LETTER: Shinto stadium

From Ms Hogetsu Ito

Sir: The soundtrack played in the Hiroshima ceremony (Richard Lloyd Parry's Tokyo Diary, 16 August) was deliberately composed not to have any taste, for any imported music cannot be played in fear of right-wingers, nor any Japanese traditional tunes, as Hiroshima has a huge population of Koreans who were discriminated against in post-war Japan.

The martial art/music stadium in which the Tokyo ceremony took place, or Budo-kan, is sited on one of the most sacred places in Japan. The place is believed by Shinto-ist Japanese to have been inhabited by the god of fighting and fair play for 8,000 years. It has never been an equivalent of Wembley Arena, as Mr Lloyd Parry suggests.

The style of the Nagasaki peace statue and the monuments in the Peace Parks is embarrassing for many Japanese, too. But they would not complain about anything related to virtues - peace or whatever - as the English do.

Yours faithfully,

Hogetsu Ito

London, SW7

18 August