ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the history and nature of gokoku shrines. Then, with particular reference to Hokkaido Gokoku Shrine in Asahikawa, it examines how the commemoration of the war dead at Shinto shrines operates under different circumstances at the national and regional level: at Yasukuni Shrine and gokoku shrines. The Yasukuni controversy comprises three main issues. First is the constitutional issue, namely whether politicians participating in commemorative activities at a religious institution violate the constitutional separation of religion and the state. Second is the diplomatic issue, namely the anger generated in neighbouring countries by an act of commemoration at a shrine that apotheosizes the architects and foot soldiers of Japan's wars against neighbouring countries up to 1945. And third is the philosophical issue, namely how one may mourn and remember the dead when they were responsible, collectively and in many cases individually, for invasion and atrocities inflicted on neighbouring countries during the period of Japanese militarism.
