NEWSLETTER 2019

No. 02
2019.12HIMEYURI

Peace Museum

Museum marks 30th anniversary with renovation projects
Himeyuri Peace Museum was founded in 1989 by the Himeyuri Alumnae Association. Since it’s
opening, former Himeyuri students have taken on roles as witnesses and chroniclers of the war
experience.
In 2004, 15 years after the museum’s opening, the founders, foreseeing a day they could no longer
tell their stories at the museum, decided that renovations would be need so that the exhibits would beunderstandable even without their in-person retelling. Fifteen years have passed since that realization
and, as memories of the war fade, opportunities for younger generations to talk with survivors steadily
dwindle. Comments such as, “I can’t relate” or, “I have no understanding of war” are becoming more
frequent from museum visitors.
To make the exhibits more accessible to such people, the museum will be undergoing its second
renovation and will be reopened on July 22, 2020.

Planning meeting for the renovation

Meeting with former Himeyuri students and founders

What is going to change?
The story of the Himeyuri Student Corps will
not change however:u An exhibit called, “Himeyuri studentsʼ lives
after the war” will be addedu A timeline of the Himeyuri studentsʼ war
experiences will be included, with captions
describing what they felt in each sceneu New pictures, drawings and movies will be
added to give viewers and visitors a clearer
understandingu Finally, we will introduce a multilingual
audio guide system and adding English
subtitles to testimonial movies

Himeyuri students in front of a dormitory room1

Newsletter 2019 | Himeyuri Peace Museum | No. 2

Special Exhibition in the museum lobby“The Himeyuri Peace Museum over 30 years: A retrospective”
This celebration of our 30th anniversary started the first day of 2019. It is a retrospective of themuseum’s 30 years in nine pictures: opening day, a field trip to battle sites, the 2004 renovation, andthe leadership change from survivors to museum staff who never experienced war.

Himeyuri Peace Museum marks its 30th year
The Himeyuri Peace Museum reached its 30th
anniversary in June, 2019. Since the opening day,June 23, 1989, over 2.2 million people have visitedthe museum.
February 6, 2018
Former Himeyuri students who worked at
the museum and staff members

Himeyuri Alumnae Association establishes
their museum
For a long time after the war, the Himeyuri
survivors never shared their experiences. Finallyafter 40 years past since the end of the war, thesurvivors stood up to establish their own museum.
April 10, 1988
A signature campaign for permission to show
the inside of the cave next to the Himeyuri
monument
The Himeyuri Peace Museum begins
The Himeyuri survivors have told of their war
experiences to museum visitors because they havefelt a responsibility to pass on to future generations
memories of the Battle of Okinawa to honor friends
who lost their lives.
Kikuko Miyagi giving a talk to visitors
in 1994

Survivors participate in a field trip to war sites
The Himeyuri survivors conducted a bus tour tovisit war sites where the Himeyuri Student Corps
was sent during the Battle of Okinawa. They
planned the project, invited participants andguided the tour themselves.


2

March 31, 1991
Fumiko Higa, describing the situation as it
was at the Yamashiro Headquarters caveNewsletter 2019 | Himeyuri Peace Museum | No. 2

Exhibition: Remembering the Student Corps
Ten years after the opening, the museum held an
exhibition themed around both male and female
members of the Okinawan Student Corps. During
the exhibition’s opening, those who had belonged
to other student corps stood up to tell their stories.

June 24, 1999
Eiki Ishikawa, former Iron Blood for
the Emperor Student Corps member

Accessible exhibits for when the survivors canno longer tell their story

Before the renovation:
The first exhibit “Eve of theBattle of Okinawa” 

After the renovation:
The first exhibit “Youth of
Himeyuri”

Himeyuri survivors aim to build a museum
accessible to younger generations for the day when
they cannot give personal accounts of theirexperiences.
April 13, 2004
Reopening the museum

Telling the Himeyuri story with an animatedfeature film and picture book
It is difficult to find words to tell the Himeyuris’
war experience to children, even for the survivors,
therefore, various artists and staff members
created an animated feature film and picture
book—a project that was six years in the making.
The Himeyuri picture book was published in 2011
The animated feature “Himeyuri” was produced in 2012

The first Peace Lecture by museum memberswith no war experience
70 years after the war, staff members who
worked with survivors took on the role of peace
lectures. This was the start of a new lecture
program.

