What is the Candle Movement Committee?

When the Koizumi cabinet was formed in 2001, Prime Minister Koizumi pledged his intention to visit Yasukuni Shrine, and has since done so repeatedly. The conflict between Japan and China and Korea reached its peak. Around the same time, bereaved families from four East Asian regions of Japan, Okinawa, Taiwan and Korea brought a lawsuit claiming the Prime Minister’s visits to Yasukuni were unconstitutional. Furthermore, the movement by family members of the deceased from Taiwan and Korea to have their loved ones withdrawn from the list of those enshrined at Yasukuni was gaining ground.

In this context, the bereaved families from the four regions and concerned citizens joined forces to seek to prevent Prime Minister Koizumi's planned pre-resignation visit to the Shrine on August 15th, and established the Candle Movement Committee.

We, the Candle Movement Committee, define the following three points as “the darkness of Yasukuni” that are urging us to take joint action.
1)The interpretation of history portrayed at Yasukuni Shrine directly connects to Japan’s current rapid descent into being a country that could once again wage war
2)The listing as enshrined of the deceased from Korea, Taiwan, Okinawa and Japan without the permission of their families.
3)Prime Minister Koizumi’s Yasukuni visits violate the principle of separation of religion and the state set down in the constitution.

This summer, the 61st year after the end of the war, we will take action to realize peace in Japan, Asia and the world by shedding light on Yasukuni as a symbol of the dark side of Japan, through lighting candles one by one.

Joint Representatives of the Candle Movement Committee

Hario Ichirou(Art Critic), Hea Hak Lee(Pastor, Candle Movement Committee in South Korea), Hee Ja Lee(Representative of Korean Council for Redress and Reparations for the Victims of WWII), In Ha Lee(Minister Emeritus at Kawasaki Church of the Korean Christian Church), Kao Chin Su-mei(Taiwan Legislator, Plaintiff of Asia Yasukuni Lawsuit), Makoto Oda(Writer), Minoru Kinjo(Sculptor, Plaintiff of Okinawa Lawsuit), Osamu Niikura(Chief of Japanese Lawyers International Solidarity Association), Rumiko Nishino(Director of Women’s Active Museum on War and Peace, Japan), Ryuken Sugawara(Member of Shinshu Buddhism Bereaved, Plaintiff of Asia Yasukuni Lawsuit), Sung Suh(Professor of Ritsumeikan University, Japan), Tsuguo Imamura(Attorney), Toshimasa Yamamoto(Chief Secretary of National Christian Council in Japan), Tsutomu Shoji(Pastor, Chief of Korea Museum, Japan)