Tokyo's WWII museums hold diverse views on war and peace
For many, remembrance begins and ends with the moment of silence observed nationwide at 12 p.m. each Aug. 15 — which this year will mark the 80th anniversary of then-Emperor Hirohito's radio broadcast that brought the conflict to an end. Others will pay a visit to shrines or the cemeteries enshrining lives lost of family members and strangers alike. Precious few, however, will take a longer time to dwell on the realities of war, the circumstances of Japan's involvement in the conflict and the consequences that, for some, continue to reverberate today.
If you're in town this month, it's a good time to visit one or more of Tokyo's war-related museums, each unique in their approach to history as a defeated combatant and the messages they convey about the prosecution of the war effort and attempts to rebuild after capitulation. An afternoon contemplating any of these exhibitions not only provides a unique learning experience but also offers insights in understanding the attitudes of today's Japan toward war and peace.
Yushukan at Yasukuni Shrine
No discussion of Tokyo's WWII museums can gloss over the role Yasukuni Shrine has played in Japan's postwar remembrance of wartime reality.
The shrine itself has long been at the center of numerous controversies related to the souls of convicted Japanese war criminals enshrined within, and the country's sitting prime minister's decision of whether or not to visit Yasukuni each August routinely makes headlines in domestic news.
Within the shrine grounds, the Yushukan museum (literally, "the place to commune with noble souls") was first opened in 1882 but closed during the postwar period until its reopening in 1985. While inextricably linked to Yasukuni Shrine and its wider implications of Japan's treatment of its war dead, Dutch author and historian Ian Buruma wrote in his 1994 book "Wages of Guilt: Memories of War in Germany and Japan" that the Yushukan tells a story more nuanced than simple denialism or historical revisionism.
First opened in 1882, the Yushukan museum was expanded in 2002 and currently features 20 display halls. |
MARK SCHREIBER
"Until 1992, forty-seven years after the end of the war, there was only one war museum in Japan... only the (Yushukan) dealt with the history of the entire war. ... It is easy to conclude ... that the Yasukuni war museum glorifies militarism. In fact, it is more complicated than that. What it glorifies in a quasi-religious manner is not belligerence or hatred, but self-sacrifice."
The Yushukan's viewing route features exhibits in rough chronological order, starting with medieval samurai armor and weaponry, and continuing on to the Meiji Restoration of 1868 and the ensuing Boshin Civil War. Japan's experience on the road to WWII starts to come into focus with the late-19th and early-20th-century conflicts in Taiwan, Korea and mainland China, followed by the decades of military expansion by Japanese forces into Siberia, Manchuria, Burma (present-day Myanmar), the South Pacific and as far northeast as the Aleutian Islands of Alaska.
Toward the exit, the hall opens up into an enormous exhibition room featuring scale and full-sized models of actual weapons, including fukuryū — suicide divers (also known as kamikaze frogmen), some 6,000 of whom received training on how to swim beneath landing craft of the United States' presumed invasion of the home islands and manually attach a 15-kilogram explosive at the end of a bamboo pole to the ship's hull.
If you don't have 60 to 90 minutes to transit the entire museum, the Yushukan's entrance foyer is open to visitors at no charge and holds a Mitsubishi Zero fighter plane and a steam locomotive that ran on the notorious Burma Railway constructed by the forced labor of conscripted locals and Allied prisoners of war.
3-1-1 Kudankita, Chiyoda Ward, Tokyo; open daily, 9 a.m.-4:30 p.m.; ¥1,000 for adults, ¥500 for university students, ¥300 for high school and junior high school students; www.yasukuni.or.jp/yusyukan
National Showa Memorial Museum
Opened in 1999 under the auspices of the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, this museum located across from the main torii of Yasukuni Shrine is named after the era from December 1926 to January 1989, during which the late Emperor Hirohito reigned.
The National Showa Memorial Museum contains minutia of daily life from the early 20th century in Japan, like this poster urging citizens to purchase war bonds following the "China Incident" (also known as the Marco Polo Bridge Incident) of July 7, 1937. |
MARK SCHREIBER
A majority of Japan's current population was born during these years and identifies closely with the events that shaped 20th-century Japan, including the Pacific War. In addition to wartime and postwar hardships, the main exhibits on the museum's top two floors show how Japan's standard of living gradually recovered after 1945, giving way to growing prosperity by the mid-1950s.
