Yu-Ai May issue 2019 — Korean PAX report by Shizuo Tachibana

Yu-ai Friendship
Newsletter of the World Friendship Center, NPO

2019 Korean PAX report
Shizuo Tachibana


I visited South Korea from April 30 to May 5, 2019 as group leader of the Korean PAX tour, the Peace Ambassador Exchange. I would like to share a few thoughts regarding this Korean PAX.

We visited the House of Sharing for victims of Japanese military sexual slavery on May 2. There we met one of the grandmothers, 이옥선 Ii Ukseon, and I apologized to her as a Japanese person. However, she said that she wanted an apology from the Japanese government, not from me. She said that she didn’t expect an apology from the Prime Minister, Shinzo Abe. Hearing that for her my apology meant nothing, I was shocked. At the political level between two countries, there are so many issues going on that need to be resolved. The grandmothers have seven demands, the Japanese staff of the House of Sharing, Mr. Tsukasa Yajima told us. The Japanese government has to answer to these seven demands, which the present government chooses to ignore. Is there anything left, then, that we Japanese citizens can do for these victims of sex slavery?

On May 2, after Ms. Masue Matsumoto shared her experience of the A-bombing, there was a question to her. ‘Why don’t the Japanese ask for an apology from the U.S.?’ She explained about a characteristic attitude of Japanese people to experiences in the past. The Japanese tend to forget what happened, as one releases incidents in the stream of memory. It is not only her, but many hibakusha don’t especially want an apology from the U.S. Instead they say that they don’t want anyone to experience what they did. I know that the Japanese have to apologize and seek to be forgiven because of the war. The Korean grandmothers need an apology from the Japanese government. However, I hope that as Japanese people continue to visit the victims of the sex slavery with their apologies and a heart of love, these may heal them and they will someday accept our apologies. I believe that this is one of the things that Japanese citizen could do about the past. 

In the end, I would like to express my sincere thanks to the Peace Building Community for their warm welcome and commitment to this program dedicated to peace between our countries. I hope that Korean PAX will continue to contribute to the peace of this region.

Copyright © NPO World Friendship Center 2019 All Rights Reserved

Yu-Ai February issue 2019 — Joining the study tour to Kyoto Museum for World Peace, Ritsumeikan University

Yu-ai Friendship
Newsletter of the World Friendship Center, NPO

Joining the study tour to
Kyoto Museum for World Peace, Ritsumeikan University
Katsumi Takahashi

On a light rainy day at the end of January, we traveled to Kyoto to visit the Kyoto Museum for World Peace, Ritsumeikan University. There were eight of us in all: four WFC board members, four Hiroshima Pass-on-Project lecture participants. At Kyoto station, we were met by Ms. Yoshiko Tanigawa, a volunteer guide from the museum. She led us to a bus on which we headed for Ritsumeikan University at the foot of Mt. Kinugasa. According to her explanation, of its type as a university-established museum, it is unsurpassed in the world as regards its scale and exhibits. We were excited, looking forward to seeing all this.

At first we visited Suekawa Memorial hall, named after the honorary president Hiroshi Suekawa who was from Iwakuni. Mr. Suekawa’s relics exhibition was held there. There Ms. Rumi Hanagaki greeted us. She was exposed to the atomic bomb in Yokogawa at the age of five years old. Now she is a caretaker for the Kyoto atomic and hydrogen bomb survivors’ consultation group. After lunch at the restaurant in the hall and introducing ourselves, we heard Ms. Hanagaki’s testimony as a hibakusha. She said that the circumstances at the time of exposure to the blast, especially what she experienced while evacuating to Mitaki had returned to her years later as flashbacks.

Moving to the museum next door, the roses of Anne welcomed us at the entrance. Entering the building, there was a comfortable spacious lounge. On the east and west walls, two “Phoenix fire birds” reliefs by Osamu Tezuka representing the epidemic of past war to bright future were glowing lustrously, and we were met by the impressive enshrined Muchan Peace Statue. Ms. Tanigawa explained that Muchan was a girl with tuberculosis who had been kept quarantined alone in a shelter, and had starved to death without knowing that the war was over.

Then finally we went to the lower first floor to the main permanent display, “Staring at Peace”. The exhibition starts when you go down the stairs looking at the large Wadatsumi (God of the sea) statue along one side. The exhibits on this floor were divided into two themes: the “Fifteen years war” and “Modern wars”. For the “Fifteen years war”, there was a huge display of primary materials with easy to understand neutral explanations based on historical facts. I was deeply impressed. I was able to learn a lot of things which I hadn’t known.

This museum was established following deep reflection on the fact that Ritsumeikan had been a strongly militaristic school before the war. Everywhere I saw the strong intention to nurture the subject of creating peace.

Contents of the respective exhibitions were significant. The themes were: ① Military and soldiers (Characteristics of the imperial army), ② General public mobilization (War cooperation system), ③ Colonies and occupied territories (Anti-Japanese movement), ④ Air raids, the Battle of Okinawa, the Atomic bomb, ⑤ Efforts for peace (about the Japanese antiwar movement), and ⑥ Responsibility for war. Among the exhibits that remain strongly impressed in my memory are the heavy backpacks, up to 30kg, which the soldiers carried, an aerial photograph showing the plan to drop the atomic bomb on Kyoto, which had been among the first possible targets (a circle with a radius of 2.4 km from the Ume alley engine depot), and anti-Japanese slogans.

Then we went upstairs and looked around the “Peace Creation Exhibition Room”. Here, one area for reflecting on violence and peace was introduced, around the central theme of “Peace is not just the absence of conflict”. I became aware of the various issues that exist around us.

In the next room was an exhibition of works from art students who died in the war, kept in this Kyoto Hall section of the “Silent Hall” museum located in Ueda City, Nagano Prefecture. I faced the works of the art students who had lost their lives so young.

In this visit to the Kyoto Museum for World Peace, Ritsumeikan University, through the huge display of exhibits built on academic knowledge, I was able to gain some understanding of the stupidity of war and a realization that peace can be achieved through the proactive behavior of individuals. It was a very meaningful tour for our future peace activities.

Finally, I wish to express my appreciation to our guides, Ms. Tanigawa and Ms. Hanagaki, and to every member of the board of the World Friendship Center.

Against the relief of “Phoenix fire birds” soaring to the future

From left to right: Ms. Niki, Ms. Watanabe, Ms. Matsuno, Ms. Miho,
Ms. Kurumaji, Ms. Taguchi, Mr. Takahashi, Mr. Tachibana
Against the relief of “Phoenix fire birds” soaring to the future
From left to right: Ms. Niki, Ms. Watanabe, Ms. Matsuno,
Ms. Miho, Ms. Kurumaji, Ms. Taguchi,
Mr. Takahashi, Mr. Tachibana

Translated Sumiko Kanetsuna

Copyright © NPO World Friendship Center 2019 All Rights Reserved