Muse No. 31
Japanese Citizens Network of Museums for Peace
Newsletter: March 2015
The Editorial Office: Daisuke Miyahara at Peace Aichi
2-820 Yomogidai, Meitoku, Nagoya City, Aichi 465-0091
Tel/Fax: 052-602-4222
http://www.peace-aichi.com/
Editor: Kazuyo Yamane, Masahiko Yamabe, Ikuro Anzai
Translators: Mairead Hynes, Terumi Imai, Tanya S. Maus, Atsuko Takeda, Yoshiko Tanigawa, & Kyoko
Terazawa
Illstrator: Erico Tosaki
Museum Movement against “Assassins ofMemory”
Eriko Ikeda: Director of Women’s Active
MuseumOver twenty years have passed since a Korean
woman started to speak out her experiences of being
forced to work as a sex slave for Japanese militaryduring World World II and there is no sign of theconflict resolution. What is worse is that historicalrevisionists who deny the existence of “comfort
women” took over the key state positions and the
media and the social networking service are full ofdistortion and fabrications of historical facts. Whenit was announced to verify reports on “comfort
women” issues in Asahi Newspaper, it took a bashingby nationalists under the Abe government which has
been working hard to make it possible for Japan towage war in the future. It became almost a taboo todeal with the “comfort women” issue in a field of
education, media, local govenments, peace museums
and so forth. There is a long history of hiding
sexual violence by Japanese military and suppressing
the freedom of speech.
Prime Minister Abe who insistes on “beautiful Japan”
and justifies Japan’s aggression kept denying thatwomen were forced to work as sex slaves since hewas the Prime Minister in 2006 for the first time.
However, it is well known that “comfort women”
were sex slaves and it was war crime because it was aserious violation of women’s human rights not onlyin Asian countries but also all over the world. On
the other hand, victims as “comfort women” invarious countries and former Japanese soldiers who
had war experiences are very old. Therefore, theJapanese government should start investigating
victims again soon and make an official apology tothem and compensate them for damage and suffering.
We, the Japanese, have responsibility to listen to theirlast testimony and convey their memory and record to
future generations in order to prevent the same
mistakes of sex violence during the war.
Now it seems that fighting with “assassins ofmemory” who deny “comfort women” issues isfighting against the fascist regime that aims at
promoting war. Democracy after the end of WorldWar II is questioned now. Ten years have passed
since the Women’s Active Museum was opened
though it has been attacked and bullied as the only
peace museum that deals with sex slave issues inJapan. We will do our best to protect women’shuman rights in this anti-war museum that renounces
war.

Grassroots House: Kochi
Mana AbeMr. Keisuke Okamura, the vice director, attended the
8th International Conference of Museums for Peace
held at No Gun Ri Peace Memorial from Sep. 19 to
22. He made a presentation on nuclear issues:
Messages from Fukushama: Human Beings cannot
coexist with Nuclear Weapons and Nuclear Power
Plants. He used photos and posters for participants.

erico

- 1 -

Ms. Rei Shiba, a journalist, gave a lecture on thesituation in Gaza at Kochi University. She talked
with Prof. Taizo Nakanishi of Ehime Prefectural
University and participants asked them manyquestions and told them their comments. It wasorganized by Grassroots House and other NGOs.
The members celebrated its 25th anniversary in
November. A rally to celebrate the anniversary washeld on Nov. 16 and a booklet on Kou Makimura, ananti-war poet who died young, was published. It
was the 100 anniversary of his birth and the title is
Dattan Strait No. 10.(Dattan Strait is between Russia
and Sakahlin.) About 180 people gathered andlistened to Kim Yeonhwan’s lecture on history andpeace in East Asia. Kou Makimura’s poetry wasread and participants enjoyed the party.
A rally against nuclear energy was held on Nov. 24
and about 2000 people got together at Central Park in
Kochi City. They also had a peace march in threecourses.
A traditional Japanese tale based on
Barefoot Gen was told and Mr. Toshio Kimura who
used to work for Tokyo Electric Company gave alecture on nuclear issues. There were also music
and various stalls.
There was a New Year party on Jan. 18 and about 60
people enjoyed rice-cake pounding and having it. It
was a pot luck party and they enjoyed eating various
food and listening to music and songs. Mr. Keisuke
Okamura made a report of his visit of Fukushima andshowed photos there.

Included in this exhibit are the photos of thebattlefield and soldiers leaving their hometown,
paintings of their life at the war front, diaries, lettersto their family, as well as drawings and essays bychildren during the war, exposing the lives of thepeople during the war time and their sentiment. The
sections of the exhibit are (1) War and News
Report, (2) Depiction of the War, (3) End of theWar, and (4) Pass on to the Next Generation.
In a related event, Mr. Kuboyama talked about his
experience as an atomic bomb survivor in his talkentitled “The August we didn’t Hear Cicadas: theAtomic Bomb in Nagasaki” on August 16th, 2014.
Tel: 0493-35-4111
Fax: 0493-35-4112
http://www.saitama-peacemuseum.jp/

Network News

Meiji University: Noborito Museum for Peace
Education: Kawasaki City, Kanagawa
A special exhibition “Preservation of War Sites for
Peace” was held by The National Network of War
Sites Preservation from July 16 to October 25,
2014. Many of the members of the organization
showed their activities.
The 5th special exhibition “Paper and War –Noborito Institute with balloon bombs andcounterfeit bills” was held from November 19, 2014
to March 21, 2015. During the Second World War,the institute was developing two types of weapon
made from paper. One was balloon bombs and theother was counterfeit money. After November
1944, about 9,300 balloon bombs were sent up andit was said that more than one thousand balloon
bombs reached the North American continent. They
were made from Japanese paper by womenvolunteer corps. When counterfeit paper money

Peace Museum of Saitama, Higashi Matsuyama
City“The War in Photographs and Paintings” was on
display from July 17th to September 7th, 2014. Since
the beginning of the modern era, government,
military, and media, such as newspapers andpublishers, all engaged fiercely in war coverage andsent photographers and reporters, as well as the best
painters to battlefields. Those photos and paintings,
which evoked the image of war vividly, were used
for propaganda campaigns. On the other hand, sincepeople were banned from expressing their emotions
and depicting the war zone, soldiers and others notengaged in the battle wrote about the real battlefield
experiences, everyday life, and their thoughts andemotions in their personal notes and diaries.

