“the purpose of the upcoming visit is to pay respects for the war dead and not to offer an apology.” >>>>>>>>>>
Abe did the same at Yasakuni shrine in Tokyo, drove the Chinese batty.
Abe is doing something spiritual in the Shinto tradition. Its not political.
In paying such respect, he will in fact be apologizing and asking forgiveness. Its about kannagara, and the way of the gods.The way of spiritual manners.Prayer is not public, nor should it be.All of Japan knows this, but people in the West do not, for the most part.
Born in Bavaria, I was a toddler during WW2, father never returned from the Western Front. A migrant to Oz in 1949, from the moment I was chosen at age 10 by my school to lay a wreath on Memorial Day and discovered my country had been instigators of two World Wars, I carried that German Guilt like a millstone, though I never once discussed it with anyone.
It’s there, it always will be, and surely, the Japanese people feel the same.
I understand your kannagara.
Indeed, considering that 14 class-A war criminals were enshrined there in 1978. Including Iwane Matsui, the general responsible for the Nanking massacre.
Make that the Eastern front, my father was killed in action near Vitebsk.