Hirohito and Yasukuni
As it turns out, Hirohito strongly objected to the enshrinement of Class-A war criminals at Yasukuni shrine in the late 1970’s–so much so that he stopped visiting the shrine. The information came from interviews between Hirohito and the former Imperial Household Agency Grand Steward Tomohiko Tomita. Ironic that Yasukuni and the people who most strongly support the war criminals being enshrined there also profess fealty to the Imperial throne. But as is usually the case with people of that stripe, there is little doubt that they will easily find a way to ignore, explain away, or otherwise reconcile this information while still retaining their views.
Update: I was right, but it looks like they’re not even trying to explain how they reconcile the fact–they’re simply ignoring it:
When asked if the reported note will affect his decision on whether to visit the shrine before he steps down in September, Koizumi replied: “No, it won’t. (Whether to visit Yasukuni) is up to each person. It is a personal matter.” …Asked how he felt about the fact that neither Emperor Hirohito, now referred to as Emperor Showa, or his son, Emperor Akihito, have visited Yasukuni since it enshrined the war criminals in 1978, Koizumi said he could not comment on their decisions.
Can’t very well explain away cities lying in ruin.
To the German’s credit, Nazism by and large cured them of excessive far-right wing politics. But then their cities lay in ruin, their country occupied and divided in two, vast amounts of their women folk rapped by avenging Russian troops and then having to confront the evidence of death camps in their own back yard.
Japan’s excessive right wing Nationalism was hardly less leathal in degree, but not less leathal in kind. Perhaps they think its okay now that the U.S. is doing it.
Apparently, learning history is not enough. People need to be saturated in its effect.