Yasukuni Shrine

Originally named Tokyo Shokonsha (shrine to summon the souls), the Yasukuni Shrine, located in central Tokyo, Japan, is a politically controversial Shinto shrine that commemorates those who have died during Japan’s armed conflicts. Also popularly known as Yasukuni Jinja, it is one of the few Tokyo structures that survived both the devastating earthquake of 1923 and the firebombing by the U.S. Air Force during World War II. Yasukuni Shrine holds a distinguished status among other shrines because it was visited by the emperors themselves. However, China, North Korea, and South Korea regard the Yasukuni Shrine as a symbol of Japan’s imperial military past, as all three countries suffered casualties (e.g., millions of Chinese civilians and soldiers and hundreds of thousands of Koreans died) under Japan’s ...