clipped from: www.japantoday.com   

Yasukuni war shrine is Japan’s ultimate taboo subject. A symbol of the country’s militaristic past, the shrine is revered by nationalists, despised by Japan’s Asian neighbors, and rarely mentioned in public by anyone else.

On Saturday, that taboo faced a test with the Tokyo premiere of a documentary film that has drawn protests from right-wingers, spooked theater owners and won praise from Japanese who say it’s time to openly discuss the shrine.

“Yasukuni” focuses on Aug 15, the date when thousands throng the shrine to mark the anniversary of Tokyo’s World War II surrender. The shrine honors the 2.5 million Japanese who fell in wars from the late 1800s until 1945.
Like the shrine itself, which has a museum depicting Japan’s wartime conquests as a noble enterprise, the film has been a magnet for controversy.