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There is a huge stone monument called ''Peace Pagoda'' (photo 1) at the Heiwadai Park in Miyajaki City, southern Kyushu. But the tower had originally been 'Ametsuchinomohashira' set up in 1940 when the Japanese militarism peaked as part of projects to ''commemorate the era 2600.'' Japan established the monument to publicize and commemorate the imperial nation's dominance which had been expanding to Manchuria, Mongolia, Taiwan, Chosun and Southeast Asia, mobilizing stones from occupied lands in China, colonies and many areas in homeland Japan. 八紘一宇, which means the entire world becomes a family under the rule of Japanese emperor, is inscribed in front of the pagoda, written by former Japanese emperor Jijibunomiya Yasuhito, uncle of current Japanese emperor. It is undoubtedly a symbolic legacy of militarism. But it has now changed into 'Tower of Peace.'

Photo 2 is a scene of 'Tower of Peace' in Hiroshima, which had originally been the triumphal monument for commemoration of Japan's victory in a war against China in 1896. At that time, Japanese troops foraying into the continent marched by the tower toward port. And now the tower has also changed its name into a ''Pagoda of Peace.''

The two stone monuments, with close links to Japan's past militarism, came to transform as symbols of peace because of Japan's defeat in 1945. Aware of GHQ after the arrival of allied forces, Japan removed the emperor's inscription from the tower body to remove the militaristic nature while doing away with Aramitami (荒御魂像), a military man statue around the tower. And eventually Japan changed the name into ''Pagoda of Peace.'' The situation of ''Peace Tower'' in Hiroshima is similar. The tower name of ''Japan-Qing war triumphant tablet'' was covered with cement to be inscribed as ''Peace Tower.'' In order to make the hawk on top of the tower look like a dove, its sharp beak was cut in the middle.

Slyly turned to Peace Tower while erasing the legacy of militarism?

What occurred to the towers which had turned into 'peace' after the defeat? The tower in Hiroshima saw its haw's beak recovered to the original look in 1985. The tower in Miyajaki also saw its military man statue and the ''八紘一宇'' recovered in 1962 and 1965, respectively, on the occasion of the hosting of 1964 Tokyo Olympics. And the tower became famous as the starting point for the torch of the Olympics.

One may harbor skepticism in the process of symbol of militarism turning into a symbol of peace. Is Japan's pursuit of 'peace (heiwa)' the same as the peace we know? We may believe perhaps in Japan 'militarism' and 'peace' are harmonious concept given the change of war triumphant tower into a peace tower.

There are many peace memorials scattered around Japan. It is like about half of all peace memorials over the world are located in Japan. Under a project for investigation of heritages of Korea and Japan, we have been looking into peace memorials in Japan from last year to grasp how Japan was displaying and succeeding war memories. As a result of such efforts, we published ''Japan's war memories and peace memorials ? Kwandong, Northeast area'' to be followed by ''Japan's war memories and peace memorials ? Kwanseo, Kyushu, Okinawa''