Muse No. 41
Japanese Citizens Network of Museums for Peace
Newsletter: June 2020
Translators: Atsuko Akamatsu & Emi Karimata
Editors: Ikuro Anzai & Kazuyo Yamane
Ilustrators：Erico Tosaki, Pegge Patten, & Koen Vlerick
musejapankyoto@gmail.com

The 10th International Peace Museum Conference will
be not an "attendance-based conference, but as an"online conference.
The meeting will open on September 16, 2020.
INMP Coordinator: Ikuro Anzai
In light of the spread of new coronavirus infections, I am pleased to announce as the INMP generalcoordinator that we will organize the 10th International Peace Museum Conference online scheduled for
September. The conference was proposed to be held as an "online conference". The conference will makefull use of electronic communication technology to allow any INMP members worldwide to participate
online. The deadline of the registration for presentations at the conference has been changed to June 15,
2020. On top of that, the final deadline for video, audio and powerpoint presentations and other materials
for presentation is August 20, 2020. We hope that you will be active in reporting on the Peace Museum's
activities and theory, etc. on the following pages. We invite you to join us.

Deadline for the registration: June 15th, 2020
Final deadline of presentation materials: August 20th, 20201

How to Register your Presentation
So far, we have more than 10 members who have signed up to present. Those
people do not have to sign up again. If you have signed up for airfare or lodging,please cancel.
New applicants for presentation should follow the instructions below.
You are requested to prepare the following information.
(1) Name of the person responsible for the application(2) E-mail Address(3) Title of Presentation(4) Type of Presentation(5) Abstract of Presentation(6) Name and E-mail Addresses of Co-authors①

Paper sessions (15 minutes)

The presentation may be (a) Case Studies or Reports, such as a description of a peace museum, memorialor park; (b) Report on a project, program or Special Event, including research reports and peace education
programs.
The presenter is requested to record a 15-minute video with audio on his or her smartphone or using
Zoom system, etc. and send it to the organizing committee. If you want to present it simply as a report or apaper, without video or audio, please send the text and a crisp diagram to the organizing committee.
②

Workshop (40 minutes)

Workshop presentations provide participants with instruction or exercises (such as in empathic listening;writing poems; origami; etc.) or other hands-on experiences.
Workshop organizers are required to notify the organizing committee of the content, speakers, date and timeof workshop, etc., and to conduct and record the workshop as a web conference, zoom meeting, webinar, etc.
for member participation as much as possible and send it to the organizing committee.
③
Panel sessions (25 minutes)
Panel sessions will provide an opportunity for three or more presenters to speak on various aspects of a topic.
Submissions for panel sessions should include a title and description for each panel member as well as a title
and description for the overall topic or theme.
Panel Session organizers are required to notify the organizing committee of the content, speakers, date andtimeof the session,etc., forand inquiry:
to conduct andrecord the panel as a web conference, zoom meeting, webinar,●Contact
address
inmp.ecommunications@gmail.com
etc. Ifforyou
memberas muchas howpossibleand send
to the organizingincluding
committee.
haveparticipation
any questions
about
to record
theit presentation,technical aspects

regarding Web Conference, Zoom Meeting, Webinar, etc., please do not hesitate to send themto the address above, where the INMP 2020 Special Technical Advisors will be available.

2ericoConsider the Post-War Process 75 years

diplomacy, Japan's diplomatic posture

after WWII.

and response seems to lack initiative anddoes not learn lessons from history. It iswith this in mind that the following
exhibitions are held.
* The Potsdam Declaration and Japan's
Departure after the War * Progress andIssues with the Countries Involved * The
Murayama and Abe Talks * Comparisonof the History of Japan and Germany *Yamanashi Peace Museum
Director: Tamotsu Asakawa
The Yamanashi Peace Museum (YPM)
held a special exhibition, "75 Years After
the War, Consider Post-War Processing,"from January to the end of June this year
to mark the 75th anniversary of the war.
Thinking of 75 years, it is long post-war
history of Japan among the majorcountries. What is the significance of thefact that it has continued to be the only
one of its kind in the world? In a positive
sense, it means that Japan has not been at
war for 75 years since the end of WorldWar II. If you look at it in a negative
way, we have not taken responsibility for
the war, and the post-war process is not

Seventy-five Years of the relation
between Japan and the Republi of Korea,
and Japan and the DPRK.

over. I think that's what it means. For
example, we have not even been able torestore diplomatic relations with the
DPRK.
This is due to the internationalsituation in East Asia in the postwar era
and the responses of the partnercountries. As is typical of Abe's

On February 16, a lecture meeting washeld at YPM, "75 Years After the War,Thinking about Postwar Processing".
3

Please refer to the article in the
Yamanichi Newspaper.

