Japan.
There was much in the way of Japanese history here.  We left with a lot to think about and talk about as a family.  It was an interesting experience to have historical stories from WWII that we have been taught in America, now presented from the Japanese point of view.  It was an emotional experience, and those emotions weren't always favorable to the country that Japan used to be. 

The Japanese children are taught history in a way that favors Japan.  American children are taught history in a way that favors America.  The truth about what happened between these two countries during WWII is probably somewhere in the middle. 

Here's what the kids thought about what we saw:
Caitlin:  The museum made me mad.  By the time we got done with the museum, I just needed to get out of there before I got too mad.  The airplane ticked me off the most.  Both the airplane and the cannon were hard to look at.  The museum kind of ruined it for me.
Tayla:  The shrine and other buildings were really pretty.  The landscape was nice.  There wasn't the same feeling there as there has been in other shrines.  I don't think I liked it as much. 
Christopher:  I liked the bathroom except that in front of one of the potties there was a window leading to the outside and it didn't have a stall.  I thought that buying your own toilet paper was weird.  The shrine was neat.  The museum was kind of small but fascinating and weird.  The swords were cool because each of them were different.  The airplane was fascinating and the cannons were bigger than I thought.
Logan:  I thought the shrine was beautiful and buying toilet paper was weird.  I think the museum was awesome.  The shrine is a big place. 
Nathan:  I really liked the plane.  I liked the masks with the beards.  (samurai helmet with neck plate)  I also liked the artillery gun and the train.