"Visiting the Yasukuni Shrine is a personal issue of 'spiritual matter'", Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi told reporters. Unfortunately, his "spiritual freedom" is inflicting more and more "intervention" by world important political figures.

Chairman of the Committee on International Relations of the US House of Representatives Henry Hyde has recently written to the Speaker of the House on Koizumi's forthcoming visit to the United States, stressing that only when Junichiro Koizumi promises that he will no longer visit the Yasukuni Shrine in his term of office, can he make a speech to the U.S. Congress. UN Secretary General Kofi Annan also reminded Japan that it should hold a "sincere attitude" towards the history, so as to avoid a repeat of the historical tragedy. Kofi Annan also demanded that Junichiro Koizumi make an "important gesture" to repair the relations between Japan and its neighbors. Swedish Prime Minister Goran Persson said in his presence to Koizumi that Koizumi's insists on visiting the Yasukuni Shrine is incomprehensible.

Henry Hyde participated in the Second World War. In his letter to the Speaker of the US House, Hyde said that the US Congress is a place where the United States declared war against Japan after the "Pearl Harbor" incident. If Junichiro Koizumi visits the Yasukuni Shrine, a place where some Japanese worship Hideki Tojo and other Class-A war criminals, right after he gives a lecture to the US Congress, it will make Americans feel "anxious" and "dishonored." The Australian scholar Robyn Lim also wrote an article pointing out that the Japanese brutally enslaved Australian prisoners during the war. In the Yasukuni Shrine there is an old locomotive used on the Thai-Myanmar railway, which "is an insult to every Australian." He noted that Japan has historical disputes not only with China and South Korea, but also with the United States, Australia and Singapore.

These voices from outside Asia clearly demonstrated that the Yasukuni Shrine issue is not only an Asian issue, but also a world issue. It not only led to a sharp antagonism between Japan and other Asian countries on the recognition of history, but also a serious challenge to the public opinion on the responsibility of the invaders who launched the Second World War.

Japan is trying to turn itself from an "economic power" into a "political power" and a "military power". However, its historical issue is bound to become an insurmountable "soul barrier." Its resistance to the historical truth will inevitably make the world question its world power "dream". The historical issue in essence is that of the historical view, that is about how to look at the history, how to treat the aggression action and how to treat the significance of being defeated. In fact, the United States is also the one to be blamed for Japan's mistaken historical view. After the WWII, under the shadow of the 'Cold War', the United States treated Japan as a balancing force within its global strategy. Japan rose rapidly by taking advantage of the American support. As a result, Japan was able to escape from being punished for its war crimes. Today, if the United States felt insulted by Koizumi's visit to the Yasukuni Shrine, should it make a self-examination on its conniving Japan in those years? At present, Japan is still the most important strength that the United States relies on in Asia. However, Koizumi has insisted offering sacrifice to the Yasukuni Shrine, throwing a challenge to the world justice. How should the United States treat its ally's historical issue?

Understanding of history is not only closely related to the history itself, but also to the present and the future. Bearing similar historical responsibility, Germany has made heartfelt introspection and sincere apology and compensation to the world, therefore has won the acceptance and trust of the world. In Japan, a few politicians who insisted on paying visit to the Yasukuni Shrine have made its oral apology become hypocritical and perfunctory formality. Japanese leaders' stubborn insistence on paying homage to the Shrine also damaged their oral goodwill for good-neighborliness and friendship. Japan got into scrapes not only in Asia but also across the whole world. In Germany, the word "Auschwitz" is a key word about the WWII, which always represents the guilty conscience of Germany. However, in Japan, the word "Yasukuni Shrine" represents a place in memory of the war's dead and the "glory" of the "old Japanese empire and war's dead." Now, a growing number of world leaders and media pay more and more attention to the Yasukuni Shrine issue, opposed to Japanese leaders' paying homage to the Shrine. The Japanese leader should wake up to reality and understand that some day the word "Yasukuni Shrine" will become a key word on the WWII, which represents Japan's guilty conscience rather than glory. They should realize that the real "spiritual freedom" can only be derived from a direct confrontation with the history and a profound introspection. Only by doing so, can the Japanese nation achieve real historical progress that can benefit Asia and the world rather than entailing woe on the after ages.

By People's Daily Online