Center of the Tokyo Raids and War Damage:Tokyo
From August 14 to 17, an exhibition for children
and parents “Watch, listen and pass on Tokyo
raids” was held. Some of the survivors talked theirexperiences and picture cards story telling was
given. On November 1 – 3, a musical, film
screening and talk session were held in a peacefestival. On December 4, a concert was given toplay the bombed piano after being repaired andreturned to the center.
Tel: 03-5857-5631 Fax: 03-5683-3326
http://www.tokyo-sensai.net/- 2 -(total amount four billion yen or forty million
dollar) was made during Jiang Jieshi government in1939 to throw the Chinese society into confusion,
the highest level printing technology was employed.
This exhibition focused on the paper-oriented arms
by showing what the paper-making skills at thattime were like and how the technology was adopted
to build balloon bombs.
Tel&Fax:044-934-7993
http://www.meiji.ac.jp/noborito/index.html

We annually hold memorial ceremony for war
victims on August 15, the last day of the war. For the
event of 2014, the students from Soai High School
sung in chorus and the graduates from Soai
University played string quartet.
Tel: 06-6947-7208 Fax: 06-6943-6080
http://www.peace-osaka.or.jp/

Shizuoka Peace Centre: Shizuoka City
From June 13 through October 26, 2014, the centre
had the special exhibition of “Children in Wartime ―Everyday for the Nation.” Japan was having a war
against China, America and England 70 years ago.
How were children at the time spending their time?
The exhibition introduced their daily lives by
displaying real materials and panels.
The special exhibition “Regeneration from the Great
Shizuoka Air Raid ― Rising up from Wreckage” isbeing held from November 14, 2014 through March
29, 2015. It shows what recovery Shizuoka City went
through after the war with photos and panels.
Explanatory material is available.
Tel & Fax: 054-271-9004
http://homepage2.nifty.com/shizuoka-heiwa/

Shiga Peace Museum: Higashi Omi City, Shiga
The museum held the 9th special exhibition “The War
through Children’s Eyes” from October 4 throughDecember 21, 2014. The exhibition introduced
circumstances in the wartime from the viewpoints ofthe people who were still young with six sections of“Rising Generation,” “Wartime Schools,” “Wartime
Lifetime,” “Air-raids in Shiga,” “Group Evacuationof
Schoolchildren,”and“Student
Work
Mobilization.” It was designed to encouragerethinking about peace beyond generations byknowing what the children of the time experienced
and thought.
Tel: 0749-46-0300 Fax: 0749-46-0350
http://www.pref.shiga.lg.jp/heiwa/heiwamuseum/

Osaka International Peace Center (Peace Osaka):
Osaka City
From September 1, 2014, the center is now closed forrenovation for the first time since its opening in 1991.

Osaka Human Rights Museum (Liberty Osaka):
Osaka City
The museum held the 69th special exhibition “TheConstitution in History” from July 22 throughSeptember 20, 2014. As Meiji Restoration had
inspired Japanese society to step out intomodernization and civilization, the movement forliberty and people’s rights, Jiyu-minken Undo, wasstarted aiming at realization of people’s politicalparticipation by establishing the Diet. The movement
resulted in many associations that had various
activities of speech and publication. The sound of theterms “liberty” and “people’s rights” gave a fresh
image to citizens at the time. Various draft
constitutions which common people participated in
preparing contained whole future aspect of the nation.
Together with a wide variety of rights, the drafts
included a thought of nationalism as well. The rights
declared in the constitution throughout the time fromthe prewar to postwar still remain today as adownright reflection of the role of constitutionalism
itself that played inside and outside the country. The
special exhibition was held to reconsider the thought
and its real picture in the drafts written at thehistorical milestone within the period from the liberty
and people’s rights movement, which was developed
to realize constitutionalism, through the establishmentof Japan’s constitution after the war. The display had
four sections; I Discussion toward Constitution, II
Rights and Duties, III People’s Rights of Association
and IV Background of the Constitution.
An associated symposium “Historical meaning of theConstitution” was held on September 6, 2014,inviting Katsuhiro ARAI (Senshu University) and
Hitonari ISHII (Hitotsubashi University).
The special exhibition “History of Human Rights in
the Collection” was held from November 18, 2014
through March 19, 2015. The exhibition showed ourselective collection arranged chronologically.
Tel: 06-6561-5891 Fax: 06-6561-5995
http://www.liberty.or.jp/- 3 -Sakai City Peace and Human Rights Museum:
Sakai City, Osaka
We held the special photo exhibition “Living on the
Earth: DAYS JAPAN” on August 20-28, 2014 at
Sophia Sakai. By displaying about 40 winning photos
of DAYS International Photo Journalism Awards in2013 and 2014 that sharply depict the problems ofpeople and the Earth, the exhibition delivered real
aspect of our planet including wars, disasters andenvironmental pollutions. Through the works of theworldwide photo journalists, while it encouraged
visitors to go over issues of people and the Earth andrepeated tragedies in the changing world, it also letthem think about preciousness of life, peace andenvironment protection and what we can do now. The
photo exhibition included works on the subjects ofcontinuous conflicts around the world like Syria,
where it has been getting more serious, refugees andfamine, poverty and the accident of Tohoku nuclear
plants. They rendered individual images of individual
humans in the world’s major problems, which are
unseen from the everyday news.
The special exhibition “Peace thought from
Auschwitz” was held from October 1 throughDecember 28, 2014. The exhibition was held to think
about importance of protecting human rights,
preciousness of peace and misery of war, through thephotos taken in Auschwitz by German and Soviet
militaries during the recent world war.
Tel: 072-270-8150 Fax: 072-270-8159
http://www.city.sakai.lg.jp/shisei/jinken/jinken/heiwa
jinkenshiryokan/

