Further to Yingwai Suchaovanich's relevant views on Japanese cabinet members’ visits to the Yasukuni Shrine, may I be so bold as to elaborate on her comments by suggesting an even more accurate analogy. What if German Chancellor Angela Merkel and members of her cabinet were to regularly visit a memorial in Berlin dedicated to the memory of the perpetrators of the Holocaust?
Imagine how that would go down in the US! It was, after all, the US that allowed the Japanese to develop and alter their history as a bulwark against Russian communism in the aftermath of the Second World War – of which most Japanese are blissfully unaware.
Asian Pacifist
Hua Hin