Monthly Archives: February 2026

Julia Lasiota,  Stanford University   Abstract: This essay examines how EU freedom of movement has created a damaging brain drain from Central and Eastern European countries to wealthier Western states. Using Poland as a case study—where fewer than half the author’s graduating class remained—the piece argues this westward talent exodus causes labor shortages, reduces GDP […]

When I visited Tokyo recently in the summer of 2025, I was amazed by the scale of the city, efficiency of its subways, kindness of its people, and richness of its history. I took great pleasure in meandering through the city from glitzy-Roppongi to touristy-Shibuya. Tokyo, capital city of Japan, home to more than 36 million people, held an unbelievable treasure trove of historical sites from the Sengoku Jidai to the Meiji Restoration. Its streets were filled with excited tourists, historic palaces, sleek skyscrapers, and mouth-watering food offerings.

It also held some of history’s darkest secrets. Overlooking the Imperial Palace from my hotel room, I could see a small gray building in the distance—the Yasukuni Shrine. Originally built and founded by the Meiji Emperor (Mutsuhito) in the late 1860s, the “Peaceful Country Shrine” (靖国神社) is a Shinto shrine commemorating the war dead of Japan in the Boshin War, First Sino-Japanese War, and most controversially, the Second Sino-Japanese War and World War II. Although the complex contains separate memorial areas for non-Japanese who fought for Japan and for all who died during the war, it also enshrines over 1,000 convicted war criminals from the Second World War, including eleven convicted Class A war criminals. To understand why East Asian diplomacy repeatedly falters, one must look not only to trade or security—but to the history Japanese officials still refuse to fully confront.

Among the deplorable list interred at Yasakuni are: Hideki Tojo, former Prime Minister of Japan and the man responsible for giving the order to attack on Pearl Harbor, Seishirō Itagaki, former Minister of the Army and the orchestrator of the Mukden/Liutiao Lake incident which set off Japan’s brutal attempted conquest of China, and Akira Mutō, former general and leader of troops involved in the Nanjing Massacre. Make no mistake: this reverence instead of incarceration of war criminals is a major obstacle to reconciliation in East Asia–a stain on history that reflects a major miscarriage of justice in the place of accountability. If one wants to understand East Asian foreign relations, one must understand Yasukuni.

Yasukuni Shrine and visits to it have been a permanent point of contention between Japan, South Korea, North Korea, and China. Conservatives in Japan regard it as a major representation of national pride and history, while those affected by Japanese imperialism and colonialism regard it as a horrific reminder of past Japanese imperialism. Unfortunately, despite Emperor Hirohito’s wishes against visiting, many Japanese politicians have continued to visit the shrine as a means to increase their own power and popularity. Recent visits from right-wing figures such as former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and current Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi have often been done under the guise of promoting Japanese nationalism and history in order to boost poll numbers. As one Japanese researcher put it, “[the government’s] close ties to right-wing groups mean that its leaders are vulnerable to demands for official visits to the Yasukuni Shrine.” As another British historian puts it, “In Germany, Holocaust denial is a crime. In Japan, it is government policy.” Japanese society and academia also remain much less involved in historical research regarding World War II when compared to other former Axis powers such as Germany, regarding such research as violating the “chrysanthemum taboo”—an unofficial policy of not blemishing the Japanese Emperor or government during World War II. By not investigating the past, educators and researchers unintentionally damage the fabric of history itself, perpetrating an injustice. The education that young students get early in their careers shapes who they become; today’s students become tomorrow’s legislators.