Suita Peace Memorial Center : Osaka
The special exhibit “Memories of Kobe—My Town
and the War” was held from July 29 to August 24,
2014, and featured the paintings of Kazuko Toyota,
a Kobe native and Buddhist painter who
experienced the aerial bombing of Kobe as anelementary student, and the Great Kobe Air Raid at
the age of 16. The exhibit featured a number ofpaintings depicting daily life in pre-war and war-era
Kobe, drawn in a delicate style that conveys thehorror of the aerial bombings and the reality ofdaily life during war. It was hoped that the exhibit
would encourage not only adults, but also thechildren—our future leaders—to understand theimportance of peace.
Accompanying the exhibit, Kazuko Toyota gave atalk on her life in pre-war and war-era Kobe

(August 9, 2014; multipurpose room, 8th floor,
Senri New Town Plaza).
Tel:06-6876-7793 Fax:06-6873-7796
http://www.city.suita.osaka.jp/home/soshiki/div-jin
ken/jinken/_56228.html

Himeji Historical Peace Center : Hyogo
An Autumn Exhibition was held from Oct. 4 to Dec.
21, 2014. The theme was “the children injured
mentally and physically through the war”. The lack offood, clothing and shelter damaged children
seriously. This exhibition showed the miserable
lives of the children in and after the war.
The displayed materials were borrowed from Kyoto
Museum for World Peace at Ritsumeikan University.
There were kamishibai (a story illustrated withpicture cards), sugoroku (a traditional Japanese board
game played with dice), clothes, textbooks, pictures,etc. The number of the materials was about 300 invarious types.
In those days, kamishibai was used to encouragechildren’s cooperation to the war, which was edited
and made into the film for this exhibition.
The contents of this exhibition were as follows.
1. US air raids and evacuation: more than 400
thousand pupils were evacuated, and schoolbuildings were burned.
2. Rations: Cotton goods were first disappeared,
and foods came to be rationed. The short supply
caused prevalence of black market. The tickets
were used to exchange daily necessaries.
3. Departure to the front and return dead: People
built monuments to the faithful who died inbattle. Gradually, child soldiers were sent to thefront; army and navy had the system of childsoldiers.
4. Kamishibai: it became the tool to advertisenational policy.
5. School and school life: the educational system
was changed through the war. Juniorhigh-school students had to work on the farm orin arsenals. The number of school lessons wasless than half.
6. Toys: There were few toy products with few
materials.
7. Health: The average weight of children was
decreased because of malnutrition.
Relatively, a meeting was held on Nov. 3, to listen to- 4 -the speech of Kendai Kuroda, who experienced US
air raids on Himeji.
http://www.city.himeji.lg.jp/heiwasiryo/

Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Museum: Nagasaki
The 2014 First Annual Exhibit “Materials from theNagasaki Museum Collection” took place
7/23-9/28/2014 in the basement second-level
exhibit hall. Included among the exhibit items
were newly donated artifacts (from July 2013 toJune 2014) and 26 photographs of atomic bombing
survivors taken by Paul Henshaw, PhD, whichwere gathered from photographs originally
included in the 2013 United States National
Records and Archives Administration Holdings
Exhibit I.
Tel:095-844-1231 Fax:095-846-5170
http://www1.city.nagasaki.nagasaki.jp/peace/

Nagasaki National Peace Memorial Hall for the
Atomic Bombing Victims: Nagasaki
The 3rd Annual Exhibit on Experiences of Atomic
Bomb Survivors, “Remembering Family” took placefrom 7/1-12/22/2014 in the basement second-floor
photograph and reading room. Because of the atomic
bombing, the majority of survivors experienced
painful separations from their families. We titled thisexhibit“Remembering
Family”
andusedrecollections taken from journals documenting theexperience of the bombing which were compiled in
1995 by the Ministry of Health, Labor, and Welfare,and which were donated to our museum.
Tel:095-814-0055 Fax:095-814-0056
http://www.peace-nagasaki.go.jp/

Nagasaki Peace Museum: Nagasaki
The exhibit for Okamoto Kiyoko, the illustrator of
the kamishibai “Kayoko Sakura” was held from
7/8-8/3/2014, “The Kunimatsu Makoto Exhibit:
Photographs of the Nagasaki Dome and Old
Urakami Cathedral” was held from 8/5-8/31/14,
and the exhibit “Horses at War: Considering War
and Peace through the War Horse Memorial” washeld from 12/2/14-1/25/15.
Tel:095-818-4247
http://www.nagasakips.com/

Okinawa Prefectural Peace Memorial Museum:
Itoman CityThe 2nd Annual Children’s Exhibit “Challenge!
Open Research in Summer Vacation” was heldfrom 7/19-8/31/2014. Materials related to the every
day lives of individuals during the Battle of
Okinawa and wartime Japan were introduced toencourage open research into that area. The 3rd
Annual Children’s exhibit “The Road to the Battleof Okinawa: What Happened 70 Years Ago—The
Oct. Ten Air Raid and the Mobilizations of Local
Residents” was held from 9/19-11/20/2014. In
2014, it was the 70th anniversary of the deploymentof the Okinawa defense forces, the Battle of Saipan.
School evacuations, the sinking of the
Tsushimamaru, and the Oct. Ten Air Raid that led
to the Battle of Okinawa. The 70th anniversary ofthese events provided us an opportunity to reflect
deeply on war and peace through the opening of our
exhibit. The 15th Annual Special Exhibit, “Utopias
and Battles under the Stars of the South China Sea”
was held from 10/9-12/11/2014. Over the past 70
years, the Old South Sea islands including Saipan
and Tinian have been at the center of violent
Japanese and American conflict. Furthermore, those
who migrated to these islands from Okinawa
prefecture became embroiled in land battles. We
opened this exhibit to memorialize those who
migrated to the old South Sea Archipelago who
experienced land battles and were repatriated to
Okinawa.
Tel:098-997-3844 Fax:098-997-3947
http://www.peace-museum.pref.okinawa.jp/

