Knowra Yasukuni Shrine Yasukuni Shrine A Shinto shrine in Tokyo commemorating people who died in service of Japan. Its enshrinement of convicted war criminals makes it a focus of disputes over wartime memory and national responsibility.
Meiji Restoration : The political transformation that restored imperial rule in Japan in 1868 and launched rapid state-led modernization. The new imperial government established the shrine amid its reorganization of Japan’s political and religious institutions.
Shinto : Japan’s indigenous religious tradition, centered on kami, ritual practice, and relationships between communities and sacred places. Yasukuni’s rites and sacred status derive from Shinto practice.
Tōjō Hideki : Japan’s prime minister during much of the Pacific War, convicted of war crimes and executed in 1948. He was among the Class-A war criminals secretly enshrined at Yasukuni in 1978.
Class-A war criminals : People convicted under the Tokyo war crimes tribunal’s category for crimes against peace during World War II. Fourteen convicted Class-A criminals were enshrined at Yasukuni in 1978.
Chidorigafuchi National Cemetery : A Japanese national cemetery in Tokyo holding unidentified remains of Japanese war dead from overseas. It offers a non-Shinto alternative for honoring war dead without enshrining them as kami.
Tokyo Shōkonsha : The 1869 predecessor of Yasukuni Shrine, created in Tokyo to honor those who died for the imperial cause. This was the shrine’s original name and institutional form.
Kami : Sacred beings or presences in Shinto, including deities, natural forces, and honored spirits. The shrine enshrines the spirits of those it commemorates as kami.
Matsudaira Nagayoshi : The chief priest of Yasukuni Shrine from 1946 to 1978, who oversaw the shrine’s postwar transition. He authorized the 1978 enshrinement of convicted Class-A war criminals.
Tokyo Trial : The International Military Tribunal for the Far East, which tried Japanese wartime leaders from 1946 to 1948. Its convictions underpin the dispute over honoring the war criminals enshrined at Yasukuni.
National Memorial Service for War Dead : Japan’s annual government-sponsored ceremony honoring people who died in World War II. Unlike shrine visits, this secular state ceremony does not depend on religious rites.
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