The Naha branch of the Fukuoka High Court upheld on Tuesday a lower court decision rejecting a suit by five residents of Okinawa opposing their relatives' enshrinement by Yasukuni Shrine.
The plaintiffs asked the central government and the shrine to delist their 10 relatives and to pay them a total of ¥500,000 in damages for mental anguish.
Yasukuni enshrined the people as "spirits of the war dead," including some of whom were killed in the 1945 Battle of Okinawa, without consent from the plaintiffs between 1950 and 1967. The central government provided the shrine with the 10 names.
Among them were six civilians, including housewives and a 2-year-old boy, who died after being driven out of shelters by Japanese soldiers.
Presiding Judge Yoshinari Hashimoto said, "While the plaintiffs' reluctance to accept the enshrinement of their relatives . . . is understandable, Yasukuni Shrine has not forced the plaintiffs to support Shinto or infringed on their rights."