Kyoto Museum for World Peace: Kyoto
Kazuyo Yamane
As for activities from September, a special
exhibition on Vietnam War was held from Sep. 14
to Oct. 9 in 2014. Photos taken by Bunyou
Ishikawa are powerful even today. On the other
hand peace movement against Vietnam War was
exhibited from Oct. 21 to Dec. 14.
An exhibit was displayed at Anti-Nuclear
Exhibition for Peace in Ibarkii City and somestudents explained various issues on peace, humanrights, environment, and sustainable developmentusing big dice.
College students visited the peace museum invarious classes such as “Introduction to Peace
Studies” and they wrote essays. Teachers were- 5 -

invited to visit the peace museum eight times in
July and August and 368 teachers attended it from123 schools. Some exhibitions were held bystudents of Ritsumeikan elementary school, juniorhigh school and high school from October toDecember. Children of other elementary schooland secondary school also visited the peacemuseum.
There is a network of art museums and museums of
14 universities in Kyoto and an exhibition wasmade at Tohoku History Museum from Nov. 1 to
30. There was also an exhibition titled “Voice ofHeart: See, Feel and Think” and this was reported
on TV on Nov. 2 and also in newspaper.

Museums in China

Opened Mukden POW Museum and Liaoyuan
High-class POW Museum under construction
Fuyuko Nishisato: Journalist/ member of POW
Research Network
Mukden, now called Shenyang, was a big city of theold Manchukuo. The POW camp opened in lateautumn of 1942 initially had detained more than
1,400 American and 100 British soldiers including 16
Australians and one New Zealander, and then asignificant number from the Royal Netherlands East
Indies Army were there among about 480 captives
arriving from POWs in the Philippines and Japan’s
mainland from April through May in 1945.
Japanese military, which invaded Malay Peninsula,Hong Kong, the Philippines and Dutch East Indies atthe same time as its Pearl Harbor attack, captured
140,000 officers and soldiers of the Allies. As thequote “Never live to experience shame as a prisoner”
had been drilled into Japanese soldiers, they despised
and abused the surrendering prisoners. Many tell
the same awful stories: the captives were so densely
crammed into freight cars that some of them choked
to death, or they were squashed into dark bottom oftransport boats for dozens of days being forced to use
few buckets for their stool. American soldiers at the
Mukden POW camp all surrendered in the Philippinesand many of them had experienced the Bataan Death
March. The prisoners had been also ill-treated at thecamps in the Philippines being abused regularly by
the guards. The food was poor and they were in thestate of chronic starvation. The British prisoners
had been captured when Singapore fell and more than

200 of them lost their lives in the first winter as they
were sent from tropics to frozen region in theirsummer clothes. From 2003, a group of Chinese
people living in America, Shenyang city, Liaoning
Sheng and Beijing Government jointly prepared tobuild a POW camp museum at the old camp site in
Shenyang city. Within ten years to its opening, themuseum collected various items and relics for its
display and had some symposiums inviting
researchers of issue of imprisonment and the US
veterans who were the prisoners and their families.
The museum is also a symbol of the friendship andbond between China and the US from the sense ofconnectedness of having gone through the abuse by
Japanese troops. The camp in Shenyang was built
next to a factory of Manchu Work and Machine Tool
where the prisoners were forced to work there.
Located in the camp site, the museum keeps one
lodgment to show inside as it was when used as acamp. Although there were 130 POW camps of theAllies in Japan, only few places maintain theirappearances now because they have become “the pastthat people would like to forget” in the course of
postwar events of becoming war crime and having
death penalties for prisoner abuse. In 1945, a campfor high-class officers was established in Xian, Jilin(currently called Liaoyuan) 240 km away from
Shenyang where officers in commanding class of the
US Troops in the Philippines, British Army in
Singapore and Dutch East Indies Army were sentfrom Taiwan. There is another museum currently
under construction. We visited there under the
conduct of Prof. Yang Jing, the head of Mukden
POW research department of Shenyang University,and were welcomed by the chief of Liaoyuan
Municipal Culture Bureau of Press and Publicationand others.

The 8th International Conference ofMuseums for Peace
About 60 Japanese people attended the international
conference on Sep. 19-22.
They enjoyed exchanging ideas with otherparticipants: there were over 200 participants from 35
countries.
Prof. Ikuro Anzai asked people to donate money anda guidebook of the conference with abstracts inJapanese was made as well as a booklet of theirimpression after the conference. It was also possible- 6 -to hire interepreters for the Japanese participants who
could not understand English.
Here are some abstracts of Japanese participants.

Current Situation and Problems of Education in
Museums for Peace in Japan: A Case Study ofAuschwits Peace Museum in Japan
Tatsuya hagiwara: Student of Tamagawa
University
It is expected to promote peace education atmuseums for peace. It is important for young
people and ordinary citizens to learn the present
system in order to change the war system and war
culture as Betty Readon pointed out. An emphasis
is put on Auschwits Peace Museum because great
efforts have been made to educate young people
who will make the better future.
The peacemuseum was founded in Tochigi Prefecture in 2000
and then moved to Fukushima in 2003. Before theopening, artifacts from Państwowe Muzeum
Auschwitz-Birkenau w Oświęcimiu in Poland were
exhibited in 110 times from 1988 to 1999. One of
the characteristics of this peace museum is that it ispossible for visitors to learn the importance of lifeand peace through the exhibition and various eventson Aushwitz. Various activities for peace havebeen supported by the members of the peacemuseum as well as volunteers, which is one of theattractive points of the peace museum.