This system is kept in place by a mix of attempted historical revisionism, effective one-party rule, and nationalist messaging. Since its democratization after World War II, Japan has been led by the Liberal Democratic Party for nearly its entire history. Apart from three brief gaps in 1947, the mid-1990s, and early 2000s, the LDP has ruled Japan continuously, becoming such a hegemonic force that the party is often believed to be the only realistic path into politics. Many of its early members also included convicted Class A and B war criminals, such as Nobusuke Kishi, the Butcher of Manchuria, responsible for slaughtering thousands in China while implementing forced labor, and Hiroya Ino, former Minister of Colonial Affairs, who explicitly took part in the forced conquest and enslavement of millions. Kishi would go on to become the Prime Minister of Japan. Ino would go on to become Minister of Justice. The current Prime Minister, Sanae Takaichi, has visited the Yasukuni Shrine multiple times before her premiership and is a prominent member of Nippon Kaigi, an ultranationalist organization that believes that “Japan should be applauded for liberating much of East Asia from Western colonial powers in the 20th century, that the 1946–1948 Tokyo War Crimes tribunals were illegitimate, and that the killings by Imperial Japanese troops during the 1937 ‘Nanjing massacre’ were exaggerated or fabricated.”

Naturally, nations like South Korea and China strongly oppose such visits and the continued veneration of war criminals. Every time a Prime Minister or other high-ranking member of government makes a visit, the foreign offices of China, South Korea, and North Korea retaliate with a flurry of angry communiques. Such responses often evoke memories of the Nanjing Massacre, the forceful transfer of Korean “comfort women,” and a variety of other brutalities inflicted during Japan’s decades-long imperial expansion. They also often provoke furious anti-Japanese rallies in their home countries, exemplified by the 2012 anti-Japanese demonstrations in China and continued hostility to Japanese influence in Korea. These periodic flare-ups, recurring every few years, consistently block progress toward any trilateral trade deal, closer diplomatic ties, or broader mutual understanding among the three countries. For example, a 2013 visit to Yasukuni by then-Prime Minister Shinzo Abe enraged the Foreign Ministries of South Korea and China–leading to swift condemnation and the freezing of the China–Japan–South Korea trilateral summit. The summit, which had been held every year from 2008 to 2012, did not meet again until 2015.

Given this strong historical evidence and continued denial of justice by high-ranking Japanese officials, it is my opinion that in order to broker a long-lasting diplomatic deal of any kind between these nations, the Japanese government must formally recognize and take accountability for its actions in the past. Prime Ministers and organizations like Sanae Takaichi, Shinzo Abe, and Nippon Kaigi are incorrect. Japan did not liberate East Asia from Western colonial powers—it sought to replace them with another. The Tokyo Trials were not in fact an illegitimate court ruling imposed by conquerors, but a court that did not go far enough in punishing depraved perpetrators of atrocity. The Nanjing Massacre and many more like it across East and Southeast Asia were not exaggerated. It is well documented that the Imperial Japanese Army committed genocide, war crimes, and routinely killed without consequence or concern. The IJA and Japanese Empire perpetrated a system of institutionalized sex slavery, conducted horrific, inhumane experiments on innocent civilians, used biological weapons against civilian populations, and massacred millions across a continent. The reality is that Japan inflicted great damage to Asia in its past—damage that it has not fully apologized for or recognized in its own national history.

I say this not as an indictment against Japan and its history as a whole, however. There is a key distinction between the politicians of a nation and its people. Japan has an incredible history, from resistance to Mongol invasions to the Sengoku Jidai, and its people should be proud of many historical triumphs. But history is inseparable from its darker chapters–and when politicians distort or sanitize those truths to serve their own agendas, they aren’t just rewriting the past; they are tearing apart the very fabric of our collective understanding, all while perpetuating age-old controversies.

The United States, as Japan’s strongest inter-Pacific ally, must understand and recognize the role that Yasukuni and other shrines like it represent if it wishes to promote trilateral cooperation, trade, and transparency. Correcting this historical injustice would also allow the United States to affirm its moral leadership, rooted in promoting liberty and justice, while reducing tensions with one of the world’s most powerful nations. State-sponsored commemoration of war criminals inflames regional tensions and complicates alliance diplomacy. The Japanese government’s continued veneration of war criminals while walking back on previous apology statements is not only an affront to East Asian diplomacy, but also an insult to the strong US-Japan relationship that we’ve worked so hard to build over the past several decades. If we wish to promote closer cooperation or further negotiation with Korea and China, we must also recognize our own complicated relationship with Japan.

In the midst of a busy Tokyo street, masked by elegant, sleek skyscrapers and beautiful sakura trees, lies a terrible past. Do you see it?