Nestled in the upmarket Wada district of Tokyo's Suginami Ward, Renkoji Temple is a model of gentility. On weekday mornings, pensioners sit and sketch its prayer hall while housewives chat quietly in the shade of its well-tended trees. Given this setting, it would be easy to mistake the bust of a bespectacled man on a plinth in the courtyard for that of a revered former priest or the founder of the local rotary club.
The reality couldn't be further from the truth, as the statue is of Subhas Chandra Bose — modern India's most infamous revolutionary hero.
During his lifelong struggle against the British Empire, Bose rubbed shoulders with Mahatma Gandhi, Adolf Hitler and Hideki Tojo — and his disappearance 66 years ago, on Aug. 18, 1945, stunned the world. Moreover, it is still causing controversy to this day.