Explainer: Why is Yasukuni Shrine symbol of Japanese militarism?

BEIJING, Feb. 12 (Xinhua) -- Japan's Yasukuni Shrine has long been a political flashpoint across Asia. For countries like China and South Korea, its very existence is an unhealed historical trauma.

Any visit or even ritual offerings by Japanese officials is seen as a provocation, drawing immediate, fierce condemnation. When Shinzo Abe, then prime minister, visited Yasukuni in 2013, the backlash was so widespread that even the United States made a rare public expression of "disappointment."