🇯🇵 As 2026 begins, a new documentary reignites debates about Japan's wartime past through its unflinching look at Tokyo's Yasukuni Shrine. The site honors 14 Class-A war criminals convicted by the International Military Tribunal for the Far East, alongside millions of war dead—a contradiction that continues to strain relations across East Asia.
🔥 The film juxtaposes harrowing accounts of the Nanjing Massacre and Unit 731's biological experiments with modern-day shrine visits by Japanese officials. For survivors in the Chinese mainland and the Republic of Korea, these pilgrimages feel like historical denial. Yet some Japanese nationalists argue it's about honoring ancestral sacrifice.
🌏 With Gen Z activists across Asia using TikTok and Instagram to share wartime testimonies (#NeverForgetNanjing trends annually), the documentary asks: Can nations reconcile patriotic remembrance with accountability? As one South Korean student says in the film: 'History isn't just dates—it's why my grandma still cries at fireworks.'
📺 Streaming globally this month, the project arrives as Japan prepares to mark 80 years since WWII's end. Will 2026 bring new steps toward reconciliation—or deeper divides? The answer may shape East Asia's future as much as its past.
