映画『靖国 YASUKUNI』
『靖国 YASUKUNI』の李纓（リイン）監督インタビュー*1
Freedom Next Time. Japanese Neonationalists Silence Yasukuni Film (Japan Focus - April 1, 2008)
John Junkerman interviews Li Ying
Neo-nationalists have shut down a Chinese-directed movie about Japan’s controversial war memorial Yasukuni, the latest in a string of incidents threatening freedom of expression in Japan.
以下、特に興味を惹かれた部分を抜粋（強調は引用者）
Li: ...... The campaign against the movie is led by powerful Liberal Democrat (LDP) lawmaker Inada Tomomi, who says it is guilty of “political propaganda.” “I felt the movie’s ideological message was that “Yasukuni was a device to drive people into an aggressive war,” she told the Asahi newspaper after the screening, but denied she wanted it banned. “I have no interest in limiting freedom of expression or restricting the showing of the movie. My doubt is about the movie’s political intentions.”
Q: So you don’t consider this film to be anti-Japanese.
Curing the disorder caused by war
Li: Of course not. What’s wrong with curing an illness, the disorder caused by war? The point is to live together in a healthy atmosphere, and that would work in Japan’s favor as well. People don’t want to recognize their illness, they don’t want to think about it, look at it. They say, “Japan is beautiful. How can you say it is sick?” But if you watch the film, you’ll see that diseased cells are living within the space of Yasukuni. And that’s dangerous. It could lead to heart disease, or to brain disease. But what’s really serious about this disease is that it comes not from internal organs but from the soul. So it is a psychological disorder, a disease of the spirit. That I haven’t been able to leave this issue alone for the last ten years means that I too am suffering from this psychological disorder. I didn’t really want to make such a difficult film, it’s only going to cause problems, so I must be sick to do it. The point is to look directly at the disease. *2
Li: ...... The Japanese government employs a double standard. With regard to international society, it recognizes the verdicts of the war crimes trials, it acknowledges the existence of war criminals. But domestically, it uses Yasukuni to honor them, and give them the status of heroic souls, to express gratitude and respect. This is very Japanese, a different face at home and abroad. And this double standard has created the contradictory nature of Yasukuni over these decades. So there are people with different stances and the confrontations among them are repeated. It also makes Yasukuni very indefinite. To young people, it’s perplexing, and they don’t want to have anything to do with it. And this connects, of course, to the larger question of Japanese war responsibility throughout the postwar period. It is the matter of collective memory, and that’s where coercion comes into play. In the film, everyone is part of a collective, it has nothing to do with the individual. They have collective memory, they are in a collective context, collective currents and relationships. Yasukuni is a powerful collective symbol, a powerful symbol of collective memory. It is a symbol of Japan as a kyôdôtai, a communal society. To live collectively, with gratitude to the dead. It’s that kind of symbol. Yasukuni is not a simple symbol of militarism, it’s not simply a matter of whether the prime minister will worship there or not. It is connected to the collective memories that stretch back to the beginning of the Meiji period, when Japan began to walk the path of a modern state, with pride and honor.
