You should be careful when you pray at shrines in Japan. One particular shrine dedicated to a military deity has become the subject of rumors among Korean tourists. It’s because when offerings are placed on the graves behind the shrine, somehow only the Korean food goes missing. Tourists bring candies and other things from Korea as offerings and join hands. However, for some reason, young Korean men who visit the shrine began to get sick and die. This kind of incident has continued with such persistence that the shrine has come under investigation by a large number of people.
The shrine is a memorial to the war dead constructed 80 years ago. A 90 year old woman, who had always lived in this town, told me about it in detail.
“You know, my father built the shrine for my older brother, the eldest son,” she said.
80 years ago, the eldest son was ordered to undergo a suicide mission. The father suggested that a Korean boy, who was doing chores in the village, join the war and replace his eldest son. He said that if the boy died as a Kamikaze pilot, his family in Korea would become respectable, honorary Japanese citizens, and that he would personally testify to the government about the boy’s noble sacrifice. After torturous consideration, the boy believed the man’s words and enlisted, dying in the battle. However, shortly after his death, the eldest son got drunk and fell into a shallow drainage ditch, drowning to death. The father told everyone that his son had died as a Kamikaze pilot and spent a great sum on building a war memorial shrine.
Since that day, the grief-filled cries of young Korean mens’ ghosts began to echo.
“I’m a war deity!”
“I want to become Japanese!”
“Please acknowledge me as a Japanese war deity!”
They said.
After that, the father and family members succumbed to strange illnesses and died. It’s said that the 90 year old woman, who gave Korean food as an offering, was the only one who survived. And then disaster struck the young Korean men who visited and prayed at the shrine. Even though the only thing that the youths, obligated to complete military duty, wished for was:
“May I be discharged safely and in good health.”
You should be careful when you pray at shrines in Japan. This is because the poor ghosts still exist today, crying out with the desire to be Japanese, even though they were supposedly used and killed tragically by the Japanese Imperial Army. All throughout Japan and Korea, into the 21st century.