1-6-1- Kudanminami, Chiyoda Ward, Tokyo; open daily (closed Mondays), 10 a.m.-5:30 p.m.; ¥400 for adults, ¥360 for seniors over 65, ¥200 for high school and university students; showakan.go.jp/en
Memorial Museum for Soldiers, Detainees in Siberia, and Postwar Repatriates
After Japan's capitulation in WWII, some 6 million Japanese, half of whom were civilians, were repatriated from previously occupied territories in Manchuria, Korea, Taiwan and other parts of the Asia-Pacific. This museum, operated by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, documents the hardships faced by this disparate group — which includes more than 500,000 soldiers shipped off to labor camps in the Soviet Union — until the full reintegration into Japanese society of those who managed to return.
The Memorial Museum for Soldiers, Detainees in Siberia, and Postwar Repatriates includes exhibits like this one featuring depictions of how Japanese civilians evacuated from formerly occupied territories endured spartan rations and cramped conditions aboard ships bound for home. |
MARK SCHREIBER
Located on the 33rd floor of the Sumitomo Building on the west side of Shinjuku Station, this small, well-designed museum includes English-language materials and subtitled videos of an aspect of WWII's aftermath often overshadowed by more well-known events.
2-6-1 Nishishinjuku, Shinjuku Ward, Tokyo; open daily (closed Mondays), 9:30 a.m.-5:30 p.m.; free admission; heiwakinen.go.jp/english-index
Great Kanto Earthquake Memorial Museum
Situated in Yokoamicho Park near JR Ryogoku Station, the Great Kanto Earthquake Memorial Museum combines two tragedies set 22 years apart.
Following the Great Kanto Earthquake of Sept. 1, 1923, more than 38,000 people were killed in the park when it was swept by a firestorm. The Earthquake Memorial Hall and a nearby charnel house contain the ashes of 58,000 victims of the earthquake. Following WWII, the park also became home to the main memorial to the victims of air raids by the U.S. Air Force, including the March 9, 1945 bombing of Tokyo that may have resulted in more direct casualties than either atomic bomb, with the ashes of 105,400 victims interred between 1948 and 1951.
First opened in 1931, the museum's ground floor focuses on the damage and reconstruction of the 1923 earthquake with its second-floor exhibits concerning air raids. Outside on the building's western facade, various metal objects that melted during the 1923 fires are on display.
For another look at Tokyo's experience during WWII air raids, Koto Ward's Center of the Tokyo Raid and War Damages also displays artifacts and documents donated from over 4,000 individuals to paint a picture of a part of the city nearly completely destroyed by the Allied aerial bombing campaign.
2-3-25 Yokoami, Sumida Ward, Tokyo; open daily (closed Mondays), 9 a.m.-5 p.m.; free admission; tokyoireikyoukai.or.jp/museum/history.html
Noborito Laboratory Museum
Located just across Tokyo's southwestern border on Meiji University's Ikuta Campus in Kawasaki, Kanagawa Prefecture, the Defunct Imperial Japanese Army Noborito Laboratory Museum for Education in Peace is a unique look at some then-secret research conducted by military scientists during the war.
The secret weapons developed at the former Noborito Laboratory, which included chemical and biological research, would have rivalled the destructive gadgets of any James Bond caper. |
MARK SCHREIBER
The Noborito complex focused on asymmetric warfare, including poisons, explosives and other esoteric weapons resembling those that might appear in a James Bond movie. During the war years, some 1,000 people worked within the facility, where in addition to research they produced counterfeit Chinese currency and constructed "balloon bombs" devised to be borne by wind currents across the Pacific and hit targets in North America.
The museum's opening times are linked to the university's academic year , so after confirming that the museum is open on the web site (in Japanese only), it is suggested you reconfirm in advance by telephone (044-934-7993; also Japanese only).
[bio]1-1 Higashimita, Tama Ward, Kawasaki, Kanagawa Prefecture; closest station: Ikuta (Odakyu Line); free admission; meiji.ac.jp/cip/english/institute/facilities/noborito.html .
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