University of Tokyo, who is also amember of the Chukiren Memorial
Museum. Former editor-in-chief ofHankyoreh Shinbun, Kim Koo Jun,visited us in March 2017, and in Januaryof this year, he shared the results of his
visit with us in his book, "I am a War
Criminal - Fushun's Miracle that
Modified War Crimes" (A5, 450 pages) ,Chukiren Peace Museum
Nobuo Serizawa
The memorial hall is practically closed
due to the coronavirus. Because of that,
we will not be able to meet one another at
the International Conference, which is apity.
We have been holding study sessions
at the memorial center four times a yearwith the help of intellectuals. In
November last year, we held the session
titled "The War Experiences of Students

which was the first to introduce the"Chukiren" in Korean language. The
book was published and donated to thememorial hall.

of Philosophers and Philosophers: Ebato
Tsuyoshi and Yoshiro Takeuchi" which
was presented by Professor Motomu
Ishikawa of Tokyo Metropolitan
University.
Mr. Ebato Tsuyoshi, a member of theCouncil of Returnees from China, studied
philosophy at the University of Tokyoand was taught by Tetsuro Watsuji at thattime. Mr. Ebato Tsuyoshi also had theDr. Petra from the Free University of
Berlin and Dr. Yasuko Claremont from
Australia have also visited the memorialhall, and have published and donatedbooks introducing the Chukiren inGerman and English, respectively.
The memorial hall will celebrate its

opportunity to interact with Dr. Ishikawa,a philosopher, before his death. In
addition, in February of this year, alecture entitled "How to View China in
Relation to the Council of Returnees
from China - A Historical Perspective."
was given by Dr. Koukichi Shoji,
Professor Emeritus of Sociology at the

15th anniversary next year with a "15thAnniversary Meeting".

4

anniversary of its establishment. It was avery difficult decision to make when we
had to close the gallery, which wasestablished in order to manage apermanent exhibition of the Hiroshima
Panels open to the public at any time.
However, the art museum considered
protecting lives more important.
While the museum was closed, young
staff members set up a website for online
donation to support the museum. There
were many people of various generations
who kindly donated from the website. It
was surprising that more than 95% of over
4000 contributions were through theInternet banking systems. I recognized thechange of times and renewed myunderstanding of new generation of"I am a War Criminal - Fushun's Miracle
that Modified War Crimes"

Overcoming the Crisisof the Pandemic of
COVID-19

supporters. The gallery is located in ruralarea and the location is inconvenient interms of public transportation. There weremany donators who wrote to us that theymight not be able to come to the gallery,
but that they would like us to maintain it.
These comments seemed to shed a light ona perspective that sharing the significanceof the museum with not only visitors but
also people who actually cannot come to

Yukinobu Okamura
Curator and Executive Director
The Maruki Gallery for the Hiroshima
PanelsOn February 22, The Maruki Gallery
for the Hiroshima Panels started holding
an exhibition of photographs entitled“Scenes Implying Messages” by Katsumi
Sunamori, who had photographed
Kamagasaki, Hiroshima, Unzen andOkinawa. However, due to the pandemicof COVID-19, the gallery was closed
temporarily from April 9 to June 8. The
period of the exhibition has been extended
until August 30. It was the first time forthe gallery to close on May 5, thethe museum might offer us new
possibilities in the ways to manage it.
We are going to register the museum on
one of the websites of contribution service
platforms in June and start producing
multilingual videos to explain the exhibitsof the museum.

5

I feel that a bright future is being
realized when I hear young staff members
say, “We can change a crisis into a chance.”

Daigo Fukuryu Maru, a Japanese tunafishing boat operating near Bikini Atolland exposed to radioactive fallout from ahydrogen bomb test. We have madevideos for exhibitions in the museum
before, but this was our first time to makevideos available to the public on theInternet. The theme of the videos wemade is "Let’s Look around and Learn

Struggles to Overcome thePandemic and Efforts toCreate New Videos

from the Exhibits in Daigo Fukuryu
Maru Exhibition Hall." It has the
explanation about the collection of
artifacts in the museum, and theworkshop of handicraft to show how tomake a model of the ship, Daigo Fukuryu
Maru with milk cartons, etc. The videos
are available on the website of themuseum.

Yusuke Hasunuma
Daigo Fukuryu Maru
Exhibition Hall
Daigo Fukuryu Maru Exhibition Hall
was requested to close by the Tokyo
Metropolitan Government to prevent the
COVID-19 infection. The museum wasclosed on March 28, but reopened onJune 2. The peak of students' visits on

The park where Daigo Fukuryu Maru
Exhibition Hall is located was going to be
the venue for the Tokyo Olympics, so theschool trips is usually from the end of theconsecutive holidays in May, but thisyear all the visits were cancelled or
postponed to fall this year or later.
While people refrain from going out,
the exhibition hall has posted a video
explaining the exhibits on the Internet inorder to help people learn about themuseum was going to be closed thissummer. However, due to thepostponement of the Olympic Games, themuseum will be open as usual. Although
we are not sure how long the influence ofthe pandemic of COVID-19 will last, themuseum will strive to produce morevarious projects in order to offer

A photo of The Maruki Gallery taken at theriverside of the Toki River with field mustard infull bloom

6

opportunities for more people to learn
about the tragedy of Daigo Fukuryu
Maru.

