by David Pilling
THE FINANCIAL TIMES

Yasukuni shrine offi­cials have agreed to delete a con­tro­ver­sial exhibit and dis­cuss fur­ther changes to the shrine’s mil­i­tary museum, crit­i­cised by many for gloss­ing over Japan’s wartime history.

Offi­cials from the shrine will meet a lead­ing con­ser­v­a­tive his­to­rian today to dis­cuss the alter­na­tions. These are likely to focus on exhibits that accuse the US of delib­er­ately forc­ing Japan into the sec­ond world war, but are unlikely to address more con­tentious dis­plays relat­ing to the Japan­ese inva­sion of China and south-east Asia.

How­ever, agree­ment to make changes would show that Yasukuni, which has become a flash­point in Japan’s rela­tions with Asia, is sen­si­tive to out­side pres­sure even though it is a pri­vate reli­gious organisation.

The museum, which was ren­o­vated in 2002 to reflect what many con­sider a revi­sion­ist view of Japan­ese­his­tory, is adja­cent to the shrine, which hon­ours Japan’s war dead, includ­ing a hand­ful of con­victed war criminals.

Hisahiko Okazaki, a rightwing polit­i­cal com­men­ta­tor, said museum staff and an advi­sory his­to­rian from Japan’s self-defence force had agreed to meet him today to dis­cuss poten­tial changes.

The meet­ing fol­lows acol­umn in yesterday’s Sankei news­pa­per, in which Mr Okazaki called for the removal of an exhibit accus­ing Franklin D. Roo­sevelt, the for­mer US pres­i­dent, of engi­neer­ing a war with Japan to strengthen the US economy.

The exhibit says the plan to force Japan into war fol­lowed the fail­ure of Roosevelt’s New Deal. Mr Okazaki said the shrine had agreed yes­ter­day to delete that reference.

An offi­cial from Yasukuni shrine said there had been con­tact between the shrine and Mr Okazaki’s office but he declined to con­firm whether there would be a meet­ing today. It con­firmed that a review of the museum’s con­tents was under way.

Mr Okazaki, a strong sup­porter of prime min­is­te­r­ial vis­its to Yasukuni, said: “This is very sig­nif­i­cant. At least we can take out the thorn with the US. This kind of inter­pre­ta­tion is unnec­es­sary and inaccurate.”

Thomas Schi­ef­fer, US ambas­sador to Japan, has expressed dis­like of the Yasukuni museum, which he says presents a skewed and dis­turb­ing view of Japan as wartime victim.

How­ever, the ambas­sador has refrained from com­ment­ing on the con­tro­ver­sial vis­its to the adja­cent shrine of Junichiro Koizumi, prime min­is­ter, which have inflamed opin­ion in China and South Korea.

Mr Okazaki said there was no need to alter other parts of the exhibit relat­ing to Asia, even though many his­to­ri­ans have said these dodged issues such as the Nanking mas­sacre and the use by the impe­r­ial army of South Korean sex slaves.

He defended some of the museum’s appar­ent glo­ri­fi­ca­tion of war, say­ing cura­tors had cho­sen merely to use con­tem­po­rary mate­r­ial that nat­u­rally reflected the wartime government’s views.