Will Robb Photography

A couple of weeks back I went to photograph the celebration of death at the Mitama Matsuri (soul festival) in Tokyo’s Yasukuni shrine. This Shinto shrine has long been a source of controversy and a sticky political fury between Japan and it’s neighbours, particularly South Korea and China, for this temple is dedicated to the souls of over 2 million Japanese who gave their lives for the Emperor in the war, among them class A war criminals. Just yesterday a visit to the Shrine by Prime Minister Taro Aso resulted in the usual political backlash and denouncement from those nations that suffered under Japanese Imperialism during the war. The shrine is a haunt of Japanese extreme right wingers, spouting hatred and trying to dismiss foreign claims of Japanese war atrocities. In days gone past there had been reports of these groups attacking Koreans and Chinese who spoke out against them, or merely just came across their paths. Conspiracy theorists claim links between these groups and prominent politicians, but on the whole they are decreasing in numbers and are mostly ignored by the regular man or woman on the street here.

The festival itself is one of many annual celebrations held at the shrine. It’s an odd mix of people, the right wingers mixing with families, young couples and kids. Lanterns are lit and the names of the dead are written on them. People walk amongst them and look for long dead family members and quietly reflect on the past, others just drink their beer and sake and have a good time. I get the feeling that most of the people there are just there for a good time and most of them aren’t really aware of the hatred this place invokes to some. There is however, always a malign element to the place, some unwelcome glances at the foreigners like me by the minority among the crowd who want to deny Japan’s darker past.

My girlfriend is South Korean and she doesn’t want to set foot in the place. Most Japanese don’t understand this mindset, they feel she is getting worked up over nothing, but being brought up in Korea she has been made well aware of brutality of the Japanese forces during the war, the comfort women, the massacres, the horror of war. Stories drilled into her all through school and stories told to her by her grandmother who witnessed the conflict firsthand. Unfortunately, most Japanese people aren’t aware of the past deeds of their army, the government’s education committees successfully keep out the most of the truth about Japanese atrocities out of textbooks (despite the valiant efforts of some brave teachers to include them) and when an angry reaction in South Korea or China is shown on TV and the people here don’t know why everyone is pissed off, then it just looks like South Korea and China are being racist to Japanese without cause.

So, every year tens of thousands flock out to Yasukuni to celebrate death and the controversy just keeps going.