The Yasukuni Shrine, which enshrines Class-A war criminals, is a forbidden area for Asian countries that have been harmed by Japan, and every time a Japanese dignitary visits the shrine, it will attract protests from many countries, including South Korea. The Japanese have always wanted to portray themselves as a victim of World War II, so they have gone all out to beautify the history of World War II aggression, which is the main reason why they enshrined World War II war criminals.
If a Japanese politician visits the Yasukuni Shrine, it will be interpreted as beautifying and covering up the past history of militarist aggression. So what if British soldiers came to visit the Yasukuni Shrine? You read that right, the British army, which had killed tens of thousands of people by the Japanese army in World War II, had a rugby team composed entirely of active officers and soldiers visiting the Shrine.
According to the British newspaper "Times" reported on September 18, a rugby team composed of British active military personnel posted a photo on social media, in which all the team members were smiling and taking photos with two clerics at the Yasukuni Shrine, which enshrines Japanese Class A war criminals.
Japanese right-wing worship scene
The move not only attracted the attention of the British ambassador to Japan, Paul. Madden's criticism made the British media shout "embarrassing". But before the tweet was deleted, it was also praised by many Britons, saying that British soldiers were dashing. However, some netizens pointed out that war criminals like Hideki Tojo who killed British people are being regarded as gods by the Yasukuni Shrine.
The team, with 27 members from the British paratrooper team and the crew of the British aircraft carrier Queen Elizabeth II, travelled to Japan to compete in the 2019 International Defence Rugby Cup.
Japanese dignitaries pay their respects
In addition to the Yasukuni Shrine, they also visited The Japanese World War II Zero fighters, suicide attack submarines, and the steam locomotive of the Thai-Burmese Death Railway inside the Yasukuni Shrine. Organizing this visit was a British man named Artie. Commander Shaw, who later admitted, was acting very, very naïvely with himself and his teammates. Some media said that based on the ignorance of these people, their behavior cannot be regarded as a "visit", at most it is a "visit".
Remember that they represent the British army, and visit the Japanese war criminals and weapons of war that have killed countless British people, and the British media also called it a "notorious museum".
Britain fought with Japan in the colonies of many Asian countries, including Hong Kong, Singapore and Burma, and eventually Britain was defeated by the Japanese, with as many as 60,000 British and American allied prisoners of war and more than 300,000 Asian laborers forced by the Japanese army to participate in the construction of the Thai-Burma Railway, and finally 16,000 prisoners of war and more than 90,000 laborers died.
During World War II, there was the "largest ever surrender" of the British army to Japan in Singapore, and now there are representatives of the British army visiting the "shrine dedicated to the souls of executed war criminals", which not only lost the face of the British army, but also the face of the Queen of England.