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An international conference on "Peace in East Asia and Yasukuni Shrine" to cope with Japan's rightward shift and the Yasukuni issue was held at the National Assembly on August 21, 2014. Japanese cabinet ministers and politicians have continued to make annual visits to Yasukuni Shrine, including Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's visit in December 2013, and they granted the right to collective self-defense by a cabinet decision in July 2014. Against this background, those who had been involved in the anti-Yasukuni movement through international alliance gathered together and arranged this conference in order to diagnose the current status of the Yasukini issue and present an outlook for future alliance activities.

Co-hosted by the Northeast Asian History Foundation, the Anti-Yasukuni Joint Action Korean Commission, and the Office of National Assembly Member Yoo Ki-hong, and conducted by the Institute for Research in Collaborationist Activities and the Association for Requesting Compensation for the Pacific War Victims, this event gathered together in Korea the bereaved families, lawyers, researchers, and activists who had been involved in addressing the Yasukuni issue. From Japan, the Okinawa, Tokyo, and Yamaguchi executive offices gave presentations. From Taiwan, Ciwas Ali (a.k.a. Kao Chin Su-mei (高金素梅)), a co-representative of Anti-Yasukuni Joint Action, participated by way of a video message she had sent. In particular, this international conference was participated by two representatives from the Jilin Province Archive, the national archive of China. This was the first time that Chinese representatives had ever participated in any international conference addressing the Yasukuni issue. This conference was a meaningful occasion that expanded the alliance framework of Anti-Yasukuni Joint Action to include China.

Resolving the Yasukuni Issue is the Road to Peace in East Asia

In Part 1 of the international conference, the Korean, Chinese, and Japanese participants gave presentations on 'Japan's Rightward Shift and Yasukuni Shrine from the Perspective of Peace in East Asia.' Attorney-at-law Masatoshi Uchida (內田雅敏), a Japanese co-representative of Anti-Yasukuni Joint Action, examined the reality where Yasukuni couldn't give up the so-called 'holy war' view of history and Japanese society was failing to overcome it, and pointed out that the historical view glorifying the war of aggression as a 'holy war' lies at the root of the Yasukuni issue. Furthermore, he criticized Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's visit to Yasukuni Shrine, saying that it was equivalent to challenging the world order of peace that emerged after World War II, and denying the footsteps that Japan had left while resolving not to engage in war ever again. And he stressed that in order to improve the increasingly worse ROK-Japan relations and China-Japan relations, Japanese society would need to resolve the Yasukuni issue by taking history seriously.

Researcher Zhao Yujie (趙玉潔) of the Jilin Province Archive said that an analysis of the archive's records showed that Yasukuni Shrine had played a key role in the militarist war of aggression and that in China during the time of the war of aggression, ceremonial offerings had been made to Yasukuni Shrine as a means of conducting war. He also criticized that Yasukuni Shrine was not simply a religious facility but a key political device that allowed the war of aggression to proceed and a spiritual stronghold for the militarists. He urged East Asian countries to deal sternly with the existence of Yasukuni that challenged peace in East Asia and the international order, and the Japanese right wing's visit to Yasukuni Shrine.

Attorney-at-law Lee Seok-tae, a Korean co-representative of Anti-Yasukuni Joint Action, gave a presentation on 'The Japanese Cabinet's Resolution to Grant the Right to Collective Self-Defense and the Yasukuni Ideology,' analyzing how the Yasukuni issue related to the rapid rightward shift in Japanese society. First, the Abe government's cabinet resolution weakened Article 9 of the Japanese constitution, the very clause that had prevented Japan from rearming and becoming a military power, and he feared that this was likely to cause a new military conflict to develop in East Asia. He also pointed out that the Yasukuni Shrine's ideology propagandizing that the war of aggression had been a righteous war for the 'emperor of Japan' and a war that had liberated the Asian people was still alive today in Japanese society, and becoming the spiritual center of Japanese politics, along with the rapid rightward shift in Japan. He also argued that Prime Minister Abe and other Japanese politicians paying a visit or sending a tribute to Yasukuni Shrine were equivalent to the Japanese government proclaiming its acceptance of the Yasukuni Ideology as one of its ruling principles. He maintained that in order to prevent the Yasukuni Ideology as a threat to peace in East Asia from becoming an official ideology and the rightward shift in Japan from becoming more serious than it already had been, exchange and alliance among East Asian civil-society organizations would be essential.

Anti-Yasukuni International Alliance Activities: Achievements and Challenges

In Part 2 of the international conference, under the theme 'Anti-Yasukuni Movement: Achievements, Challenges, and Outlook,' the achievements of the anti-Yasukuni movement that had been conducted through international alliance in Okinawa, Yamaguchi, Tokyo, and Korea over the past nine years were reviewed, and the direction of the movement was given. Lee Hee-ja, who represents Anti-Yasukuni Joint Action and Ms. Park Nam-sun, who represents the bereaved families, gave a representation about their struggle through litigation and protest visits to Yasukuni Shrine. A bereaved family member, whose father was enshrined together at Yasukuni after he was taken away to fight and then killed in the war of aggression, made an emotional speech about how they still remained unliberated from colonial rule.

In the resolution released that day, the participants vowed to continue to make every effort to stand against the Yasukuni Shrine that was glorifying the war of aggression and threatening peace in East Asia, including struggle through litigation, candlelight vigils, and appeal to the international community.

The year 2015, which will mark the 70th year since Korea's liberation from the Japanese colonial rule, is a significant year that will also mark the 10th year since the launch of Anti-Yasukuni Joint Action, which is a righteous fight to ensure that all the citizens of East Asia will live together in peace. The candlelight that cuts into the darkness of Yasukuni will never go out, nor will our steps to drive out the darkness stop,