December, is especially acclaimed byhistorians and organizations for humanrights. We have been receiving inquiries
and requests from both inside and outside
Japan. In the future, we will continue toenhance the quality and quantity of our
exhibits.

Women’s Active Museum
on War and Peace （WAM）
Eriko Ikeda
Director Emeritus
2020 is the year of the 20th anniversaryof the Women's International War Crimes
Tribunal, " the origin of the establishmentof WAM," so we had planned various
projects. However, we had to change mostof the plans to prevent the infection of
COVID-19.
The
museumwas
temporarily closed in March, and opened
only on weekends, until the end of May.

For the first time in 10 years, the JapaneseMilitary Comfort Station Map has been up-dated
and upgraded. The source documents for theselocations are posted on the WAM website.
URL: https://wam-peace.org/ianjo/

We postponed seminars and events. We
are going to hold a special exhibition,"Twenty Years After the Women's
International War Crimes Tribunal (atentative title)" in December.
The number of the visitors has been
decreasing, so we are anxious about how
to manage the museum. However, the staff,
steering committee members, andvolunteers have been working on

On the other hand, problems arose in
the Republic of Korea over support groups
for "comfort women" in May this year. A"comfort women" victim voiced her
accusation and suspicion against the
support group for "comfort women,""Justice, Memory & Solidarity" (formerly
known as " The Korean Council for Justiceand Remembrance for the Issues of
Military Sexual Slavery by Japan"). At
about the same time, some staff membersof “the House of Nanum,” which is known
as a sanatorium for "comfort women"
victims, accused the steering body of the
facility of its suspicious wrong
management. WAM has been in contact
with the victim and the staff for nearly 30

validating and confirming the content of
the exhibition even in this situation.
The museum has launched the longplanned "Women's International War
Crimes Tribunal Archives" on the website
of WAM in May. This archive, along withthe "The Map of Japanese Military
Comfort Stations," which was updated last7

years, so it's heartbreaking to hear thenews about their troubles. WAM has
received many interviews and inquiries,
but we are now waiting for the reality to
be revealed. We have to wait and see.

The first section of the exhibition
exhibited the collection of the museum,
which included 20 letters and postcardsof military mails written by 20 students.
Many of them were from young student
soldiers sent to battlefields in the latter
half of the Pacific War. The mails were
written around the time of their departurefor military service. Some of the letterswere posted when they went out from thebarracks to evade censorship.
The second section of the exhibition
displayed some of the "7,000 military
mails" to Minejiro Takahashi, a teacher at
Fujine Elementary School. We selected
23 pieces of military mails by 21 people,
written about the tragic realities of war
and the peasant soldiers’ thoughts. Many

Themed Exhibition,“Military Mails Sent byFallen Student Soldiersand Peasant Solders
from Iwate Prefecture”
at The Museum of

Wadatsumi no Koeof them were written in the battle line inNorth China, including Shanxi Province.

Masahiko Yamabe
Director
The Wadatsumi no Koe Memorial
Museum, which exhibits artifacts onfallen student soldiers, held a themed
exhibition entitled“Military Mails Sent
by Fallen Student Soldiers and PeasantSoldiers from Iwate Prefecture” fromJanuary 22 to February 29, 2020.
The exhibition featured military mails
sent by fallen student soldiers from themuseum's collection and the ones written
by fallen peasant soldiers from Iwate
Prefecture from the Kitakami Peace
Memorial Exhibition Hall. There were 48
people’s 51 pieces of military mails
displayed in the exhibition.

For the third section, we selected 8
items written by 7 people, including theones sent by soldiers working for theNavy, in the battle line in North China,
and in “Manchuria,” etc. from thecollection of peasant soldiers’ military
mails collected by “Iwate Prefectural
Farming Village Culture Round Table"8while editing the Iwanami paperback
pocket edition entitled "Letters from the
Fallen Peasant Soldiers.”
The exhibits also include a postcard sent
by a student soldier at Tokyo Universityof Foreign Studies, who belonged to an
air force unit as a soldier and later died ofa disease in the front line in thePhilippines. This postcard was notmuseum was temporarily closed in April
and May.
Hachioji Peace andAtomic Bomb Museum
Koji Ueda
Co-chairman of the Hachioji Peace
and Atomic Bomb Museum
Hachioji Peace and Atomic Bomb
Museum, located on the second floor of abuilding next to the Hachioji City Hall, ispublished in the book mentioned above.
There were 170 visitors during theexhibition and they were eager to read thepostcards and letters. The Museum of“Wadatsumi no Koe” published acatalogue containing the photographs, thetext of the military mails and the personal
history of the soldiers, which were
exhibited at the exhibition.

