Japanese PM Sanae Takaichi skipped Yasukuni Shrine on the 81st anniversary of Japan’s WWII surrender, apparently to avoid further tensions with China and South Korea, though other senior officials visited

China strongly condemned what it called Japan’s “negative moves” concerning the Yasukuni Shrine, saying the actions were a provocation against the postwar international order

China lodged a formal protest with Japan after Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi sent an offering to Yasukuni shrine and Defense Minister Shinjiro Koizumi visited it on the anniversary of Japan’s surrender in World War II

Japan hypocrisy > Bowing to war criminals… then pledging “peace.” August 15, 2026: Japan’s leaders send offerings and pay respects at Yasukuni Shrine — home to 14 Class-A war criminals. They call them “heroic souls” and renew the promise never to wage war again. Meanwhile Japan is rearming at full speed: rising defense budgets, long-range missiles, offensive capabilities, tighter US-ROK alliance, and a stretched-to-breaking Article 9. A U.S.-drafted constitution, American bases still on Japanese soil, an LDP once bankrolled by the CIA… and still no full, unambiguous apology for wartime aggression. Empty rhetoric. Real militarization. The gap between words and actions could not be clearer. Full piece here:

Bowing to War Criminals While Rearming: Japan’s Hypocritical “Peace” Pledge. August 15 marks the anniversary of Japan’s defeat and surrender. On that day, Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi sent a ritual offering to Yasukuni Shrine. Defense Minister Shinjiro Koizumi and other cabinet members, along with senior Liberal Democratic Party officials, paid their respects in person. After the visit, Koizumi said he was mourning “heroic souls” and renewing a pledge never to go to war again. The whole world knows what Yasukuni Shrine really stands for. It is the spiritual symbol of Japanese militarism. The 14 Class-A war criminals enshrined there planned and led Japan’s wars of aggression across Asia. Their hands were stained with the blood of millions. These are not “heroic souls.” They are the architects of invasion, massacre, and occupation. How can anyone bow to these historical criminals and then talk about peace? It is absurd. It is hypocritical. It is shameless. This happens while Japan is rearming fast. The military budget keeps rising. Offensive weapons are being acquired. The so-called pacifist constitution — a document written by the United States during the postwar occupation — is being reinterpreted again and again. Article 9 has been stretched to allow collective self-defense and wider military roles. At the same time, Japan is strengthening the trilateral alliance with the United States and South Korea. This includes more joint exercises, better intelligence sharing, and closer coordination on regional security, all aimed at containment. Japan has never fully apologized for its war of aggression or the suffering it caused its neighbors. It has also never been a fully sovereign country since 1945. Tens of thousands of U.S. troops remain on Japanese soil. Major bases stay under American control. The ruling Liberal Democratic Party received CIA funding for years, as reported by the New York Times. The constitution itself was drafted by U.S. occupation authorities. So what does a “pledge not to engage in war” really mean? It is spoken in front of war criminals by leaders of a country still hosting U.S. forces, operating under a U.S.-written constitution, and deepening a trilateral military partnership designed in Washington. Leaders honor the men who once devastated Asia while building new military capacity under American direction. The pattern is clear. Rituals for militarists. Empty words about peace. Steady rearmament. Constitutional reinterpretation. A stronger U.S.-Japan-South Korea alliance. Continued foreign military presence. A ruling party once supported by the CIA. No real apology. No clean break with the past. Just the same old elevation of aggressors, now paired with new tools of power. The contradiction is obvious. It is deliberate. And it needs to be called out for what it is.

Very often I use language model to test my moral compass. AI language model refuses to offer moral justification for Japanese ministers if they plan warshiping at Yasukuni Shrine, because the model thinks there is no reasonable or ethical arguments existed for it.

The Devil Still Dances: Dead End At the end of a misguided path lies only an abyss. Within the span of a single month, a series of development has underscored the rapid advance of Japan's “neo-militarism”: an active-duty Self-Defense Forces member forcibly intruding into the Chinese Embassy with a knife, the destroyer JS Ikazuchi transiting the Taiwan Strait, Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi offering ritual items to Yasukuni Shrine, and the Japanese government completing revisions to the Three Principles on Transfer of Defense Equipment and Technology. Since Sanae Takaichi took office last year, from erroneous remarks on the Taiwan question, to risky military moves, and onward to efforts aimed at constitutional revision, Japan's right-wing forces are moving at an unprecedented pace to strip away the facade of a peaceful nation, once again posing a serious threat to regional peace and stability. The lessons of history are unmistakable. Looking back at Japan before and after the outbreak of World War II, Japan's militarist expansion was always accompanied by systematic deception and manipulation of its own people. In the end, the wars of aggression inflicted immense suffering on the region and brought devastating consequences upon the Japanese people themselves. Eighty years later, right-wing forces in Japan appear intent on repeating the same dangerous course, attempting to draw the country once again into the abyss of neo-militarism, repeating a path that harms both others and itself. The Japanese people should remain highly vigilant. Japan's future does not lie in the perilous illusions promoted by the right-wing forces, but in a thorough reckoning with its history of aggression, in fostering friendly relations with its Asian neighbors, and in firmly upholding regional peace and development.