War memorials can sometimes be politically controversial. A notable case is that of the
Yasukuni Shrine in Japan, where a number of convicted
World War II war criminals are interred. Chinese and Korean representatives have often protested against the visits of Japanese politicians to the shrine. The visits have in the past led to severe diplomatic conflicts between the nations, and Japanese businesses were attacked in China after a visit by former Japanese Prime Minister
Junichiro Koizumi to the shrine was widely reported and criticized in Chinese and Korean media. In a similar case, former German chancellor
Helmut Kohl was criticised by writers
Günter Grass and
Elie Wiesel for visiting the war cemetery at Bitburg (in the company of
Ronald Reagan) which also contained the bodies of
SS troops. Unlike the case of the Yasukuni Shrine, there was no element of intentional disregard of international opinion involved, as is often claimed for the politician visits to the Japanese shrine. Soviet World War II memorials included quotes of
Joseph Stalin's texts, frequently replaced after his death. Such memorials were often constructed in city centres and now are sometimes regarded as symbols of Soviet occupation and removed, which in turn may spark protests (see
Bronze Soldier of Tallinn). The
Fusiliers' memorial arch to the
Royal Dublin Fusiliers who fought in the
Boer War, erected at 1907 in
St. Stephen's Green, Dublin, was called "Traitors' Gate" by the
Redmondites and later
Irish Republicans, from whose point of view Irish soldiers going off to fight the
British Empire's wars were traitors to Ireland. The sharpness of the controversy gradually faded, and while the term "Traitors' Gate" is still in occasional colloquial use in Dublin daily life, it has mostly lost its pejorative meaning. In Australia, in 1981, historian
Henry Reynolds raised the issue of whether war memorials should be erected to
Indigenous Australians who had died fighting against British invaders on their lands. How, then, do we deal with the Aboriginal dead? White Australians frequently say that 'all that' should be forgotten. But it will not be. It cannot be. Black memories are too deeply, too recently scarred. And forgetfulness is a strange prescription coming from a community which has revered the fallen warrior and emblazoned the phrase 'Lest We Forget' on monuments throughout the land. [...] [D]o we make room for the Aboriginal dead on our memorials, cenotaphs, boards of honour and even in the pantheon of national heroes? If we are to continue to celebrate the sacrifice of men and women who died for their country can we deny admission to fallen tribesmen? There is much in their story that Australians have traditionally admired. They were ever the underdogs, were always outgunned, yet frequently faced death without flinching. If they did not die for Australia as such they fell defending their homelands, their sacred sites, their way of life. What is more the blacks bled on their own soil and not half a world away furthering the strategic objectives of a distant Motherland whose influence must increasingly be seen as of transient importance in the history of the continent. Reynolds' suggestion proved controversial. Occasional memorials have been erected to commemorate Aboriginal people's resistance to colonisation, or to commemorate
white massacres of Indigenous Australians. These memorials have often generated controversy. For example, a 1984 memorial to the
Kalkadoon people's "resistance against the paramilitary force of European settlers and the Queensland Native Mounted Police" was "frequently shot at" and "eventually blown up". With the advent of long war, some memorials are constructed before the conflict is over, leaving space for extra names of the dead. For instance, the
Northwood Gratitude and Honor Memorial in
Irvine, CA, memorializes an ongoing pair of US wars, and has space to inscribe the names of approximately 8,000 fallen servicemembers, while the UK
National Memorial Arboretum near
Lichfield in England hosts the UK's National Armed Forces Memorial which displays the names of the more than 16,000 people who have already died on active service in the UK armed forces since World War II, with more space available for future fatalities. ==List of war memorials==