2024.3.31.

A former vice admiral of the Japan Maritime "Self-Defense Force" has been recently appointed as the boss of the Yasukuni Shrine where remains of top class war criminals are interred in Japan turning itself into a war state under the cloak of "exclusive defense".

It deserves a wary watch that the former SDF vice admiral manages the souls of war criminals in the island country where it became a regular political trend that politicians visit the shrine in flocks regardless of occasion and time.

In January this year, dozens of people including a major head of the Ground SDF visited the shrine in a group, and the fact that the commander of a training fleet command of the Maritime SDF visited the shrine in military uniform with his stooges and offered a tribute to console the top class war criminals in May last year was disclosed in February. This sparked off more criticism and vigilance from the international community.

Against this backdrop, the departed souls of the shrine, which have overheated the Japanese politicians with reinvasion fever, came to play the role of a "mental education master" for those responsible for realizing the old dream of the "Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere" under the command of the former SDF high-ranking officer.

Namely, it is the reality of Japan that the departed souls of the "imperial army", who embarked on the road of aggression and plunder in the last century, are openly "revived" by the SDF contaminated by militarist poison - the modern-day "imperial army”.

No matter how hard Japan tries to defend such visits to the shrine calling them "private visits made of their own free will" under an avalanche of international protests and accusations, it can never cover up the true purpose of the visit to the shrine aimed at militarizing itself and realizing its revanchist ambition.

Whether it is "individual freedom" or "private visit", their appearing at the shrine is an undisguised glorification of the unethical crimes committed by Japan and, moreover, danger is mounting as the reinvasion fanatics of the SDF are taking the lead in fanning up ultra-nationalism in Japanese society.

Japan is ceaselessly expanding the SDF into an offensive force equipped with ultra-modern military hardware while embellishing its past crimes through the distortion of history and trumpeting about the alleged "growing threat" from neighboring countries.

It is the ambition of Japan for reinvasion that remains unchanged no matter how much water may flow under the bridge and it is self-evident that mankind will suffer another great calamity when it is overlooked.

Whoever loves peace should be vigilant against the departed souls of the "imperial army" that are "reviving" in the dark corner of the shrine.

Rodong Sinmun