How Historical Truth is/isn’t Shown at Museums
for Peace
Kazuyo Yamane: Vice Director of Kyoto
Museum for World Peace
Hong Lei, a news chief of the Chinese Ministry ofForeign Affairs criticized Prime Minister Shinzo
Abe that Japan still denies Japan’s aggression ofother countries in World War II. The relation
between Japan and China/Korea is worse than lastyear. School history textbooks that will be used in2015 have little description on Japan’s aggression.
What can and should be done under suchcircumstances in Japan? This is a big issue thatshould be dealt with because this is one of thereasons for conflicts between Japan and other Asian
nations.
There are some museums for peace where visitors
can learn historical truth while it is hidden on
purpose. It is not easy to show dark sides ofhistory such as Japan’s aggression at museums forpeace in Japan or the atomic bombing at American
museums in the United States. It is easier to show
victim sides of a country. But unless historical
truth is shown, it would not be possible for visitors
to learn the reality of war and think what to do forpeace comprehensively.
There are museums
showing one side of war, the other side of war andalso showing war and peace comprehensively.
Some museums for peace will be examined to think
this issue.
Many public museums for peace tend to show
Japan’s victim side of World War II such as atomic
bombing and US air raids of various cities whilesome private museums for peace show Japan’s
aggression honestly and comprehensively.
It
seems that one of the important factors in making
exhibitions based on historical truth is to reflect on
the past history honestly with ethical viewpoints.
Many citizens and young people have not been
informed of Japan’s aggression of other countries atschool and through the media. This could lead tojustifying another aggression of other countries byJapan in the future. Once they learn historicalfacts, they would feel empathy toward victims ofJapan’s aggression and start to think what they can
do for the better future.
Conscientious citizens’ roles in peace making areanother important factor. What is necessary inJapan where nationalism is getting more serious?
It is more citizens’ participation in peace making
through museums for peace. This is because it isnecessary to educate and encourage visitors tocontribute to peace making even if it is small. If
small efforts are connected by local, national,
regional and international network, they would be
able to play important roles in peace education andpeace making. The roles of each museum forpeace and the INMP are very important to prevent
future war and create a culture of peace not only
locally but also globally.

Toshifumi Murakami : Peace Education in
Okinawa, Japan; The Role of Peace Museum in
Okinawa
My presentation is about peace education in
Okinawa, Japan. It considers the passing on the war
memory on the Battle of Okinawa in the Second
World War. I conducted an opinion survey of
elementary and junior high school students in- 7 -Okinawa Prefecture in 2012. I present the situationof peace education and the method of peaceeducation in Okinawa. According to the survey,
more than 90% of primary and secondary school
students answer that they heard stories about theBattle of Okinawa. It means that the students know
well about the war history in Okinawa. The story of
the Battle of Okinawa has been passed on by war
survivors, school teachers and peace museums
although nearly 70 years have passed after the lastwar.
Okinawa Prefectural Peace Memorial Museum was
opened in 1975. Near the museum, the Cornerstoneof Peace was set up in 1995 as a monument
commemorating war dead in the Battle of Okinawa.
The names of over two hundred and forty thousand
persons who lost their lives are inscribed on thememorial. It is inscribed with the names of all those
who died, regardless of nationality and civilian or
military status.
The war history of Okinawa has formed a strong
anti-war attitude among elementary and junior highschool students. Under that influence, they think thatthe whole JapaneseJapanese Research Trends on Museums for
Peace; With a Focus on the Activity of Study
Group of Museums for Peace
Ariyuki FUKUSHIMA, Yuki IWAMA
This presentation reports mainly on Study Group ofMuseums for Peace (SGMP) to review the Japanesesituation of research on museums for peace (MP).
SGMP is the only research group in Japan whichaims for study of MP. It plays an important role of aforum for discussing and sharing information, andpromoting MP research in Japan which is in the
beginning phase of MP study.
SGMP is a relatively small group which wascomposed of researchers and curators. It wasorganized by young historians and museologists
lived in Kyoto, and after that, it has been getting
more members from various places and majors.
Present member’s research fields are not only
history and museology, but also peace studies,sociology, anthropology, constitutional law, areastudies and so on. This multi-faceted approach is thesignificance of SGMP. This point enables SGMP toconsider the theme profoundly.
Japanese general research trends on MP are below.
In 1990s, researchers of peace studies and staffs of

MP had committed in the research, but mostly it wasworking on within their circles. In 2000s, a period ofheating arguments over the “memories of the war”,
others started suddenly to talk about war displays inmuseums. Since 2010, MP studies by many kinds ofspecialist have been increasing. We could see somerise of MP study also from architecture.
In the above tendency, SGMP members have beenpresenting their research on MP at each field theseyears. For example, some members made an index
of previous MP research for the 6th International
Conference of Museums for Peace, and published it.
Others had presentations in their associations
including The Japanese Society for Historical
Studies, The Japan Society for the Study of Adultand Community Education and The Peace Studies
Association of Japan. Discussing about MP at
SGMP and returning the results of it to their fields,
members are forming some streams of MP study
connected with people’s recent interest. Now,
SGMP’s problems are that publishing research
results are still few and it inclines certain topics, sothey are thinking of making an opportunity to
discuss about MP wider and having some academic
journal as an outlet of research.

