Large number of Japanese war relics still offered on auction sites
As it is difficult to identify the original owners of wartime relics put up for online auctions, in many cases, such goods are not returned to the bereaved families. One expert is calling on the government to establish a dedicated facility for their conservation.
Many items such as swords that belonged to soldiers of the Imperial Japanese military and protective hoods used during air raids can be found on eBay.
A search on the site using the Japanese words dainijisekaitaisen (World War II), nihon (Japan) and orijinaru (original) shows hits for over 20,000 items. Among them is a military sword priced at $260 (¥38,000) and a gas mask at $600.
About 10 years ago, Japan's welfare ministry called on people to refrain from putting up war relics for online auctions, at the request of bereaved families and private organizations. It also asked auction website operators not to accept or sell such goods.
The situation apparently remains little changed, however. A search on one auction site using the word kyūnihongun (former Imperial Japanese military) gives more than 3,500 hits, including water bottles and senninbari fabrics used as good-luck charms that belonged to former kamikaze suicide attack pilots.
The original owners are unknown for an increasing number of items, after repeated online sales by memorabilia collectors.
Chizuko Jaggard, who heads Project Returned Memories Kiseki, a U.S. nonprofit organization working to return wartime items to families of the original owners, said that it is becoming very difficult to get information on the circumstances surrounding wartime relics, including how they ended up in the hands of people who were not their original owners.
While the number of relics put up for online auction remains largely unchanged from a few years ago, that of items returned to bereaved families has fallen sharply, Jaggard said.
The original owners are unknown for about 95% of all items on auction sites, she said.
Kiyofumi Kato, a professor at Komazawa University specializing in modern and contemporary Japanese history, expressed a profound sense of crisis over Japanese wartime items being scattered around the world and lost.
According to Kato, museums and other facilities run by the private sector often decline bereaved families' proposals to donate wartime memorabilia, citing a lack of storage space as the main reason. Such items may end up either being thrown away or put up for online auctions.
"It's sometimes difficult to establish war-related facilities due to differences in the understanding of history," Kato said.
"With 80 years soon set to pass since the end of World War II, we are no longer at a stage where we question whether the war should have been fought or not," he added.
"The government should create a facility that offers an opportunity for people to think together, through wartime relics, what the war was about," Kato said.
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