A mixed bag for Japanese remembrance

As well as the anniversary of the atomic blasts mentioned in a previous post, this week also saw the anniversary of the Japanese 'liberation' over the Russians. This naval and land victory in 1905 signaled to the world that Japan had truly arrived on the world political stage and the change of influence from Russia to Japan in Manchuria caused China to reassess Japan as a strategic threat. Manchuria has been battled over and disputed for centuries and these conflicts are certainly still felt today with the tensions on the Korean peninsula and public Chinese-Japanese animosity.

The above history came to my attention as I have been in Japan working for the last 4 days and the unique culture of Japan is certainly tied in with its recent past. I was lucky enough to have time during my trip to stop-by the Ofuna Kannonji temple in Kamakura. The building of this temple on a small hill overlooking Ofuna commenced in 1929 and the temple's highlight is the beautiful white Buddha statue with a serene meditating face (which I believe is originally an Indian form). Ironically for a temple devoted to eternal world peace, the construction was discontinued due to heavy bombing during WWII and it was not until 1961 that the statue was finally completed.

Returning from Tokyo last night I spent most of the flight reading various opinions on the decision by Prime Minister Koizumi's not to attend Tokyo's Yasukuni Shrine which is widely opposed in Asia from the opinion that this shrine commemorates war criminals. Whilst I feel that Koizumi's move should be applauded, I still think that more needs to be done to find a way forward to ease the political friction between Japan and her neighbors. Japan is already playing a key part in the growing Asian markets and with tighter integration and co-operation would really help the whole region as it takes on the Western powers once again, this time in peaceful but aggressive economic battle.