The parody went viral online, but the foreign ministries of both countries responded publicly, and such an unbelievable thing happened this month.
On June 1, bright red graffiti appeared on the stone pillar at the entrance of the Yasukuni Shrine in Japan, which attracted attention, and relevant management personnel hurriedly used shelters to enclose the stone pillar to prevent further spread.
The graffiti content that makes Japanese people so nervous is the English word "toilet", which is very common in daily life, and translated into Chinese means toilet, toilet.
Writing this word at the door of the Yasukuni Shrine is a public statement that the Yasukuni Shrine is like a toilet. Naturally, the Japanese could not see such behavior, and immediately checked the surveillance to find out who did it.
Soon after, a selfie video of graffiti circulated on Chinese social media, based on which the Japanese judged that the graffiti was the work of the Chinese influencer Tietou.
In order to severely punish the iron head and call on the public to provide clues, the Japanese police issued a reward of up to 10 million yen. Seeing that things were not good, Tetsutou left Japan overnight.
Why did Iron Head graffiti in front of the Yasukuni Shrine? What is the official reaction of China?
Yasukuni Shrine
Early in the morning of 1 June, the Japanese police received a call from the public that there were indecent graffiti characters at the entrance of the Yasukuni Shrine in Japan, and the Japanese police sent police to understand the situation.
The stone pillar standing at the entrance of the Yasukuni Shrine was originally engraved with the name of the Yasukuni Shrine, but now there are many traces of red spray paint on it, and the toilet in English is written.
After the incident attracted attention, Chinese Internet celebrity Tietou came out and said that he had done it and released a video shot in Japan as proof.
The matter is still under investigation, but Tietou has been on the wanted list of the Japanese police, and Japanese officials said that they want to find out about the matter.
Over the years, Japan has held many visits to the Yasukuni Shrine without regard to the feelings of the people of the countries that were victims of World War II. This behavior has also aroused the disgust of many Chinese.
Many Chinese believe that the existence of the Yasukuni Shrine is a neglect of the damage caused to the world by the war, and that the Japanese authorities should ban the Yasukuni Shrine and reflect on the act of war.
Voices against the Yasukuni Shrine are not only spread on the Internet, but also in real life. When the Internet celebrity Tietou was traveling in Japan, he witnessed a large number of Japanese people happily playing at the Yasukuni Shrine, and was very angry at the Japanese people's disregard for Japan's crimes in World War II.
On impulse, he left graffiti on the toilet at the entrance of the Yasukuni Shrine and took a video and posted it on the Internet. The act sparked heated discussions among Chinese netizens.
Iron Head's behavior of expressing his personal opinion through graffiti has attracted the attention of not only Chinese netizens, but also Japanese people. The Japanese believe that the behavior of the iron head destroys Japanese architecture and violates Japanese law, and should be punished by law.
Wanted by Japan, Tetsu knew that things had gone beyond his expectations, so he left Japan overnight.
The Yasukuni Shrine that provoked public outrage
The existence of the Yasukuni Shrine has been widely condemned by the Chinese people because the Yasukuni Shrine is not an ordinary shrine dedicated to the gods, but a place for the Japanese to commemorate World War II war criminals.
Yasukuni Shrine is a shrine in Tokyo, Japan, and in the beginning, the shrine was set up to commemorate the dead in the Shogunate War. These sacrifices were mainly to soothe the souls of the deceased, and the objects of sacrifice were limited to which side.
It can be said that the original intention of the shrine has nothing to do with the later commemoration of war criminals in Japan, and it does not conform to Japanese folk traditions.
After the Meiji Restoration, Japan became strong and launched many wars of aggression against foreign countries, and the Japanese generals and soldiers who died in the wars were placed on the shrine by the Japanese government.
After the outbreak of World War II, Japan's kamikaze forces held a large-scale departure ceremony here, which also put a different mark on the Yasukuni Shrine.
After the war, many Japanese veterans of World War II began to hold commemorative events here, not to reflect on the war, but to remember the period when Japanese militarism was strong.
There are many notorious World War II war criminals in the Yasukuni Shrine, and many of them are Class A war criminals. Fourteen Class-A war criminals are on display at the Yasukuni Shrine in Japan. These people invaded other countries during the Second World War and committed inhumane acts of war in those countries.
They are being tried by the world at the International Military Tribunal for the Far East, and their crimes cannot be easily erased. These war criminals are sinners who took up butcher's knives and mutilated their lives and should not be commemorated from above.
However, the Japanese openly placed these war criminals in the Yasukuni Shrine and openly exaggerated their worship activities, which is an insult to the peace-loving people of the world.
Japan's Yasukuni Shrine is so high-profile because it is directly under the jurisdiction of Japan's Ministry of Army and Navy, and it is more like a military facility than an ordinary civilian shrine.
It is precisely because of this that the Japanese police reacted so strongly to the graffiti at the entrance of the Yasukuni Shrine.
The international community has condemned Japan's visit to the Yasukuni Shrine. Relevant personages believe that paying respects at the Yasukuni Shrine is a signal of the rise of Japanese militarism in Japanese society.
Japan's attitude toward the Yasukuni Shrine represents, to a certain extent, Japan's attitude toward the history of defeat in World War II. Japan is unwilling to correctly understand the fact of its defeat in the unjust war of World War II and denies the crimes committed by Japan in other countries.