a rare museum run by volunteers. The
museum will mark the 20th anniversary of
the museum's opening on July 25 next year.
Toshiaki Nagamachi, who was atomic
bombed in Hiroshima when he was 18
years old and passed away in 2013, hadcollected books related to the atomic
bombing for his work. The museum wasestablished because Nagamachi asked thecity to preserve and exhibit his collectionof 400 books on atomic bombs. He
thought exhibiting the books to the public
is better than keeping them privately
owned in order to make most of them,Presently, there are more than 2000
books, collections of photographs, andtestimonies on the atomic bombs fillingthe shelves in the room of about 30 square
meters. These materials were donated by
the bereaved families of A-bomb
survivors and other citizens.
A wide range of books are available atthe museum, including basic documents
such as " Atomic Bomb Records in Japan"

The catalogue of the themed exhibition

The Wadatsumi-no-Koe Museum held its
regular permanent exhibition in March
after the special exhibition ended, but due
to the declaration of a state of emergency
caused by the pandemic of COVID-19, the9as well as all volumes of "The Hiroshima
Atomic Bomb Damage Records" and"Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Damage
Records" published by the cities ofHiroshima and Nagasaki in 1971. The
collection also includes famous literaryworks, collection of records, and“Barefoot Gen,” a popular comic bookseries by Keiji Nakazawa.

preparing for the publication of thecommemorative magazine for the 20th
anniversary coming next year.
Here are some of the projects we havecarried out over the last five years:
In 2019, the museum invited Mr.
Shigeaki Mori as a speaker for a lecture.
When President Obama visited Hiroshima
in 2016, Mr. Sunao Tsuboi, Co-

In addition to photographs anddocuments, the museum also has artifacts
such as some clothes stained with blood,
which were worn by Takeo Toyoshima, aboy who was 14 years old at the time ofatomic bombing in Hiroshima. He wasmobilized for demolish buildings to makefire lanes then. The clothes are important
historical artifacts left by an atomic bomb

Chairperson of the Japan Confederation of
A- and H-Bomb Sufferers Organizations,
Mr. Mori and many other atomic bomb
survivors participated in the event of his
visit. Mr. Mori gave the President Obamaa hug with tears in his eyes.
In 2018, the museum hosted a lecture by
Mr.
Akira
Kawasaki,Executive
Committee member of Peace Boat

victim. The boy, Takeo, was at a shelter
and happened to find his mother, who waslooking for him, so he spoked to her,
“Mother.” His mother was about to passby then because his face was terribly burnt.
Some of the other exhibits are tiles
swollen by the heat of the atomic bomb,stacked plates that had melted in the heat
and were stuck on top of each other, andglass bottles that had also melted andIn 2017, the museum invited the former
Hiroshima Mayor Tadatoshi Akiba as aspeaker for a lecture.
In 2016, the museum held a gathering tolisten to the testimony about atomic
bombing by an A-bomb survivor, Lee
Jong-keun, a second-generation Korean
resident living in Hiroshima. The title ofhis talk was “In the Midst of Double
Suffering.”

warped. We lend these items toorganizations that organize exhibitions forpeace. After their exhibitions, we received
reports that some people were shocked tosee the artifacts and cried.
The Steering Committee members are
discussing what to plan for the anniversaryof the museum on July 25 and are

In 2015, the museum organized a bus
tour to The Maruki Gallery for the
Hiroshima Panels and Okegawa Branch of
the former Japanese Army's Kumagaya
Flight School in Higashi-Matsuyama
In 2014, the museum held a film
screening of "Aogiri ni Takushite," or“Entrusting Chinese Parasol Trees,” a film
10about the life of Ms. Suzuko Numata, an
A-bomb survivor in Hiroshima. Peace
Concert was also held by Satomi
Nakamura and Shigetoshi Ito
In 2013, the museum held a film
screening of "What Barefoot Gen Wants toTell You" and a lecture by the director of
the movie Yuko Ishida, and the testimony
by an atomic bomb survivor living inmessages for peace as a center of peace inTokyo, the capital of Japan, bycooperating with the Hiroshima Peace
Memorial Museum and Nagasaki Atomic
Bomb Museum.
We hope that as many people as possible
will visit the Hachioji Peace and Atomic
Bomb Museum.
The museum is open on Wednesdays

