I'm just not sure exactly how to take this: Japan's emperor mourns WWII dead also reported by Reuters. It's obviously a good thing. The Japanese Emporer should be applauded for making these trips and for saying the things he did expressing remorse for the War. Afterall, it costs him very little.
The problem is that this latest event is so clearly and unashamedly a PR stunt, so I'm not sure whether to feel disgusted, or simply to feel sorry for poor Akihito and his Missus. They're so obviously being wheeled out by their governmental masters, like tame poodles, and it's quite sad.
Not to detract from the actual act in anyway -- Japan has done this far too little and openly avoided it whenever possible. Today, however, Japan has some of the most comical and stupidest politicians around (and in today's world, that's an amazing achievement that must bring a glow to Japanese hearts I'm sure), and the trouble they've stirred up and actually fostered in relations with both South Korea and China, mean that some pretty desparate measures were called for. If it had been Koizumi making this trip, and if the South Korean memorial had been on the schedule from the start, it would have been no more clearly a PR stunt than it is. Insincerity is a survival trait in Japan (it's actually called 'tatemae'), but it doesn't wash well with other cultures.
Koizumi has actually made more muted apologies for Japan's past than any other prime minister to date. But at the same time, as prime minister, he makes frequent visits to the Yasukuni shrine in Kudanshita. This is pretty much the same as a German Chancellor visiting a Church where Hitler and his cronies were buried to pray, doing it several times a year, and then saying the world's Jewish peoples shouldn't be unhappy about it. (The Holocaust was clearly more important, being planned as it was, but the way Japanese killed for sport during the War is also pretty unforgivable and difficult to understand.)
In the end if boils down to Japan being Japan, and sod the rest of the world -- who are not Japanese anyway, so that's OK -- while at the same time serving their own interests in regards to China and Korea. On reflection, I've come to agree with those who say that China's complaints about Japanese textbooks where a bit rich when considering how the Chinese themselves control their own propoganda, but that doesn't make either right. Japan is set for a major fall as both China and Korea actually catch up and overtake Japan. At that point, wheeling out a delightfully quaint, but otherwise purely ceremonial Emperor to make excuses for its politicians will hardly be enough.
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