Yasukuni Shrine, built to honor the war dead, has rejected a request to enshrine a coast guard officer killed while on a minesweeping operation off the coast of North Korea during the Korean War.
The request was filed by Toichi Nakatani, 79, a company executive from Osaka who lost his younger brother, Sakataro, in October 1950 when he was 21.
The elder Nakatani said his brother was part of a secretly assembled minesweeper unit of the Maritime Safety Agency, which is now called the Japan Coast Guard. He was mobilized for an operation off North Korea and died after the ship hit a mine.
Because it was just after the war-renouncing Constitution took effect, the agency imposed a gag on releasing any information on the unit and accident records have been destroyed, according to Nakatani.
He presented a petition seeking to have his brother honored at Yasukuni in February, describing him as "one who sacrificed his life for the country and died in war."
The Shinto shrine in Chiyoda Ward, Tokyo, sent him a reply dated Aug. 25.
It states that the shrine honors those who died in wars through the Pacific War, or World War II, and "the Korean War at this moment is beyond the scope" of those honored.
"It is very disappointing," Nakatani said. "I want to have him honored no matter what. My brother was the first war dead after (World War II). I'll consider filing another request."
The shrine is dedicated to more than 2.5 million people who died in wars since the late 18th century and has been in the spotlight in recent years for honoring Class-A war criminals as well.