The Project Anne Frank Meet and Learn
Kazuya Asakawa
To commemorate 80th anniversary of Anne Frank,
34 bilingual panels to exhibit about Anne Frank andthe Holocaust were made in 2009. There were
exhibitions in Sophia University or other places inJapan at that time but they are not in public
afterward, only some churches held exhibitions.
Then the volunteers from JEARN, Japan associationof education and resource Network,formed a groupand made aproject, Anne Frank Meet and Learn incooperated with Global Campaign for Peace
Education Japan to make use of it. The panels arelent to a school or public facilities. In this paper letme share ideas to utilize those resources more.

Churiken Peace Memorial
Matsumura Takao
Chukiren Peace Memorial Hall was established as a
NPO at Tsurugashima, Kawagoe City in Saitama
Prefecture in 2006 to prevent the documents relating
to Chukiren from being scattered and lost. Chukirenmeans the Association of Returnees from China. The- 8 -Memorial Hall houses many important documents
and films including almost 200 memoranda in which
Japanese war veterans tell all the gristy things they
have done and seen while posted in China. Besidethem about 50,000 books regarding war and peace
are hold in the Hall. All of them are opened to the
public. The 969 war criminals were delivered fromthe Soviet Union to China in 1950 to be put in the
Fushun War Criminals Superintendent’s Office,where they were treated humanely by a “generous
policy” of China and eventually in the course of
several years they criticized themselves as to what
they had done in China during the war. Eventually
nobody was executed and all of them returned toJapan by 1964. This rare case in human history has
been called as “Fushin’s miracle” in that the Chinese
victims have forgiven the Japanese war criminals
who had assaulted the Chinese. Thereafter a greatpart of the returnees from China formed Chukiren inorder to promote the friendly relationship between
the Japanese and the Chinese in particular, andpeace movements in Japan in general. In my paper I
would like to talk about peace movements carried on
by Chukiren in Japan and then about the present
activities of the Memorial Hall.

Guiding and Dialogue at a Peace Museum; Canpeace museums become a space to promotemutual understanding and a relationship oftrust?
Yoshiko Tanigawa
Kyoto Museum for World Peace, Ritsumeikan
University shares its information and peace
messages with lots of visitors from different
backgrounds. There are citizen volunteer guides
working for the museum in the past twenty years. It
has had about 50,000 visitors per a year. One of themain goals of this museum is to display sincerely
the fact that Japan once was both a positive
aggressor and a tragic victim during the war time.
When having visitors from overseas, above all, fromthe countries which Japan had aggressed against or
had been attacked by in the past, the guids face asensitive sentiment. In front of the real materials
depicting past tragic events such as massacres in
Asia-Pacific countries as well as A-bombings on
Hiroshima and Nagasaki by the U.S., we ask toourselves how we can talk to the visitors. Beyond
the tragic past memories and a hostile national
sentiment still observed among the citizens, in what

way peace museums can become a place to promotereconciliation and relationship of trust by guiding?
As a citizen volunteer guide, I will introduce myexperiences in guiding foreign visitors to exchange
the ideas regarding this issue.

“Hiroshima Panels” for Remembering Human
Pain; Focusing on “Crows” which Depicts
Korean Victims
Yukinobu Okamura and Takayuki Kodera at
MARUKI GALLERY FOR THE HIROSHIMAPANELS
The meaning of a painting on atomic bombing today
Mr. Iri Maruki and his partner, Ms. Toshi Maruki,
painted a picture of atomic bombing and Nanjing
Masaccre. Various activities at Maruki Gallery
will be introduced such as art exhibitions on US
military bases in Okinawa and nuclear accidents inFukushima as well as lectures and concerts. (byKodera) The Hiroshima Panels will be introducedwith an emphasis on drawing Koreans. Historicalconcepts of the East Asia are complicated today.
The present meaning of Mr. & Mrs. Maruki’s
paintings will be discussed, for they expressed
human pains beyond nation and ethnicity. (ByOkamura)The Significance of a “Comfort Woman”
Museum in Japan; Fighting Revisionism:
Grassroots Support for “Comfort Women”
Eriko Ikeda: Director of Women’s Active
Museum
It is said that Japan has museums on war and peace
most in the world, but Women’s Active Museum on
War and Peace(wam) is the only peace museum that
deals with women who were forced to work as sex
slaves in World War II. It was founded in August,2000. Nationalists started to suppress memory andrecords of women who started speaking out overtwenty years, which influenced politics, educationand the media greatly. However, Japanese women
have been dealing with Japan’s aggression andvictims. I would like to make clear the roles andimportance of the movement of citizens and women
who have been fighting against nationalists.

How Kyoto Museum for World Peace wasfounded: the collaboration of peace movement- 9 -and a private university.
Akira Ito: A member of the Association ofFriends of Peace at Kyoto Museum for World
Peace
Kyoto Museum was founded in 1992 with thecollaboration of citizens’ movement for peace andRitsumeikan University, a private one.
War
exhibition for peace was held by citizens and they
asked Ritsumeikan University to found a peacemuseum. Students of Ritsumeikan University weresent to battlefields and it was decided to make peaceand democracy as ideas of education after the end ofWorld War II.