June 13, 2017
Akiko Nakada giving a lecture to students

The baton is passed from the survivors to
the next generations
Yosiko Shimabukuro, the 7th director and former
Himeyuri student, retired and Choukei Futenma,
who never experienced war, became the new
director, ushering in a new era for the museum.
March 30, 2018
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Newsletter 2019 | Himeyuri Peace Museum | No. 2

Himeyuri Peace Research Center begins an exhibition project in Hawaii
Himeyuri Peace Research Center, which wasestablished in 2017 as an auxiliary organization of
the museum, began an exhibit project to bring theHimeyuri story to our American sister state, Hawaii.
This exhibition will be held in 2021 as a part of aninternational cooperative action. As a first step,
staff members from the Center visited Hawaii forthe first time from August 29 to September 5. The
purpose of this trip was to meet Hawaii
representatives with connections to Himeyuri, formeetings and to participate in a lecture program.
After arriving in Honolulu, the delegation met
with relatives of Harry Shinichi Gima, who had
donated money to the Himeyuri Alumnae
Association in order to buy the land where theHimeyuri monument was erected in 1954. On
August 31 and September 1, the Okinawan Festival,
the largest ethnic festival in Hawaii, was held at the
Hawaii Convention Center. At the festival, we
shared a small space with the Center for Okinawan
Studies, which is an auxiliary organization of the
University of Hawaii, to introduce the museum andour activities to Hawaii-born Uchinanchu.
Additionally, we arranged to meet relatives of

Himeyuri’s mini exhibition at the Hamilton Library

4

At the Okinawan Festival with Professor Ishida (Center for
Okinawan Studies, University of Hawaii)

Chiyoko Oyadomari at the genealogy section of thefestival. Oyadomari sensei, who had lived in Hawaii
until the age of ten, was one of 18 Himeyuri
teachers who accompanied students to thebattleground. We also visited Castle High School tolearn about a Himeyuri themed student play
performed at the school in 2009. Ms. Meyer, theteacher who directed the play, told us that the play
was a tremendous achievement in Hawaii.
At the University of Hawai’i at Manoa, with thesupport of the Center for Okinawan Studies andthe Hamilton Library, we had an opportunity tohold a small event in the library, which included
our peace lecture and testimonial video of a
Himeyuri survivor. An explanation of why we wantto build relationships and bring a Himeyuri
exhibition to Hawaii was added after the lecture.
Thanks to all the people who supported this trip,
the team accomplished great things on this visit.
*This project is supported by Okinawa Prefecture
and the Okinawa Art and Culture Society

The Himeyuri Peace Lecture conducted by Director Futenma

Chairman Nakahodo with Professor Kina (University of the
Ryukyus) interpreting at the talk session

Newsletter 2019 | Himeyuri Peace Museum | No. 2

ICOM conference attendees visit
the museum
On September 8, 24 attendees of theInternational Council of Museums (ICOM)
conference, which was held in Kyoto, took an
excursion to Himeyuri Peace Museum. After
Choukei Futenma, the director and curator, gave ashort explanation about the Himeyuri Student
Corps and the museum, attendees spent time
viewing the exhibits. Erik Somers from Institute for
War, Holocaust and Genocide Studies in the
Netherlands was in attendance and met with us forthe first time since the INMP conference in 2017.
Additionally, we met Teresien da Silva from theAnne Frank House and reminisced about our visit
to the House. We also showed our special exhibit
to the attendees. In this exhibit, Dr. Somers’s andAnne Frank House’s pictures are featured on
panels. Everyone seemed to enjoy the panels andour accompanying story. Some expressed interest in
the Himeyuri renovation project.

Participants listen to the director’s message

At special exhibition room dedicated to peace museums

The first movie competition was held
As a new approach to peace education, theHimeyuri Peace Research Center started a film
contest in 2018. The goal of the contest is toanswer the question that what we can do to pass
the war memory on to the future generations
since more than 70 years have passed and thenumber of survivors has been gradually
decreasing. For the first contest, themed“Himeyuri Student Corps,” freestyle films werecollected from the public. Although,unfortunately, none of the entries won the
Himeyuri Peace Prize, members of the selection
committee watched every film with interest andgained much insight regarding messages for peacefrom young generations.
We hope this contest will provide an
opportunity for everyone to ponder, learn andspeak out through filmmaking—a medium which
remains one of the most essential tools for thetransmission of information today.
The contest will be held in 2019 as well. The
2018 results and comments from the selection
committee can be found here:
http://www.himeyuri.or.jp/JP/etc/01_movie_co
ntest.pdf“Hitchhike to Peace” won the special prize

Selection Committee members

Also, you can view the film won the special prizehere:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QGMsD3R
2toY&feature=youtu.be .

