Yasukuni Shrine and the government discussed enshrining Class-A war criminals in 1969 and the shrine approved including them, nine years before it included their names, according to documents among papers related to the Yasukuni war criminals released Wednesday by the National Diet Library.
The collection "A New Compilation of Materials on the Yasukuni Shrine Problems" contains 808 items, including nearly 180 documents the Shinto Shrine has disclosed for the first time.
Among the documents are lists dated from Jan. 31, 1969, presented at a meeting between shrine officials and the then Health and Welfare Ministry of people who could be enshrined at Yasukuni and the document says the shrine and the ministry shared the view that Class-A war criminals are "able to be honored."