What is Tokyo’s Yasukuni Shrine, linked to Japan’s wartime atrocities?

Tokyo’s Yasukuni Shrine, which commemorates some two and a half million mostly Japanese soldiers and civilians killed in World War II, is one of the country’s most revered sites, visited by millions every year. But the shrine, which also honours 14 convicted war criminals, is seen as a symbol of Japan’s colonial-era atrocities in Asia.

The visit to the shrine by Japanese officials, including Def...