Yasukuni OK'd enshrining Class-A war criminals in 1969

Yasukuni Shrine gave a green light in 1969 to the idea of its enshrining Japanese Class-A war criminals from World War II, nine years before it actually did so, and the government was more closely involved in discussions regarding whom the shrine should honor than currently believed, a book released by the National Diet Library Wednesday suggests. The book with the English title "A New Compilation of Materials on the Yasukuni Shrine Problems" contains 808 items, including nearly 180 documents that the Shinto shrine in Tokyo disclosed on Wednesday for the first time.

Among the 808 documents is a group of lists dated Jan 31, 1969, presented at a meeting of officials from the shrine and the then Health and Welfare Ministry. The lists name people who could potentially be enshrined at Yasukuni and indicate that the shrine and the ministry shared the view that "Class-A" war criminals "able to be honored." The ministry and the shrine also agreed to refrain from making public the idea of Yasukuni honoring such war criminals, apparently due to political sensitivity surrounding the separation of state and religion.

The issues of government involvement in Yasukuni's honoring of war criminals and Japanese leaders' visits to the shrine have been a source of diplomatic disputes mainly with other Asian countries such as China and South Korea.