Hachiouji City.
In 2012, the museum held a seminar tolisten to a report entitled "From Atomic
Bomb Survivors to Nuclear Power Station
Radiation Survivors." The reporter was Mr.
Ken-ichi Yamazaki, who evacuated from
Minami-soma, Fukushima. The museum
also held a lecture by Ms. Terumi Nishida,co-chairman of “Hakaru Wakaru Hiroba”

and Fridays from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
Tel: 042-627-5271
Address: Hamanaka Building 2F, 3-17-5
Motohonngo-cho, Hachioji City. The
building is next to Hachioji City Hall.

or “Measurement and Understanding
Square,” the Hachioji Citizens' Radiation
Measurement Room for Citizens by
Citizens.
We are aiming to incorporate themuseum as a non-profit organization andto increase the number of individual andgroup members to achieve sound financial
management, but we are also persistently
requesting Hachioji City to manage thehe was 3 years old.

museum. The city has declared itself as anuclear-free city for peace in 1982. Ms.
Sayuri Yoshinaga, a famous actress, hasalso been a long-time individual memberof the association. The membership fee is
2,000 yen per year.
In the future, we are planning to enhance
the role of the museum to send out

preparation of the next exhibition wasalmost complete. The title of theexhibition was "Mock Atomic Bomb
‘Pumpkin’: Citizens Reveal the Facts
about the Training of Atomic Bombing."
It was scheduled to begin on April 7.
However, it was decided to close themuseum on the same day and the days

Koji Ueda, co-chairman of the Hachioji
Peace and Atomic Bomb Museum, who
was atomic bombed in Hiroshima when

The Recent Situation of
Peace Aichi
Daisuke Miyahara
Director
When the decision was made to close
Peace Aichi in early April this year due tothe pandemic of COVID-19, the11passed quietly in the museum without
any visitors.
Among the exhibits, there is a fragmentof a pumpkin bomb that was aimed at afactory in Fukushima City, Fukushima
Prefecture on July 20, 1945. Although it
is a fragment, it is about 50cm long andweighs more than 10kg. From July toAugust 1945, just before the end of thePeace Aichi is planning to open themuseum at a normal pace after June. The
exhibitions such as "Okinawa," "War andSports" and "War and Women Students,"
which were originally planned to be held
this year, have been postponed to nextyear.

war, the U.S. military dropped 49 mockatomic bombs over many places around
Japan as rehearsals of dropping atomic
bombs and the fragment was a part of thefirst bomb.
It was cloudy on the day when the firstbomb was dropped, so the bomb landed
on a rice field in the city instead of thefactory, killing a young boy who was“New Growth” by Pegge Patten.
2009 6 x 5 feet latex house paint onwall

working on the field. The boy’s father
took the fragment of the bomb home as
the lethal weapon which killed his sonand later brought it to a nearby temple toask the priest to pray for the repose of his
son’s soul.
It has been almost two months since
Peace Aichi was closed, and the museum
will finally reopen on June 9. The
exhibition was originally scheduled to be

The Kyoto Museum for World Peace,
Ritsumeikan University has been closed
due to COVID-19. However, it is holding
an online exhibition, "Chinese Forced

held in April and May, but its period has
been extended until the end of August.
We hope that many people will come tosee this exhibition. The fragment of thebomb has to be returned by the original
agreement with the owner, so we will
make its replica. It will be an elaborate
replica made with a 3D printer.

Relocation, Forced Labor and “Wan ren
keng,” on the website of the museum.
“Wan ren keng,” means “the burial
grounds where millions of people wereburied alive," translated literally.
*****
The number of victims of Chinese people
who were forced to work in mainland

132nd Themed MiniExhibition at
Kyoto Museum forWorld Peace,
Ritsumeikan University

12China by private Japanese companies andothers during the 15-year war between
Japan and China is estimated to beapproximately 40 million. It is estimatedthat 16.4 million victims were from North
East China, where Japan made up a
country called “Manchuria.” 20 million
victims were from North China, where
Japan maneuvered to establish “Theare about approximately 40,000 victims
who were brought to Japan. The victims
forced to move to allotted workplaces andwork in mainland China are rarely known
to many Japanese.
We hope the visitors to this exhibition
will recognize the horrific reality offorced labor in mainland China and theexistence of “Wen ren keng.” throughSecond Manchuria” by separating the land
from China. At least hundreds ofthousands, probably millions of victims
were from each of Central China andSouth China.
Many of the Chinese people forced towork in coal or iron mines, military
fortresses, or huge dam construction sites
died of overwork and hunger. Accidents

this mini-exhibition.

during the work, infectious diseases, andunreasonable abuse and violence also
killed countless victims.
The bodies of the victims were discardedin the mountains near their offices (sites towork for) and other places where they are
hardly seen by local people. Thus
"dumping grounds to discard laborers"
were formed. Such places are called “Wanren keng” in Chinese.
There arefound on the organizer's website.
Journey to Learn about the “Wan ren
keng.” 2020
http://miyosi.webcrow.jp/index.html

