Yasukuni-Jinja Shrine, Tokyo

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Yasakuni Shrine is the shrine for Establishing Peace in the Empire. Dedicated to the 2.4 million Japanese war-dead since 1853, it is the most controversial shrine in Japan. A group of class A war criminals were enshrined here in 1979 and the annual visits to the shrine by Japanese Prime Ministers have sparked off loud protests from its neighbours China and Korea, who suffered the most from Japanese aggression in WWII.

This is it, the most controversial of Tokyo's attractions, and the place that causes so much political fuss.

Those who want to read what the fuss is about can have a look here.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yasukuni

The grounds and the shrine itself are nothing out of the ordinary.

The attached museum is worth visiting, although there is a lot of revisionism there. In not one place is there any recognition that Japan may have done anything wrong in any of its actions in WW2.

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This shrine is most famous for controversy that is generated whenever Japan's prime minister visits it around the anniversary marking the end of World War II (August 15th).

The controversy surrounding Yasukuni Shrine is that it IS a war shrine. Its purpose is to honor Japan's war dead (regardless of whether any society views their living actions as good or evil). A number of Japan's "war criminals" remains are located here.

As the story goes, soldiers made pacts to meet again in the afterlife here at Yasukuni shrine.

Whereas, Yasukuni is an important memorial for Japan's fallen, it enrages some in countries such as China & the Koreas, who see any act of recognition of this shrine as an act of endorsement for Japan's acts of agression during the early 20th century. The Chinese, for example, find it reprehensible that anyone guilty of such evils should ever be given any kind of recognition at all as being anything other than 'evil'.

Yet, for many Japanese, upon death one is cleansed and forgiven one's transgresses (Shinto/Buddhist influence... & perhaps a touch of Christian thought in there, too).

Some Japanese feel it would be best for the prime minister not to visit Yasukuni in order to focus more on the importance of diplomacy between Japan & it's Asian neighbors.

Others feel Japanese, whether it be the common man or the prime minister, all have every right to do as they please when it comes to matters that are of a Japanese concern. After all, this is a free country. Furthermore, Japanese see the time of O-bon as a serious ceremonial period for visiting one's ancestors, some of whom could very well be enshrined at Yasukuni.

And so the controversy remains as to what is of greater importance, diplomatic relations or individual rights & paying one's respects to one's dead.

The shrine was founded in 1869 as Tokyo Shokonsha, and was renamed Yasukuni Shrine in 1879. It was built in order to commemorate and worship those who died fighting for their country and sacrificed their lives to help build the fundation of a peaceful Japan (the meaning of Yasukuni is "peaceful country").

The deities of about 2.5 million people who died for Japan in the conflicts accompanying the Meiji Restoration, the Satsuma Rebellion and similar domestic conflicts, the First Sino-Japanese War, the Russo-Japanese War, the First World War, the Manchurian Incident, the Second Sino-Japanese War and the Pacific War are enshrined at Yasukuni Shrine in form of mortuary tablets with inscribed names. The Yushukan, a museum commemorating Japan's wars is located just next to the shrine's main buildings. A big political controvercy surrounds the Yasukuni Shrine because since 1978, fourteen class A war criminals are among the 2.5 million people enshrined at Yasukuni. Furthermore, the visits by several Japanese prime ministers to the shrine since 1975 have been causing concerns regarding a violation of the principle of separation of church and state.

For some people, especially in the Asian countries which suffered most under past Japanese imperialism, the shrine has become a symbol for Japanese militarism and ultra-nationalism, and many are taking the prime ministers' visits as a sign that Japan's political leaders are not looking critically enough at their country's history.

Attempts to remove the war criminals from the Yasukuni Shrine have failed due to the shrine's refusal. Other discussions to solve the problem center around plans to create a currently non-existent alternative to the Yasukuni Shrine for commemorating and worshipping Japan's war dead.