5Newsletter 2019 | Himeyuri Peace Museum | No. 2

The 2019 Commemoration Ceremony
The June 23, 2019 Commemoration Ceremony
was a solemn event. This year, about 400 people
were in attendance, including family members ofthe deceased, Himeyuri Alumnae and othersupporters of the museum. Generational changesof attendees were clearly visible from the younger
generations in attendance. As the museum is in its
30th anniversary year, there was much interest andattention from the media. As they did last year,
chorus members from Itoman High School
performed a “Requiem Concert” before theceremony, and the venue filled with their song.
This year, museum staff members conducted
the bulk of the ceremony, taking on such roles as
MC and opening and ending speeches in place offormer Himeyuri students who had done so in
previous years. The museum staff will faithfully
conduct the ceremony from now on.

Former Himeyuri students and staff welcom guests

Attendees offering incense to the deceased

Support for the Junior Study Tour Program

Himeyuri Fieldwork
for Parents and Children

On August 1, as one part of Okinawa
Prefectural Youth Program: Uchina Junior Study,
consisting of 16 children of Okinawan immigrants
from America, Canada, Bolivia, Brazil, Argentina,
New Caledonia and Australia, as well as 17
students from Okinawa, visited the museum. After
viewing the exhibits with curator, Noriko Koga,
they were able to ask questions, watched theanimated feature “Himeyuri” and participated in agroup workshop. Through the workshop, theylearned about the Battle of Okinawa and took an
opportunity to understand different values andthink about what is needed to make a morepeaceful world.

On July 27 and August 10, the museum held asummer program, “Himeyuri Fieldwork for
Parents and Children,” for the second time. This
year, seventeen children and parents from
Okinawa and other prefectures participated.
The participants walked to the Ihara First
Surgical Cave from the museum, got a firsthandview of the caves and learned about the tragic
events that occurred there during the war. A
curator described how many people had hid in the
cave when a bomb hit and how they all had to fleeas the US army closed in. Participants were able totouch an actual shell fragment from that time tofeel it’s weight and jagged edges and perhaps get a
glimpse of the terror of the shelling.

Participants joining in a workshop

6

Guiding the Ihara First Surgical CaveNewsletter 2019 | Himeyuri Peace Museum | No. 2

Skills training for Okinawa interpreter-guides
On October 26, the museum once again gave a lecture on how to lead tours of the Himeyuri
monument and museum as a part of the Okinawa interpreter-guides’ training course. This time,
participants included 19 Chinese interpreters. As they did in the previous training, participants
watched a documentary video of Himeyuri survivors and took part in a tour guided by curators insideand outside the museum.
In response to a museum staffer’s question regarding the level of interest held by Chinese tourists
about the Battle of Okinawa or peace education, a participant answered that “without politicalperspectives, visitors would benefit from learning about the harsh reality of the war as see from thecivilians’ point of view. There are many schools in Hong Kong that would see trips to Okinawa, notas peace education, but life education. The history of Battle of Okinawa is a significant lesson about
the importance of life.” On the questionnaire, they left comments like “the survivor’s message ‘there
is no war for peace’ was profound” and, “please add Chinese text to the exhibits and a Chinese audio
translator.” We will refer to these valuable suggestions to the museum.

Guide-tour by a curator

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7Notice: Museum admission fees will be changed
Thank you very much for your support and patronage. Due to an increase in consumption tax in
October and expenses incurred during the museum’s renovation, the admission fees will be modified aslisted below. We sincerely appreciate your understanding and continued support.

IndividualGroup*20 or more

BeforeAfter

Adults¥310¥450

High school students

¥210

¥250

Middle and elementary school students

¥110

¥150

Adults¥280¥400

High school students

¥190

¥200

Middle and elementary school students

¥100

¥110

*The museum will be closed from July 10 to 21 in 2020 due to renovations

Museum information
Himeyuri Peace Museum
671-1 Ihara Itoman City, Okinawa 901-0344
Phone: +81-98-997-2100 (098-997-2100 within Japan)
Fax: +81-98-997-2102 (098-997-2102 within Japan)
URL: http://wwww.himeyuri.or.jp/
Email: himeyuri1@himeyuri.or.jp

Hours

Open daily

from 9 am to 5:25 pm (last admission at 5 pm)

Admission Fees
Adults | ¥310
High School Students | ¥210
Elementary and Junior High School Students | ¥110
<10% discount is available for groups of 20 or more>
Himeyuri’s promotional video is now available on YouTube

Directions[From the Naha City Bus Terminal]
Take the #89 or #34 bound for Itoman(approximately 30 minutes). Transfer at the
Itoman City Bus Terminal to the #82, #107, or#108 and get off at the “Himeyuri-no-Tou Mae”
stop (approximately 15 minutes).
[By car]Approximately 40 minutes by car

Scan QR to view        Published December 1, 2019 by the HIMEYURI PEACE RESEARCH CENTER
Content produced and edited by the HIMEYURI PEACE MUSEUM
English Translation by Emi Karimata with Dean Hayashida