Muse No. 43
Japanese Citizens Network of Museums for Peace
Newsletter: July 2021
Translators: Miki Otsuka & Emi Karimata
Editors: Ikuro Anzai & Kazuyo Yamane
Ilustrators：Erico Tosaki, Pegge Patten & Koen Vlerick
musejapankyoto@gmail.com

10 years since Great East
Japan Earthquake
Yamanashi Peace Museum-

Tamotsu Asakawa: Director-

To mark the 10th anniversary of the Great East
Japan Earthquake occurred in March 2011, theYamanashi Peace Museum (YPM) has been
holding a special exhibition, "Recalling 10 years
since the Great East Japan Earthquake" fromMarch to August 2021. We once held a special
exhibition, "Examining the nuclear power plant
accident, radiation and energy" back in 2013.

-

Fukushima Nuclear Accident Independent
Investigation Commission",
Referencing "Regulatory Capture" written
by Kiyoshi Kurokawa,Examining the progress of nuclear
decommissioning work,
Discussing the issues of contaminated waterfrom the nuclear power plant,
Reviewing the status of the bill todecommissioning of all nuclear power plants
proposed in 2018,
Looking at the realities of Fukushima
through photographs,
Exploring difficult-to-return area andsurroundings today, andAnalyzing the lawsuits on the nuclear power
plant accident.

The exhibition features about 50 panels,
newspaper articles, and other multifaceted
documents, which recall us to the last 10 years aswell as spot the challenges still remained. Pleaserefer to the attached newspaper article (onlyJapanese).

Based on the progress and remaining
challenges observed after 10 years, the following
topics are covered at the special exhibition thistime;
- Reviewing "The Official Report of the

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number of survivors nowadays.
In history, Japan was said to begin most of its
wars of aggression except for the "Genko" of the
Kamakura period (1185-1333). If we do notcarefully examine the "causes and responsibility"
as well as the "aggression" in these wars, wewould repeat the same mistakes again. There is a
Chinese proverb saying, "If you never forget thepast, it would be a guide for the future" and wewill continue our efforts to do so.

Chukiren Peace Museum
Nobuo Serizawa: Secretariat
The museum has been open three days a week,
Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday, although weusually have small number of visitors.
On April 10th 2021, we welcomed 95-year-old
Mr. Yasuyoshi Koike from Maebashi City,
Gunma Prefecture, who was accompanied by his
68-year-old son and his friend. Mr. Koike went
over to Manchuria as an agricultural emigrant,
and was called up for military service to fightagainst the Soviet Union, which brought him to
be interned in Siberia after the end of the war. As
his period of time spent in military service was
not long enough to receive military pension
when he returned to Japan, he started to beengaged in agriculture at the foot of Mount Akagi
in Gunma Prefecture.
In his hometown, Mr. Koike heard about thestory of his son’s friend visiting the museum lastyear, and asked them to take him to the museum,
then three of them came here all together thistime.

Maruki Gallery
for the Hiroshima Panels
Yukinobu Okamura: Curator and Executive
Director
Due to the prolonged pandemic from last year,
we had to give up holding some events such as
lectures and concerts on May 5th, theanniversary of the opening of the Maruki Gallery
for the Hiroshima Panels. This year, under thetitle of "Online Tour of the Maruki Gellery: What
are the 'Hiroshima Panels’?”, we delivered a livecommentary on the panels via YouTube live
stream for the first time.
The filming team was made up of young staffs
with extensive experience of organizing events
such as from Peace Boat. Based on the elaborate
arrangement, they supported the commentatorwith the well-planned scenario during the live
event.
In about 50 minutes, the commentator stoodby and explained Part one through eight of the"Hiroshima Panels" on permanent exhibition
displayed on the second floor, and then moved tothe studio to introduce the remaining six panels
by using some images. About 600 people werewatching the program on live, which was morethan we had expected. There were numerous
posts in the chat room as well. We received a lotof response and comments, with about 4,000
accesses to the video that day.
Thanks to everyone’s support, we have beenasked to participate in various online projects
since then. It's hard to foresee the situation under
this pandemic, but we will continue to sow the

