<html><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><div apple-content-edited="true">Now I see this. It's what I get for reading my inbox backwards! </div><br><div><html>On Apr 8, 2008, at 1:04 PM, Jasper Sharp wrote:</html><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><blockquote type="cite"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0; ">I'm also of the opinion that the Chinese condemnation of these visits has more than a slight air of opportunistism about it. The war ended 60 years ago now, and I see a film such a Tokko as part of an interesting way of looking at how and why the world descended into such horrific madness on such a scale, of trying to get a clearer picture of "the fog of war" from a more detached time distance. The ongoing finger-pointing and acrimony in Asia does not seem helpful or healthy, and seems more motivated by contemporary politics. It might just be time to draw a line and move on as has been the case in Europe.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></blockquote></div><br><div>I feel something close to the sentiments Jasper writes. Condemnations of Yasukuni from the Japanese left feel knee-jerk; celebrations on the right are just as automatic—and all the while, I meet so many Japanese who really don't care much one way or the other. I always wondered why the left didn't attempt to appropriate Yasukuni from under the right-wing's nose. Surely there should be a space for mourning the dead of such a horrible war. When I've mentioned that to anti-Yasukuni friends, they cannot even imagine it. And I think they can't imagine it because they need the place. Just as Chinese and Korean nationalists seem to need the place as well. The symbolic power of places like Yasukuni, Nanking, even Hiroshima, blind us to the more complex history they're actually embedded in. Just as Hiroshima gets all the attention and Americans are never asked to think about strategic bombing (or even Nagasaki!), it seems to me there are far more relationships to Yasukuni than we see represented in documentaries—where everything resolves neatly to right and left. The best piece I've seen on the shrine is Tsuchiya Yutaka's <i>Does the Emperor Have War Responsibiity</i>, and I sense that the new film may be similar. But maybe not? Can't wait to see this thing. But when!?!?</div><div><br></div><div>Markus</div></body></html>