Your Excellency, Mr. Prime Minister:

Recently, people twice heard you insisting on visiting the Yasukumi Shrine once every year and complaining that your intension was misunderstood by neighboring countries. You described your visit as showing normal human feelings towards the deceased.

I have respectful feelings for my forefathers and regret for not being able to pay homage to my ancestors at the tombs every year since I live far away from my hometown. So I certainly find it nice and warm when hearing Japanese families go and pay respects to their family ancestors, regardless of what those people had done during their life. What a nice people!

But Yasukumi is no ordinary cemetery and you are no ordinary citizen. I don't think you need to be reminded as to who are among the enshrined there. You certainly know the 17 Class A WWII criminals are a symbol of Japan's war machine then and you certainly know they launched the war which inflicted pains on neighboring countries.

To countries once under Japanese evasion, a Japanese government leader bowing down in Yasukuni sounds indeed provocative and disgusting. You may find it hard to understand, but such a visit really gets on the nerves of many people. This has been proven time and again. You wouldn't have failed to notice it.

I hear some schools in your country are not telling that history chapter as it really was. So many Japanese youngsters have a vague or even no idea what really happened when their textbooks say once Japanese troops "entered" China and some other countries and then met with resistance. But I guess a top politician like you can't be that ignorant.

I also hear that some of your countrymen today say that that happened a long time ago and people should look forward to the future and better not to live in the historical shadow.

Good idea, if no one is trying to reopen the old wounds, no one is writing a history book which shies away or even denies real historical accounts, and no one is paying respects to the old war machine time and again.

Mr. Prime Minister, what if today's German leaders pay respects to Adolph Hitler and say they will go there once every year? What if they deny Germany once caused painful suffering to the Jews and other people? What if Neo-Nazism rises in the country's political arena? Nazi concentration camps were a bitter memory to Jews even today. But what about the Nanjing massacre that claimed 300,000 lives? And there are still chemical warheads in quite a number of Chinese cities left over by Japanese troops. They are still causing trouble to Chinese citizens.

Prime Minister, I know you want to prove to your countrymen you mean what you say and that may win some votes. But your own domestic popularity at the cost of Japan's international image? I guess you can find a better way to win both domestic support and international trust. 

Recently Japan's is competing with France and Germany for a contact on building an express rail line linking Beijing with Shanghai, my hometown. Technicians seem to be having difficulties in choosing the best suitable technology. Each has its own advantage, they claim. But I also hear an official hinted that Japan's Mizubishi (also a lone-time military complex) may lose the battle before it actually takes place and he is quoted as citing political reasons. Should it be true and I have no idea whether a decision has been made, I would feel regret for it not be the result of a technological competition. I certainly hope scientists and engineers would have a final say, but how can they totally ignore the popular sentiments?
 
My mother still remembers the days when she escaped to other villages at the age 5 together with her mother and may others. This time, she is saying no to Japanese technology although she herself is an engineer. She knows nothing about railway technology and she is only one voice. But the problem is there are many angry voices, and these voices become louder every time you go to Yasukuni.

So please don't go there again. It really hurts.

Have a nice day.