This unofficial "State Shinto" was thought by Allies to have been a major contributor to Japan's nationalistic and militant culture that led to World War II.
[citation needed] The directive, SCAPIN 448, was drafted by the US military's expert on Japanese culture and religion, Lieutenant William K. Bunce, U.S.N.R.
[citation needed][4] According to the directive, State Shinto was to be stripped of public support and of its "ultra-nationalistic and militaristic" trappings.
Public officials whose duties were in any way directly connected to Shinto religion were immediately to be terminated from office and their positions extinguished.
Any educational material considered to convey "Shinto doctrine" was to be categorically censored out of school textbooks, along with any content that at all suggested any positive effects of or justification for any of Japan's military actions in past wars.
This was meant to stop the propagation of supposed "militaristic and ultra-nationalistic ideology" in particular, which was especially proscribed if conveyed in connection with Shinto or any other creed.
As a result of the directive, a stream of instructions from the government was issued covering a wide range of prohibitions concerning Japanese culture and rites.
[citation needed] Pupils at state schools and children of pre-school age were prohibited from being taken on field trips to religious institutions; local town committees were prohibited from fundraising for shrines; groundbreaking (jichinsai) and roof-raising rites (jōtōsai) were not to be performed for public buildings; state and public bodies were prohibited from conducting funerals and rites of propitiation for the war dead; and the removal and/or erection of commemorative sites for the war dead were regulated by the directive.
[8] In 2006, Prime Minister Abe Shinzo pushed the revision of the Fundamental Law of Education to promote patriotism in classrooms which was tied to Shintoism.
[8] Yasukuni Shrine is an important symbol of the Shinto religion and their stance has raised concerns among the affected nations of Japan's imperialism during the Pacific War.