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.

The Tokyo opening was accompanied by a heavy police presence, but the sold-out screenings passed without incident as of early afternoon.

The film, partially funded by 7.5 million yen (US$73,500; euro46,420) from a government linked agency, was directed by a Chinese citizen, and includes graphic footage of Japanese soldiers executing civilians — three elements that have earned the ire of nationalists.

“The film is anti-Japan, and an insult to Yasukuni and our devotion to it,” said Hiroshi Kawahara, who heads the nationalist group, Doketsusha. “But Yasukuni’s dignity cannot be shaken by a film like this.”

Pacifists and the victims of Japanese aggression — such as China and the Koreas — abhor Yasukuni as a glorification of militarism and a symbol of Tokyo’s failure to fully atone for its past imperialism in the region.

Nationalists and many conservative Japanese, however, see the shrine as a legitimate way to honor the war dead just like other countries honor their fallen soldiers, and accuse critics of trying to cow Japan into paralyzing war guilt.

The opposition nearly scuttled the opening. The threat of right-wing violence intimidated several theaters in Tokyo into canceling plans to show it, and the distributor delayed the original April 12 premiere by several weeks.

The film’s supporters say such trouble is typical in Japan, where a high value on consensus discourages open debate, and threats of violence or embarrassment can easily stifle free speech.

Those tendencies, critics say, mean that controversial issues rarely get a public airing, particularly those dear to nationalists, such as Yasukuni, the imperial family, and Japan’s wartime conquests.

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