Mugonkan Art Museum
Kazuma Hayashi, Curator of the Mugonkan in Nagano, Japan
The Art Memorial Museum for the Fallen Art
Students called Mugonkan is in the suburbs of Ueda
City in the eastern part of Nagano Prefecture.
Students who wanted to draw paintings and makesculptures instead were sent to battlefields to die
during the war between Japanand China and thePacific War. Their art works, materials and tools
used in painting such as paints and palettes, andletters to their family and friends were stored up
and exhibited. The Mugonkan began withapproximately 100 works of more than 30 art
students at the time of opening in 1997, but sincethen we havecollected approximately 700 works of
124 art students who died in the war. As for theseworks, many were kept for decades by bereaved
relatives and friends of the artists. We haveaccepted these works and try to preserve, manage
and show them in various parts of Japan. In
addition, we also monitor their condition and where
necessary try to repair them. The Mugonkan is an
art museum which aims to convey the heart of art
students who continued to think about art even in
war time and also the horror of the war that was
merciless and robbed them of their future. We thinkthat there are surely things that shouldbehandeddown to us who are living at the present time, 70
years after the war. The art museum wishes toconvey not merely sorrow, but also hope and joy forthe living. The Museum started out by searching forart works by students whose future was destroyedby the war. We have information on two
non-Japanese art students. We would like to collectinformation on many fallen art students acrossborders. The Mugonkan is a small art museum
which is perhaps rather unique and which welcomes
information related to the subject. Please contact
hayashi@mugonkan.jp

Kyoto Museum for World Peace in the 2010s;
Acting as a University-run Peace Museum
Junko Kanekiyo
Japan has the largest number of peace museums in
the world. The development of peace museums inJapan derives from unique context surrounding eachera of post world war 2 Japanese society.
In the 1980s, more peace museums were built by the
support of anti-war sentiment. Peace museums
strove to present both perpetrator side and victim
side of Japanese history in the 1990s. Enhancementof new ideas for peace became an important issue inthe 2000s. Then, we are searching for the function
we can serve in the post 3.11 society.
Kyoto Museum for World Peace challenges this newrole through supporting young minds studying
history and working together in East Asia (programs
such as Campus Asia), enhancing student activities(supporting student exhibitions and developing
student staff), establishing research centre (ongoingproject), and organizing exhibitions and programs
corresponding to 3.11(mass earth quake and tsunami
and nuclear power plant accident in 2011). The
paper examines the unique role of university run
peace museum in the post 3.11 Japanese society.

The Reception of Berta von Suttner in Japan and
the Meaning of Her Thought and Movement for
Today
Osamu Itoigawa
About Bertha von Suttner’s anti-war novel, Lay
Down Your Arms (1889), her friend Alfred Nobel
hoped for its worldwide circulation: “Certainly there
is not one [language] in which your delightful work
should not be translated, read and studied” he wrote
to her. However, compared to her reputation in
Europe, von Suttner is not so well known in Japan.
In the first place, for a long time, there was no
Japanese translation of Lay Down Your Arms. To
remedy this situation, the Bertha von Suttner Society
in Japan (of which the present author, and also
Kazuyo Yamane are founding members), haspublished the first Japanese translation of the novelin 2011. In parallel with the publication of the novel,- 10 -

Bertha von Suttner exhibitions have been held on
several occasions in Japan. These activities havecontributed to the re-discovery and re-evaluation ofher life and work in Japan. In my presentation, I will
review the reception of Bertha von Suttner in Japanand introduce the activities of the Bertha vonSuttner Society. I will also try to point out what we
could learn today from her as a peace movement
pioneer for the abolition of war.

Greetings on behalf of the “No More Hibakusha
Project-- Inheriting Memories of the A-and
H-Bomb Sufferers”
Kazuhisa
Ito
:
No
More
Hibakusha
Project--Inheriting Memories of the A and
H-Bomb Sufferers
Mkisou Iwasa: the Chair of the Association to
Store
Memories
for
No
More
Hiroshima-Nagasaki Hibakusha
Atomic bomb survivors called hibakusha in
Hiroshima and Nagasaki have been suffering fromterrible damage, but they have been active toprevent the next nuclear war. The association wasorganized on December 10 in order to make suchhibakusha’s strong wish the memory heritage ofhuman beings, convey it to the future generations
and make it as a guidepost for the better future. The
main ideas are as follows:
1. Collect records and materials on hibakusha’s
experiences, their movement for peace and their
history, putting them in order, and use them forpeace education.
2. Educate supporters who carry on hibakusha’s
experiences and wishes and disseminate them.
3. Establish a center to realize such activities.
4. Ask the government to make clear damage doneby the atomic bombs and disseminate the real factsof the atomic bombing

Animal Victims of the Great East Japan
Earthquake
Usa Tanaka
The Great East Japan Earthquake, the largest
earthquake in Japan’s recorded history, occurred on
March 3, 2011, at 2:46 in the afternoon. In thegiant tsunami that followed the earthquake, many
human lives were lost. At the same time, many
animals also lost their lives.
According to a report released by the Ministry of theEnvironment, entitled “Records Regarding Animal
Victims of the Great East Japan Earthquake,” there
were 3,133 canine deaths. However, this reportwas based only on figures from municipalities which
kept records, and many did not. This number isonly a tiny fraction of the actual number of deaths.
There are no records at all regarding feline victims,
since the system for keeping records about canine
deaths was initially created as a rabies-prevention
measure. The same is true for other animals, suchas rabbits, hamsters, and birds. In addition, manyof the domestic animals left in the evacuation zone
after the Fukushima nuclear disasters starved todeath or were culled. It is thought that this number
may exceed 450,000.
An unimaginable number of animals lost their lives.
However, I have learned that many of theseanimals could certainly have been saved, and would
have been if they had been humans. That is why I
have created and organized an exhibit called“Precious Little Lives Lost in the Earthquake.” In
this exhibit, about 100 artists and illustrators fromJapan and abroad who shared my vision createdportraits of animal victims of the earthquake basedon requests from their owners. The drawings havebeen exhibited in Japan and abroad, and after
exhibition are given to the owners. At present,
there have been exhibitions at 46 venues, and 150
drawings have been given to owners.
This paper will discuss my motivation for creating
the exhibit “Precious Little Lives Lost in the
Earthquake,” and the valuable lessons we can learn
from the experience of the Great East Japan
Earthquake.