From the experience at the battle field, Mr.
Koike has always wondered "Why do we only
talk about the damage we have suffered?”. Mr.
Koike said that he has been sharing his
experience upon request from the local
community as he is well aware of the shrinking
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seeds in the hope that one day we will see manyof you here at the Maruki Gallery.

when they returned to Japan, which had asignificant impact on their success of job hunting
to maintain adequate living standards. Also, there
were people who experienced mental sufferingand isolation because of the then exclusive natureof Japanese society.
The sacrifices of the emigrants and thehardships they endured during repatriation werebrought by the imperialism of the time. However,Professor Asano points out that the burdens
borne by the returnees from China were actually
the product of postwar Japanese society. Afterthe devastating war, we have finally reached to
advocate democracy and sovereignty of thepeople, which value freedom and equality, but
we need to ask ourselves whom “the people”
indicates. What are the difficulties for people
who are excluded from the group but living in thesame community? What would happen whenpeople join the group from outside world in the
middle of their lives? Without examining theseissues, our society will not be able to move
forward.
We tend to be wary of facing and approachingwhat happened at that time, but the lecture
reminded us that we must pay more attention to
the issues covered under the postwar society ofJapan.

Lecture on 2nd Generationof Returnees from China
Memorial Museum for Agricultural
Emigrants to Manchuria

Daigo Fukuryu Maru
Exhibition Hall Voyage
with Mr. Matashichi Oishi

Misawa Aki: Director General

The online course "Study Session for the First
Step" was hosted by the Peace Labo, our proudvolunteer group. For the third session, Professor
Shinichi Asano from Graduate School of Kobe
University, talked about second-generation
returnees from China.
At that time, the Japanese government
imposed harsh restrictions to the returnees byrequiring guarantee from immediate family
members for permanent residence, which was
not easy under the circumstance, or giving
allowance which only covered children under theage of 20 for their return from China. These
conditions diversely affected to the returnees’
lives in Japan. For example, their Japanese
language acquisition level depended on the age

Yusuke Hasunuma: Curator
Mr. Matashichi Oishi, who was exposed to theradiation from US hydrogen bomb test at the
Bikini Atoll as a crew of the Daigo Fukuryu
Maru (fishing boat) and had continued to pass on
his experience to younger generation, passed
away on March 7th, 2021. Mr. Oishi had visitedthe museum from time to time since around 1980,
after the Daigo Fukuryu Maru was preserved anddisplayed at the museum, but it was not until
1983 when he was asked to tell his story to juniorhigh school students that he started to talk. Since3then, while running a laundry cleaning business,he had never refused to talk with children about
the unfairness in our society and the physical andmental suffering caused by the nuclear damage.
As a person who was affected by Bikini
hydrogen bomb test, Mr. Oishi examined
diplomatic documents related to the Bikini
Incident, and acted with a strong will to pass onwhat happened. Mr. Oishi was important person
not only for those of us working for theexhibition, but also for our society that tries to
put this event in the history books. This is evident
from the fact that many newspapers took up his
death in editorials and on the front page.
Today, there are only two former crew
members of the Daigo Fukuryu Maru with us.
We are keenly aware of our responsibility topreserve the Daigo Fukuryu Maru and to pass on
the history of Bikini Incident to the future
generation.

Japanese imperial system, we decided to open
the museum on these days and hold the "wamseminar: Thinking about the Emperor System".
It started from November last year in order toprovide an opportunity to examine the imperial
system. The first seminar was given by Mr.
Hiroshi Ikeda, the second by Ms. Itsuko
Ishikawa, the third by Ms. Mitsuko Uchino, andthe fourth by Mr. Akira Yamada, and we debatedour responsibility on maintaining the imperial
system, which has brought a certain
discrimination still remained in Japanese society.
In 2021, there have been a series of major
events at home and abroad regarding the issue of
the Japanese military “comfort women”. wam
has published some links to criticize and discuss
the decision made by Seoul Central District
Court on January 8th and the article written by
Professor John Mark Ramseyer from Harvard
Law School respectively. In addition, wam's
views on the historical revisionist movement in
the Diet over the term "comfort women” is alsoavailable in Japanese on the website. We willcontinue what we can do to make the museum aplace where people can actively learn and thinkeven during the pandemic.
The museum is open with preventive measures of
the COVID-19. We are also introducing hybrid
system of online and on-site seminars. However,the number of visitors to the museum in FY 2020
was one-sixth of the previous year, and thissituation still continues.

