Behold the Controversial Yasukuni Shrine

Today I paid a visit to Yasukuni Shrine. Other than being a shrine of a certain size, it's well known for being the one shrine the Emperor himself must never visit. It's a place of controversy, where the names of everyone who has served and died for the empire of Japan in war has been engraved and laid to rest - including a few of history's most infamous war criminals. Men responsible for ordering the pillaging of cities and the rape and murder of civilians. Many Chinese and Korean in particular look at the shrine's existence as something disdainful, and I do recall having read about a certain incident in which a Chinese man attempted to burn it down with molotov cocktails.
 So I went to have a look at it myself, and, lo and behold, not a single statue of Hitler murdering Jesus to be seen. Yeah, I could've guessed. Without proper context, it's a little hard to see anything controversial here.

But I can tell you what I did see! The Yasukuni shrine has at its entrance one of the most majestic torii gates you'll find in Tokyo, making the walk to the shrine quite nice. There's no denying that the shrine is quite militaristic though. There's a huge focus on war-time Japan here, even going as far as having a small museum next to the shrine.
 Within, all sorts of paraphernalia relating to World War II in particular can be found inside. Heavy artillery launchers, an attack plane, as well as a gift shop filled with postcards and other merchandise displaying Japan's military flag are on sale. It's kind of a strange gift idea for the average joe, but collectors probably dig this kind of thing.
 When it comes to the controversy of Yasukuni shrine, I really think it's just a matter of context. To build a memorial for people who died in service of their country makes all the sense in the world. And yes, even though the war criminals enshrined inside have done unspeakable evils upon the world, that doesn't change the fact that, technically, they do qualify. They didn't eat babies and shit bats. They were once someone's children.

Yeah, I know, it's also that the shrine states a different number of victims from the war than the text books and the records other countries have. I guess that would be the first time religion, science, and history say something different. Oh, wait, it's not? Huh. Isn't that odd.