Ch. 8: Regional memories

Synopsis

Japan has seen something of a war museum boom, or more accurately 'peace museum' boom, since the 1980s when the economic miracle made these expensive and generally unprofitable cultural forms possible. Museums generally represent a particular local or sectional interest (either a regional experience such as an air raid or a specific experience such as repatriation or the kamikaze). Many museums are called 'memorials' (kinenkan) or 'resource centres' (shiryokan) rather than ‘museum' (hakubutsukan, which is a legal status in Japan subject to the museum fulfilling various government-set criteria). Museums tend to have clearly identifiable stances based on the aims of the financial backers, although virtually any time that public money is involved, controversy over the content of the exhibits has occurred.

General Resources

Below is a selection of some of the key museums, including all those mentioned in the book. They are listed in alphabetical order.
Chiran Kamikaze Museum: Memorial to kamikaze.
Edo-Tokyo Museum: Tokyo air raids.
Fukuyama Peace Museum: Regional peace museum.
Himeji Peace Museum: Regional peace museum.
Himeyuri Peace Museum: Women's nursing corps, Okinawa.
Hiroshima A-bomb museum: Japan's most visited war museum.
Historical Museum of Hokkaido: Significant war exhibits.
Japan Peace Museum: An online museum.
Kawasaki Peace Museum: Local air raids and Japanese aggression.
Kyoto Museum for World Peace: At Ritsumeikan University.
Library for Peace and Consolation: Siberian internees etc.
Maizuru Repatriation Museum: nr. Kyoto, port for repatriates.
Nagasaki A-bomb museum: Gives background to the bombs too.
Nasu War Museum: Nationalistic, military memorabilia.
National Museum of Japanese History: War exhibits added since the publication of JCWM.
Niigata Prefectural History Museum: incl. forced labourer exhibits.
Oka Masaharu Memorial Museum: In Nagasaki, very progressive.
Okinawa Prefectual Museum: The Battle of Okinawa.
Ookunoshima Poison Gas Factory Museum: Near Hiroshima.
Peace Osaka: Local air raids and frank descriptions of Japanese aggression.
Saitama Peace Museum: Regional peace museum.
Sendai War Recovery Museum: Air raids.
Shizuoka Peace Museum: Regional peace museum.
Showakan: Run by the War Bereaved Association.
Tachiarai Peace Museum: Kamikaze.
Yamato Museum: Dedicated to the Battleship Yamato
Yushukan: Nationalistic military museum in the grounds of Yasukuni Shrine.