A photo and explanation of “Wan ren keng”

The Content of the Exhibition
The details of the exhibition can be

Liberty Osaka,
the Symbol of Human
Rights Movement,
Is to Be Closed

numerous “Wan ren keng” all over China
including huge holes where hundreds ofthousands of victims were buried. They
are still left as they were during the war till
now in the 21st century.
However, most of the topics discussed
in Japan on Chinese people who wereforced to relocate and work by Japanese

But Aims to Re-Openafter Transfer of the
Facility
Sakae Toda
writer of the article on The Mainichi
Newspaper, May 11, 202013

“Zainichi Koreans (Korean residents inJapan or Japanese citizens of Korean
descent),” and Ainu issues as well as
Buraku (discriminated communities)
issues. The total number of the visitors to
the museum is around as many as 1.7
million.
However, the subsidies for the museum
paid by Osaka City and Osaka Prefecture

The Osaka Human Rights Museum, which has
become a local landmark, is located in NaniwaWard, Osaka City, photo by Sakae Toda

were abolished in 2013 due to a change inpolicy of the local municipal andprefectural governments made by Toru
Hashimoto, who was a mayor of the cityand later a governor of the prefecture.

Osaka Human Rights Museum “Liberty
Osaka” located in Naniwa Nishi, NaniwaWard, Osaka City, which is famous inconnection with human rights issues, is the
only museum dedicated to human rights
issues in Japan and has been attracting
visitors from around the world for 35 years.

Moreover, in July, 2015, Osaka City filed
a suit in the court against the museum,demanding to demolish the facility andreturn the property to the city. The

In the midst of the disaster caused by
COVID-19, the museum is to be closed onJune 1 in obscurity after a legal battle withthe city of Osaka for its survival, aiming toreopen at a different location in 2022. The
museum was scheduled to open to the
public for free as a farewell event in thelast week of May, but it is difficult to holdthe event in the pandemic.
With the full support of Osaka Prefecturemuseum's existence was in jeopardy.

and the City of Osaka, the museum wasestablished as the Osaka Museum of
Human Rights History in 1985. It wasrenovated, expanded, renamed the Osaka
Human Rights Museum, and reopened in
1995. The museum has exhibited a wide
range of human rights issues such as
disability,
genderdiscrimination,

to close in the period when the Act on the
Promotion of the Elimination of Buraku
Discrimination was enacted. The case has
been transferred to conciliated procedureand is expected to be settled soon.
The museum has announced a plan torebuild the facility at a new location in
2022, the centenary of the founding of the

The trial has continued in the Osaka
District Court. The museum has claimed
that it was an abuse of administrative
power based on a political agenda.

In the trial, it was considered importantthat the city has the right of ownership of
the property, and it was difficult for themuseum to question the propriety of thepolicy to force a museum for human rights

14

Zenkoku Suiheisha, or the Organizationfor Human Rights of People from Buraku
and in March this year, it decided to close
its doors from June.
People in the area around the museum
sent the liberal civil rights activist,
Choumin Nakae, to the Diet in the middleof the Meiji era (1868 – 1912). Nakae
argued for the liberation of the burakumin,school. The building has been a landmark
in the community, which meant to repel
discrimination. It will be lost if it isdemolished.
A new site for the museum, the size ofthe museum, and the specific schedule for
its reopening have yet to be determined.
The reopening of the museum will requireconsiderable funding, and it is difficult to

who were discriminated as modern-day
descendants of Japan's feudal outcast class.
Soon after the establishment of the
Zenkoku Suiheisha, which developed theliberation movement in earnest, theheadquarter of the organization was
moved to this area and it became famousthroughout the country as the center of theliberation movement. The area was also

maintain
operationsofmuseums
financially on their own. The staff
members of the museum are struggling toprepare for the reopening. Considering thepresent situation, we have to say the futureof the museum is uncertain. When themuseum is closed, it will hold travelingexhibitions and seminars.
A staff member of the museum says,

the setting for Hiroshi Noma's novel“Seinen-no Wa” or "Ring of Youth,"which described buraku liberation
activists.
People in this area believed that
education was important for the liberationof the people in buraku, and from the
beginning of the Meiji era, the community
had collected funds from local people toestablish schools for children. With such

"Issues related to discrimination andhuman rights, as well as issues on Buraku,
are becoming more and more important.
The museum will contribute not only to
education and awareness raising, but also
to the preservation of materials andresearch,
re-acknowledging
thesignificance of its existence as a morecomprehensive museum on human rights
than
ever
before,andtakingfunds, the local citizens bought anddonated the site for a local elementary
school, where the museum is now located,to Osaka City before the school was
renovated and expanded for the third timein 1928.
Therefore, the building of the museum
was designed to resemble the elementary

responsibilities for its social role.

