Yasukuni OK'd enshrining Class-A war criminals in 1969

TOKYO, Japan - The Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo crowded with people going there to offer prayers. According to a book released by the National Diet Library on March 28, the Shrine gave a green light in 1969 to the idea of its enshrining Japanese Class-A war criminals from World War II, nine years before it actually did so, and the government was more closely involved in discussions regarding whom the shrine should honor than currently believed.

Sample
PDF Preview

Product Code
ILEA001121885

Registered date
2007/3/28 00:00:00

Credit
Kyodo / Kyodo News Images

Media source
2007 Kyodo News

Media size
1864 × 1228 pixel

Resolution
dpi

Deployment size
481.41(KB)*

Special instruction

*File size when opened in Photoshop, etc.

Similar Images & Videos

Hiroshima church revives 1947 Christmas service

HIROSHIMA, Japan - Some 50 people aged 19 to 85 sing during a Christmas service at the Hiroshima Nagarekawa church on Dec. 13, 2014, in Hiroshima using the same program including prayers and bible readings as the service held at the church on Dec. 24, 1947, two years after the U.S. atomic bombing of the western Japan city in World War II. The original church was located some 800 meters from the hypocenter.

Actor Takakura poses with actress at press event

TOKYO, Japan - Famed Japanese actor Ken Takakura (L) and actress Sayuri Yoshinaga pose at a press conference in Tokyo in March 1979 to announce the production of the 1980 Japanese film "Doran" (tumult) depicting a young army officer and his wife during the turbulent days before World War II. Takakura died of illness at 83 on Nov. 10, 2014.

'UN Women' chief meets Japanese press

TOKYO, Japan - "UN Women" Executive Director Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka speaks during a news conference at the Japan National Press Club in Tokyo on March 28, 2014. The head of the body, officially known as the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women, urged the Japanese government to proactively seek a resolution to the issue of women forced into wartime sex slavery for the Japanese military.

Anne Frank books donated to Tokyo library in late diplomat's name

TOKYO, Japan - The Tokyo Metropolitan Central Library displays on Feb. 26, 2014, more than 130 copies of "The Diary of a Young Girl" by Anne Frank and related books donated by a person in the name of Japanese diplomat Chiune Sugihara after vandalism left over 300 copies of such books in tatters in the Japanese capital's libraries. Sugihara, who disobeyed his government's orders and issued transit visas that saved thousands of Jewish refugees from the Nazis during World War II, died in 1986.

Japan copyright body chief Tokura

TOKYO, Japan - Shunichi Tokura, chairman of the Japanese Society for Rights of Authors, Composers and Publishers, meets the press at the Foreign Ministry in Tokyo on Feb. 25, 2013, after submitting a written request to Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida to work for the termination of a royalty payment system, under which Japan is required to pay royalties to 15 victor nations of World War II for around 10 years longer than the 50-year copyright protection period. Japan is the only country subject to such treatment due to its wartime failure to pay royalties to its enemies for music, novels and art.

Keene has no doubt Tohoku 'will rise again' after 3/11 disaster

NEW YORK, United States - Donald Keene, an 88-year-old prominent scholar in Japanese literature, speaks during an interview with Kyodo News at Columbia University on April 27, 2011, a day after he taught his final course at the university in preparation for his permanent move to Japan. He strongly believes the Tohoku region will recover from the March 11 disaster, just as Tokyo was rebuilt after World War II.

Yasukuni Shrine returns monument to Korean people

TOKYO, Japan - The Bukgwandaecheopbi monument at Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo, which was built in memory of Korean Admiral Li Sun Sin who fought against Japanese expeditions launched by warlord Toyotomi Hideyoshi (1537-1598) to conquer Korea in the late 1590s, was returned to South Korea on Oct. 12. The monument had been kept at the shrine after Japanese forces brought it to Japan during the 1904-1905 Russo-Japanese War.

New museum for 1945 Tokyo air raid opens on anniversary eve

TOKYO, Japan - Novelist Katsumoto Saotome addresses an opening ceremony of the Sensai Shiryo (war damage archive) Center, a museum dedicated to the Tokyo air raid in World War II, in Tokyo's Koto Ward on March 9, the eve of the 57th anniversary of the massive U.S. firebombing that razed extensive parts of the Japanese capital and killed an estimated 100,000 people.

Wreaths from Koizumi laid at Yasukuni Shrine

TOKYO, Japan - A wreath (on the right) is one of the two wreaths offered and paid for by Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi which were laid Aug. 13 at Tokyo's Yasukuni Shrine. The wreaths were laid on the right and left sides of the ''honden'' main sanctuary of the shrine, which enshrines the nation's war dead as well as Class A war criminals. Koizumi's planned visit to the shrine in his official capacity on Aug. 15 has stirred controversy.

Premier's official visit to Yasukuni under study

TOKYO, Japan - The Japanese government and the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) will look into ways that would allow official government visits to Yasukuni Shrine (photo) in Tokyo, which enshrines some 2.4 million Japanese military personnel and officials who have died since 1853 in Japan's wars. Seven hanged class-A war criminals are among those enshrined. Top cabinet spokesman Hiromu Nonaka said on Aug. 6 that in his personal opinion, the shrine should be made into an entity similar to a national cemetery after discarding the shrine's religious flavor and removing dedications to class-A criminals.