Source: Summarized from Japan-guide.com

If you're at Yasukuni Shrine and you're interested in Asian history at all (especially a fascinatingly distorted view of that history), make sure you visit the War Museum on the grounds. It is housed in a 19th century building constructed to honor those that died in bringing about the Meiji Restoration and a modern Japan.
The War Museum covers all the wars since the 1868 Meiji Restoration and has an excellent collection of artifacts dating from the samaurai days. It has good descriptions of European imperialism in Asia and the Japanese response, as well excellent videos of the Russo-Japanese War. But what I’ll most remember it for is its fascinating and egregiously inaccurate accounts of World War II, covering the years 1931-1945. At some points, the English language text accompanying the exhibits was so biased that I actually had to stop and write it down. Here’s a summary of some of the things the museum claims:
In China, Chiang Kai Shek was co-opted by Mao Zedong to form a united front to commit terrorist acts against the Japanese. Communist terrorist acts in Shanghai and Dalien forced the Japanese to intervene. In order to quell the terrorist, the Japanese attacked Nanjing, surrounding the city. Nanjing was abandoned by its general and the undisciplined Chinese troops were soundly defeated. Now, and I quote, “Thereafter, the residents of Nanking were able to return to living in peace.” YES, THEY REALLY WROTE THAT! The Japanese kept offering peace to the Chinese, who stubbornly refused, because they just wanted to keep fighting. After the capture of Wuhan, the Japanese, “just as they did in Nanking, established a zone of safety for Chinese civilians”
So, no wonder this place is controversial! It speaks loudly as to why Japan’s neighbors haven’t forgiven or forgotten the war – because unlike Germany, Japan has showed little remorse. After all, the quotes above aren’t those of some whacko crackpot, but are in a government sponsored shrine honoring war dead that is visited often by the prime minister.

If you've ever wondered about the controversy sorrounding Prime Minister Koizumi's visits to the Yasukuni Shrine, you should definitely go there yourself. Visiting the Shrine dedicated to those who gave their life in the service of the emperor and the ar museum on the grounds will give you an understanding that you can't get from news reports.
The Yasukuni Shrine memorializes all of fallen Japanese soldiers since the 1868 Meiji restoration that returned the emperors to real power, including (and this really pisses of the Chinese and Koreans) war criminals from World War II. Even more controversial is the fact that Prime Minister Koizumi, in an effort to play to the Japanese right and promote the sentiment that Japan should become a more “normal” nation, makes regular visits to the Shrine. While this superficially resembles an American president visiting Arlington National Cemetary, Japan’s neighbors worry that this honoring of Japan’s military past may presage a rise of nationalism. And they certainly don't like the implicit approval given to some of Japan's wartime atrocities.
I normally wouldn’t think like the Koreans and Chinese, especially after wandering the shrine’s peaceful buildings and grounds (including a fish pond full of giant koi), but once I started going through the adjacent war museum I started to see the Korean and Chinese people’s points. But I also had the misconception that the shrine was only about World War II, though I now know that it actually was originally built to honor those who fought for the restoration during the Japanese civil war of 1867-69 as well as subsequent campaigns against China (1895) and Russia (1904-05). It was really meant to honor those who helped move Japan from a medieval to a modern nation, and that is how most of Japan views the shrine. Yet it will always remain tainted by the war criminals, in my mind.
If you think I'm anti-Japan or too hard on the Japanese, then you haven't read my Oahu page on Japanese tourist at Pearl Harbor.

I took this picture in late April. Yasukuni Shrine is famous for veiwing beautiful sakura(someiyoshino variety) trees, which flowering late March to early April. From mid to late April, another variety of sakura, called "Yae-zakura" begins to bloom. I prefer yae-zakura to someiyoshino, because yae-zakura, double petal cherry blossoms, looks more elegant.

Yasukuni War Shrine is a bit controversial, a visit there by Japan's government officials is sometimes seen as honoring the WWII war criminals.

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's visit in the fall/winter of 2002 was unpopular among Japan's neighbors. Of course, it was defended by Japan's conservatives and Imperialists.

The shrine is right off the Ichigaya subway station.