Collaboration between the ‘War RemnantsMuseum’(Vietnam）and the ‘Kyoto Museum forWorld Peace Ritsumeikan University’(Japan);
For the Dioxin Victims and World Peace
Movement
Ryotaro Katsura
The relationship between our museum and the War
Remnants Museum in Ho Chi Minh City, Viet Nam,started with a visit to the War Remnants Museum bymembers of our senior staff, including Dr. Anzai,
the Honorary Director. The Kyoto Museum forWorld Peace Ritsumeikan University was opened In
1992. After the staff’s visit to Viet Nam, an
exhibition booth for the Viet Nam War was set up
here at our museum . Photos by Goro Nakamura are- 11 -

exhibited there, including shots of “Viet and Duc”
taken when they were children, and pictures of theserious damage caused by defoliants. And I had
many chances to meet Prof. Fujimoto, chairpersonon ‘Negau-Kai’ (Society to Support Viet and Duc’s
wish to grow up) and much influences from theiractivities.
. Now, thanks to my visiting the War RemnantsMuseum, and due to the importance I now place on
the joint study of the Science of Peace and theScience of Social Welfare, I am continuing mystudies by focusing on the field of Social Welfare in
Asia. And I decided to publish a book “Dioxin
Unforgettable Responsibilities: Viet&Duc andWorld Peace.”

Social Change through Educational Exhibits andInformation
Dissemination:
Roleof
YadVashem Memorial Museum and Peace
Movement in Israeli Civil Society
Kiroko Yoshimura
The Israeli National Museum, YadVashem, wasestablished with a goal to prevent recurrence of the
Holocaust by preserving its memory anddisseminating information. It cannot be denied,
however, that the same museum is being employed
to heighten nationalist sentiment and to justify
Zionism. On the other hand, NGO/NPOs in Israeli
civil society utilize small-scale exhibits andeducational activities to foster mutual understandingat the grassroots level and to construct a peacefulsociety based on co-existence.
This presentation focuses on the role and social
influence of the educational exhibits and awarenessactivities in Israeli civil society based on thiswriter’s research in Israel in 2013. In particular, it
draws comparison between YadVashem Memorial
Museum and Israel NGOs such as Zochrot andBreaking the Silence by evaluating their respectiveroles, influence and effectiveness in information
dissemination and social change.

Exhibition―Create future by learning the past
Kiyoshi Ikeda (Kobe Shoin Women’s University)
Kyoko Terazawa (Kobe YWCA Peace-building
Group)
There are similarities in Japan’s situation between
the present and around 1930.
First, the Great Kanto Earthquake (1923) madepeople distrustful of the government. So, thegovernment tried to focus people’s attention on
foreign affairs, enacting the General Mobilization
Order, which oppressed socialists and foreigners
living in Japan. Similarly, since the Great East
Earthquake (2011), the government has drawn
people’s attention to foreign problems like theSenkaku islands.
Secondly, the Great Depression in 1929 increased
the number of unemployed people, and enlarged thegap between the rich and the poor. The Lehman
Crash (2008) had a similar effect on the global
economy, which led to the gap-widening society,and a growing number of non-regular employees.
Thirdly, the national debt in 1937 was about 50% ofJapan’s GDP. It rapidly rose to 200% in 1914, with
the increase of military expenses. Similarly, thenational debt in 1992 was 50% of Japan’s GDP, androse to 200% in 2010.
Fourthly, the current government established theSecret Information Protection Act, which is similar
to the Maintenance of Public Order Act, to conceal
information from people. The cabinet is eager toreinterpret the Constitution to allow Japan toexercise the right to collective self-defense. It
intends to neglect the “Peace Constitution,” without
listening to public opinion. There might be the riskthat “history repeats itself.”
Now, politics and the economy are closely
connected. In a society with the supremacy of
economy, social justice and ethics are likely to belost, and the value of democracy to be neglected,
which may lead to the risk of terrorism or wars.
What is most important now is people’s
grassroots movement to build peace. Museums for
Peace are expected to play an important role in“creating the future by learning the past.”

DVD
THE GHOSTS OF JEJU by Regis Tremblay
A shocking documentary about the struggle of thepeople of Jeju Island, S. Korea. Set in the context of
the American presence in Korea after World War II,
the film reveals horrible atrocities at the hands of
the U.S. Military Government of Korea.
Using previously secret and classified photos, film
and documents, this will be the first
English-language documentary about the struggle ofthe brave people of Gangjeong Village who are- 12 -

opposing the military advance of the United States,
just as their parents and relatives did in 1947. As
then, they are being arrested, jailed, fined, andhospitalized for resisting the construction of a
massive naval base that will accommodate
America's “pivot to Asia,” and will destroy their 400
year old village and their UNESCO protectedenvironment.
And yet, the indomitable spirit of the villagers andtheir supporters, who have not lost hope in spite ofoverwhelming odds, will inspire and motivate
everyone who believes there is a better way to live
together on this planet.
http://www.theghostsofjeju.net/product/the-ghosts-of-jeju/New Publications"Let's hand down tragedies of Hiroshima andNagasaki to the generations to come"Authored and supervised by Ikuro Anzai
Published by Shin-Nihon Shuppansha
Five volume books for younger generations inJapanese, consisting of (1) Devils coming down fromthe Heaven, (2) What happened under the mushroom
clouds, (3) Lessons to be learnt from the history, (4)Meanings of nuclear arms, and (5) Let us think about
peace and act for peace.
The author hopes the books will be widely read bychildren through school libraries at thiscommemorative year of 70th anniversary of atomic
bombing on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Editors’ Notes
We would like to thank Ms. Mairead Hynes, Ms.
Terumi Imai, Ms. Tanya S. Maus, Ms. Atsuko
Takeda, Ms. Yoshiko Tanigawa, & Ms. Kyoko
Terazawa for translating Muse Newsletter.
Museums for Peace are introduced in this issue
and history museums are not included.

- 13 -