Without reflection on the war, there will be no cherishing of peace's hard-won gains, and Japan's erroneous act of paying respects at the Yasukuni Shrine will cause Japan to go further and further down the wrong road.
The Yasukuni Shrine has been repeatedly attacked
As a matter of fact, this is not the first time that such an incident of graffiti has occurred at the Yasukuni Shrine, and because of their anger at the Yasukuni Shrine's enshrinement of war criminals and the frequent fiascos of the Japanese authorities, many people of countries that suffered Japanese aggression during the war have expressed their protests at the Yasukuni Shrine.
In September 2013, a South Korean man pretended to be a tourist and entered the Yasukuni Shrine. He carried a lighter and flammable liquid in his backpack and prepared to attack the Yasukuni Shrine.
Although tourists entered the shrine during its opening, he hid in the bathroom and stayed until the shrine closed. When the security guards inspected the Yasukuni Shrine, they thought he was suspicious and interrogated him.
At this moment, the South Korean man suddenly rushed to the main hall of the Yasukuni Shrine, opened his backpack and took out a plastic bottle filled with liquid and threw it at the main hall of the Yasukuni Shrine.
The security guard saw that the situation was not right, and hurriedly subdued the Korean man. Later, while inspecting the backpack that the South Korean man was carrying, security personnel found the lighter.
The South Korean was later handed over to the Japanese police to investigate suspicion of attempted arson at the Yasukuni Shrine.
Coincidentally, in 2015, a South Korean named Jeon Chang-han also tried to attack the Yasukuni Shrine.
In November 2015, Quan Changhan came to Japan ahead of schedule and stayed at a hotel near the Yasukuni Shrine. He made a thorough plan and went to the Yasukuni Shrine in advance to check the surrounding environment.
On November 23, Quan Changhan entered the Yasukuni Shrine, evaded the guards, and caused an explosion in the toilet near the south gate of the Yasukuni Shrine.
After the explosion, the Yasukuni Shrine immediately evacuated the crowd, and finally found scattered dry batteries and other items in the public toilet. There were no casualties as no other tourists entered the toilets at the time of the explosion.
After investigation, the Japanese police announced that there was no major damage to the Yasukuni Shrine, and only the walls of the public toilets showed signs of burning. Later, the Japanese police determined the location of Quan Changhan through surveillance.
In addition to people from other countries, there are also people in Japan who have opened fire at the Yasukuni Shrine.
The incident happened in 2014 when a Japanese man set fire to the shrine, and when questioned by the police, he said that he wanted to be one of the people enshrined in the shrine.
It can be seen that Japan's large-scale visit to the Yasukuni Shrine has not only brought pain to the people of war-stricken countries, but has also brought bad guidance to the Japanese people.
The Yasukuni Shrine's behavior of ignoring history is very dangerous, and the previous visits to Japan have conveyed erroneous ideas, intensified contradictions between countries, and undermined regional peace.
Japan's neighboring countries have all expressed fierce protests against Japan's behavior, and Japan is constantly intensifying regional tensions by allowing this to happen.
Japan reacts
The Japanese foreign minister is very concerned about the graffiti outside the Yasukuni Shrine, and Japanese officials told the media that Japan has expressed its demands to China through diplomatic channels and hopes that the Chinese government will respond as soon as possible.
Japan's foreign minister said that graffiti at the Yasukuni Shrine violated Japan's laws and regulations, and that the Japanese police are investigating the matter.
In addition, regarding the heated discussion caused by this incident on the Internet, the Japanese Foreign Minister said that it is unacceptable for Japan to expand the impact of this incident through video transmission. The Japanese government calls on foreigners in Japan to reduce such behavior.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry responded
At a press conference of the Chinese Foreign Ministry, a reporter asked the Chinese foreign ministry spokesman his views on the graffiti at the Yasukuni Shrine, and the spokesman of the Chinese Foreign Ministry first expressed his position on the Yasukuni Shrine.
A spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that the Yasukuni Shrine is regarded by Japan as a symbol of propagating militarism, and that the Yasukuni Shrine is full of Japanese war criminals who have committed many crimes and are the perpetrators of Japan's war crimes.
The Japanese Government's act of allowing the Yasukuni Shrine to be unleashed is a denial of Japan's war of aggression against foreign countries and a tool for propagating Japan's spirit of aggression.
Japan should abide by international conventions, assume responsibility for the war, reflect on its war crimes, face up to Japan's history, and correct its erroneous understanding of Japan's aggression against foreign countries.
It is all the more important to take the initiative to fulfil the commitments made at the international tribunals and to take responsibility for the suffering caused by acts of war to the peoples of other countries. It is necessary to regain the trust of Asian countries with concrete actions and safeguard peace among Asian countries.
Subsequently, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs expressed its views on the graffiti at the Yasukuni Shrine. A Chinese spokesman said that China calls on Chinese citizens to abide by the laws and regulations of the local country and express their demands in a reasonable and legal manner when working, studying and traveling abroad.
Resources:
The Paper: What do you think of Chinese bloggers saying graffiti on the stone pillars of the Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo? The Ministry of Foreign Affairs responded