15

th

“75

The museum has chosen exhibits on war
and explained them from the perspectiveof citizens. We have displayed artifacts
such as photos and personal belongings
based on the viewpoints of aggression,damages and resistance. The exhibitions
have explained ruins of war andaddressed issues of contemporary war,
nuclear weapons, Okinawa issues, andAnniversary after

the Atomic Bombing: To
Realize the World without
Nuclear Weapons,” 42nd
Exhibition to Consider
War and Peace

Keizo Dehara
Grassroots House Peace Museum

U.S. military bases.
This year's exhibition focuses on morethan 40 "Pictures on Atomic Bombing”
painted by high school students to markthe 75th year after the atomic bombing.
The exhibition was planned to help many
people, especially young people in thenext generation, who are responsible forcreating the future, to learn about the

A variety of events called "Peace Wave"
are held to pray for peace in Kochi every
summer. Most of the city was burned to
the ground in US air raid in Kochi on
July 4, 1945, which killed nearly 500
people. Many groups and organizations
in Kochi have been working for such
events since 1979 to prevent the memoryof the tragic war from fading away and to
reaffirm the importance of peace. Eachorganization or group has their own
specialties and has held events such as
anti-nuclear peace concerts, peace art
exhibitions, peace film festivals, andconcerts in a reinforced concrete semisubterranean bomb shelter called

devastation of Hiroshima and Nagasaki,
the first two nuclear testing sites of the
U.S.A.

Entaigo. However, many of them wereforced to be cancelled due to thepandemic of COVID-19 this year.
Among them, only the "Exhibition of
Artifacts to Consider War and Peace" andthe "Star Festival for Peace" are allowed
to be held this year.

Now that the nuclear arms race isaccelerating again, the museum would
like to help people recognize thatdisasters in Hiroshima and Nagasaki are
not just incidents in the past, but possible
dangerous reality which can happen in
today’s world any time. We would also
16like to keep on calling for early
ratification of the Treaty on theProhibition of Nuclear Weapons in orderto realize the world free of nuclear
weapons.
Japan is the only nation that have been
atomic bombed in war, yet the Japanese
government continues to defy the Treaty
on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons

came to the museum, criticized the
explanation of the artifacts, and said,"Show me the primary source!” Theperson and the staff members repeatedarguments and counter arguments. The
person even went to the department incharge of the management of the venue ofthe exhibition in the city hall and told themto order the museum to stop the exhibition.

and spends a record amount of budget on
its military every year. The exhibition will
also sound the warning on suchdangerousness and stupidity of the Abeadministration.

Such person might come again this year,
but we should not give in to suchharassment, and would like to inspire
many people to feel high motivation tobuild our future based on the truth ofhistory.

Oka Masaharu Memorial
Nagasaki Peace Museum
Noboru Sakiyama
Executive Director
The museum planned a series of 7
lectures open to the general public, 'Let's
Learn Again! The First Series of Lectureson the Contemporary History of Japan.”
The first lecture was held on November 16,
2019. The title was "How 'Zainichi' or

A poster of the exhibition,“75th Anniversary“Korean Japanese” Started to Live inJapan" The second lecture was held on
December 21, 2019 under the title: "Rural
Societies during and after the War.” The
third lecture held on January 18, 2020 was
entitled “Japan's Postwar Period Seenfrom a Black Market: The Free Market in
Nishihama Town, Nagasaki." The fourth

after the Atomic Bombing: To Realize theWorld without Nuclear Weapons,”

When the museum held the 41st
exhibition, "Japan and the Korean
Peninsula: the Past, Present and Future,
100 Years after the 3-1 Independence
Movement" last year, a person who
seemed to be right-wing in his opinion17

lecture was held on February 22 with thetheme "The Korean War: Japan's Turning
Point." The other scheduled lectures havebeen postponed to later in the fall becauseof the pandemic of COVID-19.
On November 23, 2019, the museum
held a gathering, where two of theuniversity students sent to Korea by themuseum reported on their experiences on

Hibakusha in Foreign Countries, spoke
about his memories of Mr. Yasunori
Takazane, who was a co-founder and aboard chairman of the museum.
The museum had been closed since April
21 to prevent the infection of COVID-19,
but the staff members are preparing toopen it now.

“A Study Tour in Korea.”
The 17th "Japan-China Friendship Tour,
Wings of Hope" and the 19th FriendshipTour to China were sent from December
11 to 16. Two university students and I
joined the 35th Meishin-kai Nanjing Study
Tour and visited Nanjing and Huainan.
On February 2, 2020, the museum held agathering to listen to reports on "Japan-

Photo of the "the National Public Ceremony for
the Nanking Massacre Victims" in which weparticipated as members of a friendshipdelegation to China.