Thought-provoking website
and seminar
Women’s Active Museum on
War and Peace (wam)Fumiko Yamashita: Secretariat
Since September 2020, wam has been open
four days a week on Friday, Saturday, Sunday
and Monday. There has been a longstanding
concern that we were too busy with operating themuseum to work on the "Japanese Military‘Comfort Women’ Archives", so we decided to
dedicate one opening day to work on the archives.
In order not to "celebrate" February 11th,
February 23rd, April 29th, and November 3rd,
which are "national holidays" derived from theMuseum website includes in-depth informationon the latest discussion about the Japanesemilitary “comfort women”.
4About 120 people gathered, and it was a time
to remember Ms. Noma and to share the desire
for peace that she had been pursuing.
Together with the memorial service, "Mikiko
Noma Memorial Collection, to Those Who
Loved Freedom" was published. It was edited
jointly by Ms. Noma's family and the museum,
which contains farewell messages from hercolleagues and friends, Peace Aichi board
members, volunteers, and her relatives.

Mikiko Noma’s posthumous
manuscript and memorialservice
War and Peace Museum: Peace Aichi

Daisuke Miyahara: Director
One year has already passed since Mikiko
Noma, the former director of Peace Aichi, passed
away. We were not able to hold a farewell
gathering for her due to the pandemic, but on
May 9th 2021, we were finally able to hold amemorial service at Hotel Rubura Ohzan in
Nagoya.
Actors Mr. Shizuo Amano and her wife, Ms.
Masa Yamada, and NPO President Hideyuki
Suzuki made their farewells to Ms. Noma. The
ensemble dedicated her favorite songs "Eine
Kleine Nachtmusik" and "Look Up at the Stars
in the Night".

In addition, we established Mikiko Noma
Memorial Collection in the museum as her
family donated the books once belonged to Ms.
Noma. More than 800 books are arranged in
categories such as "Constitution and Justice" and5"War and War Experiences". A catalog has also
been prepared and is available for visitors.
At the same time, a collection of Mikiko
Noma's posthumous manuscript, "The Sunflower
Forever: Eighty Years of the First Generation of
the Peace Constitution" was published by
Nagoya-based publisher Fubaisha. It is 276
pages in length and is priced at 1,650 yen.

Activities during themuseum’s renovation
Kyoto Museum for World Peace,
Ritsumeikan University

Ikuko Shimizu: Manager
The Kyoto Museum for World Peace,
Ritsumeikan University, will be closed from
April 2021 to September 2023 (tentative) for
renovation. Please see below for more
information about the museum activities during
this period.
Information on lectures and workshops will
also be posted on the website.
https://www.ritsumeikan-wp-museum.jp/en/

She survived the war as a child, and when she
was in the first grade, the Constitution of Japancame in effect. The memory of that experience
had stayed with Ms. Noma throughout her life.
As a lawyer, she had fought for human rights andpeace, and spearheaded the construction andoperation of the peace museum, by saying "it is
the responsibility of us who lived in the 20th
century to pass on the memory of war to the
future generations”. Her sensitivity and deep
thoughts will surely guide us when we would
face various challenges in the future. The"Introduction" of the book was written by hereldest daughter, Eiko Shimokata, a board
member of Peace Aichi, and the "Afterword" by
writer Chieko Yamashita, an alumnus of Noma's
university. The book is now available at Peace
Aichi, so please call or fax us at +81-(0)52-6024222.

