Last week's discovery of a memorandum recording the words of the Emperor Showa explaining why he stopped visiting Yasukuni Shrine will exert considerable influence on the debate over Japanese publicly remembering Japan's war dead, while praying for peace, in a manner acceptable both to Japanese and to foreign peoples and governments.
Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's repeated visits to Yasukuni have chilled Japan's relations with neighboring countries, especially China and South Korea, because the shrine honors not only 2.46 million Japanese war dead but also 14 Class-A war criminals.
The memorandum was written and left by the late Mr. Tomohiko Tomita, who served the late Emperor as Imperial Household Agency grand steward. Written in the 1980s, it offers clues to the late Emperor's thoughts on war and peace, and his opinion of some of Japan's wartime leaders.
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