China Friendship Tour, Wings of Hope",
where
university
students
madepresentations on their study tour.
The staff members of the museum wereinvited to a seminar at Tanctt Church in
Yeongdo, Busan, Korea from February 8 to
9. Tomohiro Shinkai, Vice-Chairman of
the Board of Trustees of the museum, gave
a lecture entitled "The Life and Thoughts
of Dr. Masaharu Oka."

Himeyuri Peace Museum
Katsumi Maedomari: Curator
As one of the 30th anniversary events,"Fieldwork on the Site of the Battle of
Okinawa – Tracking the Path Himeyuri
Students Took" was held on February
29th. Because of the influence of spreadof the COVID-19, the museum staff
members were very cautious about
holding this event at first. However, by
taking preventing measures against thevirus such as shortening hours, changing
the schedule, and sterilizing anything as
much as possible, the museum was able
to hold the event safely. Participants left
some comments that it was important tovisit the actual sites with their own feet.
Knowing such responses from theparticipants, we also realized thesignificance of visiting the war sites even

The museum held a lecture with aspeaker from Berlin, Prof. Eugen
Eichhorn, representative of the GermanyJapan Peace Forum, on February 24.
“The 3rd Meeting to Remember Mr.
Yasunori Takazane” was held on April 5
and Mr. Nobuto Hirano, Co-chairman of
the Liaison Committee to Support
18

though the fieldwork was cautiously held.

including INMP which already changed
their conference plan. In order to preventthe spread of the infection in Okinawa,
we decided to close the museum from
April 10th to May 31st. The museum alsoannounced postponement of therenovation of the exhibition and reopendate from July 2020 to April 2021. We
are making an effort for even better
exhibits.

The second Himeyuri Film Contest,
which was organized by Himeyuri Peace
Rsearch Center, was held and the winners
were announced in March. The grandprize, Himeyuri Film Award, went to“Grandma’s Cousin” directed byuniversity students. In this film, they
researched a history about one of the
Himeyuri students and re-experience apath she took during the war. The special
prize was awarded to a film which shows
what would happen if the war broke out
today. Not awarded but many remarkable
videos were applied to the contest thisyear. 6 videos were applied totally. For
example, there were a video thatsummarized the results of peace studies
by elementary and junior high school
students, a video with beautiful and highquality images, and a music video
including a song of pray for peace. These
videos are very well made, so it doesn’t
seem to be easy for the committee todecide the winners.

It had to be a time to catch people’s
attention since this year is 75th
anniversary of the end of the war. This isa difficult time for peace museums, but
let's keep up our efforts to deliver
messages and get over this hardship.

Participants listening to curator’s explanation at
the Arasaki Coast Fieldwork on February 29,
2020

The videos show that young people
think about the Himeyuri Students andthe war in various ways. Also, seeing
these videos encourages us. The awardwinning works can be seen on theYouTube. You can see them by scanning
the QR CODE too. The third contest isscheduled to be held this year as well. We
look forward to finding new ideas to pass
the memory of Himeyuri and the Battleof Okinawa.

2019’s Himeyuri Film Award: “Grandma’s
Cousin”

QR code of the Grand Prize

The COVID-19 pandemic has had agreat impact on many organizations,19

The Muse is "Treasures of the Peace
Museum Movement.
QR code of the Spec

There are nearly 70 peacemuseums in Japan, both large andsmall. The Japan Peace Museum
Association was founded by ten
peace museums including theHiroshima Peace Memorial
Museum and the Nagasaki Atomic
Bomb Museum. A one-day
conference and sessions are held,
which rotates among them every
year. In addition, the Japanese
Citizens Network of Museums for
Peace, formed in 1998, is anindividual membership-basedorganization. Muse newsletter ispublished twice a year and it is abilingual newsletter.
The Several people from peacemuseums in one country have been
persistently sending out newslettersin both English and Japanese. Thisis a unique thing in the world and isa wonderful operation that is a"treasure of the world peacemuseum movement". I urge allmembers of this network to takeadvantage of this news medium.

World Peace is a Basic Right
By Koen VlerickYour Articles are welcome!
◆ Number of letters: about 500 letters inJapanese◆ Hopefully 1 or 2 photos◆ Due Date: We will accept it at any time
Please send your article to the following
email address.
musejapankyoto@gmail.com

Roses of Aikichi and Suzu
are blooming in front of
the Kyoto Museum forWorld Peace, Ritsumeikan
University.
AikichiKuboyama, a victim of the
H-bombing nuclear test by
the USA in Bikini Atoll, andhis wife, Suzu, grew roses
at their home in Yaizu. Thisrose was given by Suzu
herself who was sick latein her life. It bloomed
beautifully this year, too.
20