From October 17 to 19, the Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo will hold a grand autumn festival, during which crowds gather to honor the memory of Japanese citizens who died in the war. However, the question remains open as to why the place where the souls of millions of war victims are immortalized continues to cause controversy.
The essence of the problem is that among these honored individuals are people convicted by the International Military Tribunal for the Far East as war criminals after World War II. Questions arise as to how war criminals continue to receive honors, and why the truth of history is deliberately distorted in Japan.
Based on personal memories of both perpetrators and victims of the war, the authors ask: how should those who committed war crimes be held accountable today?
CGTN spoke with Brian Dyson Victoria, the author of the book 'Zen in War', to learn his perspective on this issue.