The following activities will be carried out
while the museum is closed.
*Rental of teaching materials and panels＜Teaching materials＞- Teaching materials on global issues in the
shape of dice
- Materials on the 15-Year War (1931-1945)- Panels on "Nuclear Power and Our Daily
Lives”

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＜Exhibition panels＞- Atomic Bomb: Records of Hiroshima andNagasaki- Atomic Bomb and Humanity Exhibition- The Battle of Okinawa and Military Bases- Doctors Who Dig Wells: Medical Activities
and Green Earth Project of the Peshawar-kai(association)- The atomic bombing in Hiroshima andNagasaki and Human Being

Exhibition of a Dummy Bomb

Please refer to the following URL for thecontents of the teaching materials and panels(Please apply by phone in advance).
https://www.ritsumeikan-wp-museum.jp/rental/*Reference and the rental of museum collection
is available until the end of November, 2021.
Please contact us at least one week in advance.

*Web Exhibition
We opened a new "Web Exhibition" page on our
website in 2020.

The First “Bikini Day” Eventin KochiGrass Roots House: Peace Museum

Keisuke Okamura: Vice director
We had been planning to hold the first "Bikini
Day in Kochi" in the historic year of 2021.
Although it was under the pandemic, weorganized (1) a photo exhibition of the nuclear
damage, (2) fieldwork to visit former tunafishing boat crews, (3) a plenary meeting of"Bikini Day in Kochi," and (4) a movie session
from March 5th to 14th 2021, with the aim ofurging the Japanese government to ratify theTreaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons(TPNW) and supporting the survivors of thehydrogen bomb detonated on the Bikini Atoll by
the USA.
The photo exhibition conveyed the reality of
the nuclear damage through works by some
active photographers, Takashi Morizumi,
Hiromitsu Toyosaki, Keisuke Okamura and more
under the themes of "Atomic Bomb and Human
Beings", "Nuclear Weapons Testing and Human
Beings", and "Nuclear Power and Human
Beings”. Also on display were the Nobel Peace
Prize medal and certificate, a Geiger counterfrom the Daigo Fukuryu Maru Exhibition Hall,
nuclear fallout (replica), and letters fromchildren in Kochi sent to family of Aikichi

Kyoto Museum for World Peace, Ritsumeikan University＜WEB Permanent Exhibition＞
For each theme of the current permanent
exhibition, some pictures of museum items areposted with description.
An English version is also available on themuseum's English website.
https://www.ritsumeikan-wp-museum.jp/wpcontent/uploads/2020/08/WEBEXHIBITION4.pdf＜Museum Collections＞
This website contains selected 27 museum
items with description that have been introducedin our previous newsletters or recommended bymuseum staffs.
https://www.ritsumeikan-wpmuseum.jp/webexhibition/
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Kuboyama, one of the former tuna fishing boatcrews 67 years ago.
For the fieldwork, 41 participants joined
Muroto route while 39 participants went in Hataroute, and they learned from the testimonies offormer fishing boat crew members and theirfamilies. There were students and young faculty
members from Kochi University, as well as
participants from Tokyo, Hyogo, and other partsof Kochi prefecture, making this a valuable
opportunity to learn about the Bikini Incident.

Museum Activities
under the Pandemic
Oka Masaharu Memorial Nagasaki
Peace Museum
Noboru Sakiyama: Board Chairman

The museum is open from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00
p.m., while taking preventive measures for the
spread of COVID-19.
On December 9th 2020, the seventh (and final)
session of the "Let's Learn Again! Japan'sContemporary History Course Phase 1" was held
under the theme of "How People in Nagasaki
looked at war and postwar in Okinawa”.
In addition, on December 13th, we resumedthe "16th Nagasaki-Nanjing Gathering" which
had been suspended since 2016. The gathering
began with a greeting from Mr. Zhang Jianjun,
director of The Memorial Hall of the Victims in
Nanjing Massacre by Japanese Invaders, ourpartnership museum, followed by an
introduction of 15 Nanjing Massacre survivors
who visited Nagasaki from 2000 to 2015
(excluding 2007). After that, we asked Mr.
Tsuyoshi Takase, a non-fiction writer, to give alecture titled "Nanjing and Nagasaki:
Reconsidering the Atomic Bombing from the
Perspective of Japan’s Responsibility of Wartime
Aggression”. Mr. Takase's documentary video,“Surprising 'Unmapped' Peace Museum: Facing
Japan’s History of Aggression," was released by
Democracy Times on February 16th 2021 basedon his visit of the museum.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WP0lreDG
03s
On April 4th 2021, we held the "4th Memorial
Service for Yasunori Takazane" and invited Mr.
Masahiko Moriguchi, who was active in the"Citizens' Association for the Preservation andUtilization of the Sumiyoshi Tunnel", to share
his memories of Mr. Takazane.

