Japan's PM 'embarrassed' by Hirohito's intervention

The memo was part of a collection of notebooks by grand steward Tomohiko Tomito. Picture / Reuters

TOKYO - The bitter debate over Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's annual pilgrimages to the controversial war memorial, Yasukuni Shrine, has been given a new twist by a remarkable, beyond-the-grave intervention from an unusual critic: Emperor Hirohito.

According to a newly released memo, the emperor expressed 'strong displeasure' at Yasukuni's decision to enshrine 14 Class-A war criminals in 1978, and thereafter refused to visit the shrine, which also honours 2.5 million war dead, until his death a decade later.

Written by a former grand steward of the Imperial House, the memo ends the 30-year mystery about why Japan's wartime monarch abruptly stopped going to Yasukuni in the 1970s, and is a severe embarrassment to Mr.

Koizumi, who has gone every year since taking office in 2001.

Asked last night if the memo would change his views, Mr Koizumi said, "No, it will not," calling the visits "an issue of the heart".

"Everybody should be free to decide by themselves on such matters," he said.

But confirmation that the monarch in whose name millions of Japanese fought in WWII staunchly opposed official trips to the Tokyo shrine will put intense pressure on Mr Koizumi to call off a final, politically explosive visit before he leaves office in September.

Nationalist supporters want Mr Koizumi to go to the shrine on August 15, the anniversary of Japan's surrender, fulfilling an election pledge made five years ago and laying the groundwork for regular prime ministerial visits by his successor.

Despite Mr Koizumi's mantra that the visits are a "private matter", the 10-sq-km plot of hallowed ground in the center of Tokyo is shaping up as the key political issue in the election to replace him.

China and South Korea, which consider the shrine a memorial to Japan's unrepentant militarism, bitterly criticise the annual pilgrimages and have terminated high-level political exchanges with Tokyo until the issue is resolved.

The two governments say the origins of the dispute date back to the secret decision by Yasukuni's Shinto priests to enshrine Japan's wartime leaders, including the notorious General Hideki Tojo, in 1978.

The man most widely tipped to take over the country's top political job, Shinzo Abe, pointedly refused to say yesterday what he would do if elected, but the government's hawkish cabinet secretary is a well-known supporter of Mr Koizumi's visits.

"I will continue to respect and pray for those who fought for Japan," said Mr Abe, without saying where.

Emperor Hirohito visited the shrine eight times after World War II but abruptly stopped going in the 1970s for reasons that have, until now, remained a mystery.

His son, the current Emperor Akihiko, has never gone to Yasukuni despite political pressure to do so.

It is widely believed that he too opposes the enshrinement of the men who led the war.

Opponents of the annual visits said last night said the memo proved the prime minister was on weak political ground.

"The issue will never be settled until the Class-A war criminals are moved or until we have an alternative shrine," said Taku Yamasaki, a former vice president of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party.

The memo was part of a collection of notebooks by grand steward Tomohiko Tomita, who died three years ago and was one of the late emperor's closest confidants.

- INDEPENDENT