Gokoku shrines

The Royal court also held a Satsuma Domain ceremony to honor the spirits of the martyrs and war dead in 1868 June 29 (May 10, Keio 4), in accordance with the Dajokanbunsho, Article 385[3] refers to 1853 (Kaei 6).

Similarly, domains and other local feudal lords held ceremonies for the war dead of their clansmen or at places where they were related to them.

The name Yasukuni, quoted from the phrase「吾以靖國也 in the classical-era Chinese text Zuo Zhuan (Scroll 6, 23rd Year of Duke Xi), literally means "Pacifying the Nation" and was chosen by the Meiji Emperor.

[10] Gokoku shrines (shokonsha) originated in the Meiji Restoration when it was observed that the concept of honoring war dead was present in the Western world but not in Japan.

[11] Yasukuni Shrine was formerly called Tokyo Shokonsha and was a part of a general system across Imperial Japan.

[12][13] The fundamental principle behind the Shokonsha system is that it is designed to enshrine people as heroes regardless of their status before their deaths.

As the Empire of Japan expanded, Okinawans, Ainu, and Koreans were enshrined at Yasukuni alongside ethnic Japanese.

After the First Sino-Japanese War and Russo-Japanese War, the number of applications for the creation of privately funded shōkonsha (private rite shōkonsha) increased, and the Shrine Bureau of the Ministry of the Interior issued a new regulation in 1907 (Meiji 40), which read The "Shokonsha Establishment" (February 23, 1907, Secret Letter No.

In the 1930s the Gokoku Shrine system was developed with rising militarism to impose more control over the memorialization of war dead.

Gokoku Shrines were established by the Promulgation of March 15, 1939 and the Coming into force of April 1 in Showa 14.

[c] When the San Francisco Peace Treaty went into effect in 1952 and Japan regained its sovereignty, the majority of the renamed shrines returned to their former names.

[19][20] In addition, about 10,000 mobilized students and female volunteer corps members who were victims of the Atomic bomb are also enshrined as deities at Hiroshima Gokoku Shrine.

In total, there are 23 Gokoku Shrines enshrining local greats and Self Defense Force officers who died in the line of duty in Sapporo, Akita, Niigata, Fukushima, Tochigi, Yamanashi, Nagano, Toyama, Ishikawa, Fukui, Matsue, Ehime, Kagawa, Tokushima, Kochi, Yamaguchi, Saga, Oita, Nagasaki, Kumamoto, Miyazaki, Kagoshima and Okinawa.

However, as the number of bereaved families and war veterans with direct knowledge of the deceased has declined, there has been a decrease in support for Gokoku Shrines, which is expected to lead to financial difficulties.