WWII Museum - Tokyo (2/24/13)

Hey oh y'all,

So today we visited another WWII museum – and you know what that means…first young reader discretion advised…Also this is rambly/ranty so feel free to skip this one.

DISCLAIMER TIME!!! – This is by no means meant to be an academic essay. This is just a summary of our visit and WWII class discussion. If I had time enough, I would go back and limit my abuse of overgeneralizations and go to cite resources and be more acceptable in an academic sense, but I just want to communicate some of the general narrative as I loosely (and very loosely at that) understand it. I encourage you to take my points as basis for future exploration only – please do challenge what I say here. I look forward to your response.

Summary:

We went to a “revisionist” view WWII museum

History is a weapon

Japan has 2 major narratives – Yushukan (Japan did “nothing wrong”) and Ritsumeikan (Japan did “everything wrong” – these are not quotes just overgeneralizations)

Is “rewriting” history inherently wrong?

Is peace and truth and the like possible?

So we finished our Tokyo tour at Yushukan Museum at Yasukuni Shrine. Yasukuni Shrine, originally founded in 1869, was a State Shinto shrine dedicated to those who died in the loyal service of the Emperor. So post-WWII, this now includes all Japanese who died in WWII…and yes…this includes some guy named Hideki Tojo who was executed for doing something bad? I don’t know, but I get the feeling that this shrine likes Japan during WWII….

I mean take a look at the museum – it’s pretty much the cleanest version of Japanese colonization I’ve seen (then again, I haven’t seen too many clean versions to begin w/ - but when you talk about the “Chinese incident” without mentioning any atrocities – see I don’t know…attacking villagers, comfort women, human biological testing, POW abuse – you have to raise your eyebrows a bit…)

But on the surface it sounds really nice – what did Japan do during the late 1800s, early 1900s? It liberated Asia from the evils of Western Colonization. And what was its role during WWII? It was fighting a defensive war against the evil United States which put crippling economic sanctions on the rising Japan. And Pearl Harbor? Japan had made every effort to talk with the US to remove the sanctions and prevent war. And of course big, bad US attacked the Japanese people.

Here is where things get interesting – atrocity issues aside, this narrative is not technically outright wrong. The Western world was colonizing Eastern Asia and Japan did fight against Western Powers (mainly Russia but we’ll call it a Western power for the sake of discussion). And the US did put crippling sanctions on Japanese imports, especially oil leading Japan to need to take more colonies and Pearl Harbor was not “illegal” per se (since at the time international laws regarding preemptive strikes were not yet put in place).

Oh and did the US also commit civilian damage? City firebombing and atomic bombing anyone?

Thus there are two main points of the museum – Japan did not commit atrocities, and Japan fought a justifiable/honorable war 

These are separate points. Do I support a museum that almost blatantly ignores even the controversy of war atrocities? No. But do I understand a museum that paints its home country in a positive light? Yes. Doesn’t almost every country (especially the US) do this? I would say so.

Have you every been to a US war museum? One of the main displays is often a collection of war medals ie honoring US soldiers who kill and are killed.

In fact, Yushukan reminded me very much of a US WWII museum – it was well lit (in comparison to the dark, depressing Ritsumeikan Peace Museum), there were poems and quotes about honor and bravery, and the story at face value describes people fighting for their country and honorable emperor all the way from samurai times to WWII – add in a few war planes, letters from the front and a timeline showing how the evil powers oppressed the glorious home nation and call it a day

I mean – all you have to do is change the flag and the word emperor to democracy and you’ve got the makings of a great US museum…even the atomic bomb is relatively glossed over….

Personally, I find American WWII memorial and museums inspiring – people were willing to make the ultimate sacrifice to defend people who they have never met, never would meet, and never imagined would exist. For the US (who won), this portrayal is fine. But for Japan, they are somehow held to a different standard, making this museum in some ways less acceptable.

Writing history in such a way that your country looks good isn’t inherently wrong so long as it’s not outright lying (then again what’s the difference between lies and good advertising?). I would go and say this is almost natural in order to instill a sense of national identity – both victors and losers do this.

                                               

But when differing views of history hamper reconciliation such that it threatens the safety of your people – like angering Chinese public such that they attack Japanese stores over a Japanese official making or not making a statement on colonial/WWII issues? I’m not trying to sound preachy but something should be at least looked at here.

           

Of course, that’s not to say that WWII reconciliation is in any ways easy. Even Germany, often hailed for reestablishing amicable Western European ties by making numerous reparations and official apologies, still faces issues regarding war crimes.

Japan faces issues abroad and at home with regards to its official position the war. Having the US also legally object to new petitions for reparation due to the Treaty of San Francisco doesn’t help new talks either. I have no idea how or if such reconciliation is even possible – the country itself is split on its views of WWII and colonial policy – and the longer you wait to deal with something the harder it is to solve.

DC