著者

別枝 行夫 別枝 行夫 ベッシ ユキオ

出版者

東京女子大学比較文化研究所

雑誌

東京女子大学比較文化研究所紀要 (ISSN:05638186)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.70, pp.33-48, 2009

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The Yasukuni problem has raised the question of Japan's sense of war responsibility and this issue has persisted on a political level throughout the postwar era. From a political standpoint, there are two distinct issues:one is domestic and the other has foreign significance.In 1975,the Japanese Prime Minister MIKI Takeo visited the Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo on August 15, the anniversary of the end of World War Two. Prime Minister Miki's visit was the first visit to Yasukuni on August 15 by a Japanese prime minister after World War Two. Miki announced that this was an 'unofficial'visit and he was going there in a private capacity. In this case, the visit did not develop into an international source of protest.However, in 1985, Prime Minister NAKASONE Yasuhiro visited the Yasukuni Shrine on August 15. Nakasone said that he was visiting in the capacity of prime minister of Japan,so this was an 'official'visit. For China and Korea the fact that the Yasukuni shrine includes 14 'Class-A War Criminals' made Nakasone's visit to the Shrine, official or unofficial, an international issue.The purpose of this study is to explicate the backgrounds of Japan's Prime Ministers by outlining the relevant international and domestic political history from 1945 to 1987.