In the movie session, we screened "The Daigo
Fukuryu Maru" directed by Kaneto Shindo andthe documentary film "The Next Season"
directed by Sora Hokimoto which were about the
Bikini incident and suffering experienced byformer crews.
The plenary session was composed of panel
discussions and commemorative speeches withthe aim of reaffirming that the Bikini Incident
was not over yet, thus expanding the support forsurvivors under TPNW. 153 people gathered at
the event venue, with 51 online participations
and over 100 observers. The total number ofparticipants exceeded 250.
With high expectations from within andoutside of Kochi prefecture, the "Bikini Day
Kochi Rally" will be held annually without
dissolving the executive committee.

8real for us who live today.”
However, because of the national spread of the
COVID and the repetition of cancels of school
trips and other arrangements to visit the museum,the managing situation is still challenging.
Although there are difficulties and challenges
financially, the museum is striving to welcome
many visitors after convergence of the pandemic.

Himeyuri Peace Museum

Private viewing of the new exhibits for former
Himeyuri students

Kastumi Maedomari: curator

Tel:098-997-2100 Fax:098-997-2102
On April 12, 2021, the Himeyuri Peace Museum
reopened peacefully. The goal of this renovation
was to deliver the message of Himeyuri “tofarther generations from the war history.” In thisrenewal project, one feature was that younger

HP http://www.himeyuri.or.jp
FB
https://www.facebook.com/HIMEYUIRI.P
EACE.MUSEUM/(Translated by Emi Karimata)museum staff members were in charge for the
first time. With effective showcasing ofvisualized images such as illustrations andpictures, and testimonial videos, the team createdmore reachable exhibits to the younger
generations. There are many creative ideas tomake the exhibits more understandable tomuseum visitors. In addition, the fifth exhibition
room “Himeyuri Survivors after the War” wasnewly created. We received feedbacks such as “itbecame more understandable” and “it is more

Koen Vlerick
https://beeld.be/kunstenaars/koen-vlerick9A poem exhibited in Dengonkan– Fukushima Museum for No Nukes
Written by Mr. Makoto Yoshida on July 23,
1984, when the Fukushima District Court
handed down its decision.
The coastline of my hometown has become the
Ginza of nuclear power plants.
The simple life of the people
and their eyes also
has somehow changed in these ten years.
We all have a limited life.
Ten years is a long time for anyone.
But
if we hadn’t been running around trying to findfund,collecting signatures, holding study sessions
for these ten years,
our lives would have been so thin.

“Mother Teresa - Peacemakers Series”

Nevertheless, what an empty court decision it was.
Where does this emptiness come from?
Because the judge turned away from the truth,and because they waved their tails in the face ofpower,
it is their emptiness,
not ours.

by Pegge Patten

The truth has always been in the minority.
Just like we are now.
But someday the nuclear power plant
will be sure to peel the fangs to humans.
On this beast,
we have to keep an unclouded watchful eye
to forever reject this monster ─
therein lies our raison d’etere.

＊Invitation to INMP＊

If we are lazy to do so,
one day our grandchildren will ask us"What did your generation do?

INMP Office
If you would like to join INMP
(International

NetworkMuseums

Peace),

forofYour Articles are Welcome!

please◆ Number of letters: about 500 lettersin Japanese, and about 1000 words
in English.
◆ Hopefully 1 or 2 photos◆ Due Date: We will accept it at any
time
Please send your article to thefollowing email address.
musejapankyoto@gmail.com

contact inmpoffice@gmail.com.
Theannualmembership

fee

is

2000 yen and it allows you toparticipate in webinars and theInternational

Peace

MuseumConferences.
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