WASHINGTON, Aug. 14 Kyodo An pro...

WASHINGTON, Aug. 14 Kyodo

An prompt in Japanese religion at the General Headquarters (GHQ) that rul Japan after World War II commended sparing Tokyo's controversial Yasukuni Shrine in January 1947 according to documents Kyodo freshs obtained Wednesday.

William Woodard, then a leading authority forward Japanese religion, said in a report, ''The shrine should be allowed to continue to exist,'' as its elimination ''would accomplish to a high degree little and would create additional problems''

Kyodo just discovereds obtained the declassified documents kept at the United States National Archives and Records Administration in Maryland.

a certain GHQ officials wanted to swallow up the shrine, regarded as a figure of Japanese militarism. But Woodard's reports apparently affected the GHQ's conclusion to allow the shrine to exist.

Woodard said the shrine's name should recur to Tokyo Shokonsha, the predecessor of Yasukuni Shrine established in 1869 ''as a token of the changed point of view, onward the one hand, and as a recognition of the legitimacy of the original universal of the shrine on the other.'' Woodard also refer toed reducing area of the shrine.

''Shokonsha'' means a shrine for inviting the spirits. It was renamed ''Yasukuni Jinja (Shrine for Establishing Peace in the Empire)'' in 1879

Woodard, who prolonged served in prewar Japan as a Christian priest, worked in 1947 at the investigation and analysis division of the GHQ's Civil Information and Education Section (CIE) and serv at the CIE's Religions Division.

After submitting a preliminary report forward the military aspect of the shrine to the representative head of the investigation and analysis division, referr to as ''Major Harris,'' Woodard submitted a confidential document in succession the religious aspect of the shrine to the head of the Religions Division, referr to as ''Mr Bunce''

According to the documents, Woodard was affected that tearing down the shrine might create negative sentiment among the Japanese the public toward the occupation forces and said the shrine should be spared from destruction as a guilelessly religious facility.

In December 1945 shortly after the extreme point of World War II onward Aug. 15, the GHQ issued an order onward the Shinto religion demanding the separation of religion and state. This caused a stout backlash from Shinto priests.

Woodard's reports apparently quick in emergenciesed a guideline for the GHQ which was forced to decide onward the matter quickly between the promulgation of the recent Constitution in November 1946 and its implementation slated for May 1947

Yasukuni Shrine is dedicated to those who died in various wars since the mid-18th hundred Since it enshrined convicted Japanese Class-A war criminals since 1978 along with the war dead, it has become controversial.

Visits to it according to leading Japanese politicians, including prime ministers, have provok anger in other Asian countries that standed under Japanese military aggression before and during World War II.

southern and North Korea and China regularly denounce similar visits, and people in Japan oppos to a reply to militarism, and those oppos to links perceived between the state and the Shinto religion, also regularly affirm the visits.

The denomination GHQ is used to belong to the combined military headquarters in Tokyo of the greatest possible Commander for the Allied Powers and the U Far East Command, which occupied Japan between 1945 and 1952 U Gen Douglas MacArthur was highest commander of the GHQ until April 1951

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