뉴스레터

In late July 2013. several research fellows at NAHF, myself included, visited historical sites and museums in Tokyo, Japan and met with Japanese scholars and representatives of civil-society organizations. The places we visited included the History Museum of J-Koreans, WAM (Women's Active Museum on War and Peace), Yasukuni Shrine and Yushukan Museum within the Shrine. The History Museum of J-Koreans housed the systematicall preserved materials related to Korean residents in Japan, and WAM was actively engaged in activities related to 'comfort women.' On the other hand, Yasukuni Shrine officials were still refusing the request to remove the Koreans enshrined there, and we found many potentially controversial texts on the information board in Yushukan Museum. We also looked into the trend of Korean studies in the Japanese academia, and the final stage of the production of A Centennial of Japan's Forced Annexation of Korea: Its History and Challenge, which is to be published in Japan. This essay is a summary of our trip to the historical sites in Japan and what was going on there.

Yasukuni Shrine's Main Hall and Visitors

Field Trip to the History Museum of J-Koreans, WAM, and Yasukuni Shrine

The first item on our itinerary was the History Museum of J-Koreans founded with the initiative of Kang Deok-sang, a Professor Emeritus at the University of Shiga Prefecture (滋賀縣立大學), with support from the Korean Residents Union in Japan (known in short as Mindan). This history museum had spent nearly a decade collecting materials before it was opened in November 2005. This museum may not be large in size, but had a well-organized system in place to exhibit, study, and preserve materials related to Korean residents in Japan with over a hundred years of history. As the materials related to Korean residents in Japan are disappearing, this museum's task of collecting and exhibiting them is of important significance. In particular, the materials on the Great Kanto Earthquake caught our attention.

The next place of our visit was WAM (Women's Active Museum on War and Peace), located near Waseda University. WAM is a fully private organization opened in August 2005 and its operation relies on membership fees and donations. Despite threats from Japan's right-wing forces, WAM was engaged in a wide variety of activities related to 'comfort women' who had been forced into sexual slavery for the Japanese military. For instance, WAM held exhibitions, seminars, and symposia, conducted research and published the results, collected and read materials, and conducted a number of solitary activities. Through the meeting and talking with Director Ikeda Eriko (池田惠理子), we gained an understanding of the 'comfort women'-related NGO movements under way in Japan and their limitations. It is necessary to build and maintain a close cooperative relationship in Korea with these NGOs.

On the 26th day, we visited: Yasukuni Shrine, which is receiving increasingly more attention lately; Yushukan (遊就館), the military museum annexed to the Shrine; Chidorigafuchi National Cemetery; National Showa Memorial Museum (昭和館); and Shokei-kan (Historical Materials Hall for the Wounded and Sick Retired Soldiers, etc.). When we visited Yasukuni Shrine early in the morning, there were not many visitors yet. But as time went by, we began to notice group visitors. As is well known, fourteen 'Class A war criminals' are enshrined at Yasukuni. The trouble is that about 21,000 Koreans drafted into war for Japan are also enshrined there. Yasukuni Shrine officials are turning a deaf ear to the demand by the families of those Koreans to remove them from the shrine. In particular, Yushukan, the military museum that serves to glorify Japan's war of aggression, had exhibitions that we found very problematic. Notably, the exhibition board on 'Independence of Countries after World War II' near the exit of Yushukan read as follows:
"(Japan's) victory in the Russo-Japanese War inspired the world in general and Asians in particular with the dream of independence, and led many pioneers to visit Japan as a model of independence and modernization. (Omit) It was after the colonial power was overthrown by the Japanese army at an early state of the Greater East Asia War that the independence of Asian peoples became a reality. The flame that once kindled under the occupation of the Japanese army didn't go out even after Japan lost the war, but slowly but surely it gave birth to national states through independence wars."

The Women's International War Crimes Tribunal on Japan's Military Sexual Slavery explained on exhibition
materials within WAM: the sexual slavery for the Japanese military on trial on December 8, 2000

Misleading Information at Yushukan

This was simply outrageous! They were refusing to tell the historical facts that Japan had illegally occupied Korea and suppressed, exploited, and mobilized Koreans as soldiers or laborers, but glossing them over in a most self-indulgent manner. The National Showa Memorial Museum and Shokei-kan as national facilities were stressing the damage caused to Japan by the American army during the Pacific War, but without explaining what had started the war in the first place. In other words, the national institutions are spreading the misleading perception of history. This is why it is necessary for us to keep an eye on the main exhibition halls and museums in Japan.

On the morning of the 27th, we visited the Tokyo National Museum to examine the exhibitions related to Korea. In the afternoon, we visited a seminar on 'comfort women' held at the University of Tokyo and exchanged opinions with the participants. On the morning of the 28th, we visited the National Museum of Japanese History near Tokyo, where the exhibitions featured the history of Korea-Japan Relations in a relatively objective manner; there were items on exhibition and also videos screened that were related to what had happened to Koreans during the Great Kanto Earthquake. In the afternoon, we visited Kannon Temple (觀音寺) in Yachiyo City, Chiba Prefecture, where the Memorial Monument for the Korean Victims of the Great Kanto Earthquake, the bell tower, and the monument inscribed with a poem had been built with donations from Koreans.

Mr. Nishizaki, the Leader of a Society Honoring the Korean Victims of the Great Kanto Earthquake

On the 29th, the day we would return to Korea, we met with Mr. Nishizaki Masao (西崎雅夫, 53), who had taken the initiative of investigating and collecting materials on Koreans massacred during the Great Kanto Earthquake, and leading the gatherings to remember those victims. The place of our meeting was the Memorial Hall within Yokoamicho Park in Tokyo Metropolis, a facility to remember the Japanese who died in the Great Kanto Earthquake that occurred in areas around Tokyo on September 1, 1923. We chose that place because that was where the memorial monument for Korean victims was also built.

Mr. Nishizaki had built and managed the memorial monument next to his house with donations from like-minded people, and was carrying out a project to investigate, study, and remember the Koreans died in the Great Kanto Earthquake. Specifically, he had organized the Society for Excavating and Remembering the Remains of Koreans Massacred in the Great Kanto Earthquake and maintained it through various activities, including the publication of the collection of related materials, and the hosting of memorial meetings. I found his initiative very much impressive and admirable. He told us that his interest in the issues regarding Korean residents in Japan had begun when he had been in college and made friends with a Korean Japanese. He explained that once hearing that the murdered Koreans had been buried by the river right in front of his neighborhood, he had begun to explore the issues regarding Korean residents in Japan, and made it his lifetime mission.

While it is true that Japan is making an overall rightward shift recently, there are also conscientious citizens, civil-society organizations, and scholars in Japan as explained above. Therefore, regardless of some political leaders and right-wing forces in Japan, it is necessary to work closely with the like-minded civil-society organizations, media, and education community to resolve problems.

Our trip to Japan in hot summer, especially the Tokyo area at a lower latitude than Korea, was arduous. But there were so many historical sites, memorial halls, museums, and libraries for us to visit. September 1st this year marks the 90th anniversary of the Great Kanto Earthquake in the wake of which at least 6,000 Koreans were murdered. There are many long-term projects concerned with resolving this issue between Korea and Japan that need to be carried out and demand our attention. Thinking about it makes me feel somewhat frustrated. But I think that seeking to resolve such an issue is the reason that the NAHF was established in the first place.