Yasukuni article and interview with Li Ying

[Mark Nornes]

Now I see this. It's what I get for reading my inbox backwards!
On Apr 8, 2008, at 1:04 PM, Jasper Sharp wrote:

> 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.

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 Does the Emperor Have War  
Responsibiity, and I sense that the new film may be similar. But maybe  
not? Can't wait to see this thing. But when!?!?

Markus
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