Yasukuni Shrine
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Yasukuni Shrine (Japanese: 靖国神社 or 靖國神社, Hepburn: Yasukuni Jinja; lit. 'Peaceful Country Shrine') is a Shinto shrine located in Chiyoda, Tokyo. It was founded by Emperor Meiji in June 1869 and commemorates those who died in service of Japan, from the Boshin War of 1868–1869, to the two Sino-Japanese Wars, 1894–1895 and 1937–1945 respectively, and the First Indochina War of 1946–1954. The shrine's purpose has been expanded over the years to include those who died in the wars involving Japan spanning from the entire Meiji and Taishō periods, and the earlier part of the Shōwa period. The shrine lists the names, origins, birthdates and places of death of 2,466,532 people. Among those are 1,068 convicted war criminals from the Pacific War, fourteen of whom were convicted with Class A crimes at the Tokyo Trial. A memorial at the honden (main hall) building commemorates anyone who died on behalf of Japan and so includes Koreans and Taiwanese who served Japan at the time. The Chinreisha ("Spirit Pacifying Shrine") building is a shrine built to inter the souls of all the people who died during World War II, regardless of their nationality. The enshrinement of an extensive number of war criminals, as well as the shrine's historical association with State Shinto, has made the shrine highly controversial within East Asia, particularly amongst victims of Japanese imperialism. Emperor Hirohito, under whom Japan fought during World War II, visited the shrine eight times between the end of the war and 1975. However, he thereafter boycotted the shrine due to his displeasure over the enshrinement of top convicted Japanese war criminals. His successors, Akihito and Naruhito, have never visited the shrine. The Japanese Government's involvement with the shrine remains highly controversial, with the most recent Japanese Prime Minister to visit the shrine while in office being the conservative Shinzo Abe in 2013.