Ban lifted on school trips to Yasukuni

Saturday, May 24, 2008
Compiled from Kyodo, Staff report


Off-limits since '49, war-related Tokyo shrine now OK for kids

The government Friday declared null and void a 1949 state-imposed ban on public schools organizing field trips to Tokyo's war-related Yasukuni Shrine.

The government clarified the point in reply to a query by Takeo Hiranuma, a nationalist ex-trade minister from the ruling Liberal Democratic Party who is now an independent Lower House lawmaker.

Hiranuma, along with several LDP hawks, was involved in obscuring the international outcry over the wartime sex slave issue and blocking discussion on having a female head the Imperial family.

The government's answer in a document the Cabinet endorsed Friday said, "It is permissible for schoolchildren to visit Yasukuni Shrine to learn about Japanese history and culture as part of school education."

The Shinto shrine in Chiyoda Ward honors Japan's war dead, as well as convicted war criminals, who were dedicated at Yasukuni in the 1970s.

In 1945, the Occupation forces banned the government from forcing citizens to engage in state-sponsored Shinto practices and also prohibited promotion of militarism.

According to the government document, the vice education minister at the time subsequently issued an instruction prohibiting public schools from having their students visit Yasukuni or other religious places for the purpose of worshipping on school excursions.

The document said the Occupation ban expired after Japan regained its sovereignty when the peace treaty with its wartime foes took effect in 1952.

In March, Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Minister Kisaburo Tokai said: "The education vice minister's instruction was drawn up under unusual circumstances shortly after the war's end. Now there is no need to treat Yasukuni differently from other Shinto shrines."

Naoki Ogi, an expert on education issues, reacted sharply to the lifting of the ban.

"It's OK for the government to confirm the 1949 ban is no longer valid. But isn't it going too far to say, 'schools have got permission to visit Yasukuni?' "

Ogi warned that Friday's Cabinet decision could be used as an excuse to instill patriotism in classrooms.

A recent controversy over the shrine focused on a restriction of freedom of expression after some 40 LDP lawmakers held an unprecedented preview of Chinese director Li Ying's award-winning documentary "Yasukuni" in March.

Following the preview, which was widely taken as effective censorship, several cinemas that had initially decided to screen the film canceled it for fear of possible intimidation by rightwingers.