On Aug. 15, Japanese newspapers carried the obituary of an American citizen by the name of William Kenneth Bunce, who died in Chestertown, Md., at the age of 100.
The article said that immediately after Japan's surrender in World War II (1945), Bunce headed the religious section of the General Headquarters of the Allied Occupation Forces and played a role in issuing the order that prohibited any relationship between the government and Shinto while permitting the continued existence of Yasukuni Shrine as a religious corporation. Disputes over Yasukuni continue today, 63 years later.
During the Occupation, the United States regarded Yasukuni as constituting a base of spiritual support for Japan's militarism and worked aggressively for the shrine's reform, believing that not only physical disarmament of the nation was necessary but also the people's spiritual disarmament.
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