◆The Memorial Museum of Emperor Hirohito
The Memorial Museum of Emperor Hirohito (shōwa tenno kinenkan) is now being constructed within the precinct of the National Shōwa Memorial Park (kokurisu shōwa kinen kōen) in Tachikawa, a city in the western suburb of Tokyo. The initiative in this project has been taken by the Japanese Ministry of Land and Transportation (kokudo kōtsu shō) and more than 1,4 billion yen (approximately 14 million US dollars) has been already allocated from the national budget. The aim of the project is, according to the broacher of the Shōwa Seitoku Kinen Zaidan, or the shōwa sacred-virtue memorial foundation, which curates the exhibition at the museum, to remind the public of “Emperor Shōwa who, by deciding to end the war, saved our nation” and of his “generous heart which has always been the fundamental source of comfort and vigor for his subjects and made post-WWII Japan prospered.” It also claims that the museum is necessary to honor the Emperor who “cherished peace and nature.” Was Emperor Hirohito, however, really the Emperor who cherished peace and nature? He is now claimed to have been nature-friendly because he planted some trees at the annual Shokujusai ceremony. (Shokujusai is Arbor Day; shokuju lit. means planting.) However, for each single tree he planted at the ceremony, hundreds of trees were displaced or demolished. Isn’t it nonsense to honor him as “the emperor who cherished nature” and spend 14 billion yen out of the tax? Emepror Hirohito’s love for nature does not appear to be sincere. Then, how about love for peace? The Emperor, as the Japanese military almighty, led the way in the war of aggression in the Asia Pacific and killed tens of thousands of people in the area. Without taking any responsibilities for the past war, he had remained at the throne even after the war. Why, then, a museum in honor of a peace-friendly emperor? The Ministry of Land and Transportation is a branch of the Japanese Government. It is the first museum that are going to be built in the memory of late Emperor Hirohito by the Government and the project clearly expresses the Japanese official views towards the Emperor and his era. It defines how the Emperor should be understood and his time be remembered by the public. The perverted notion of the “emperor who cherished peace and nature,” which the Government uses to legitimatize the construction of the museum, made it obvious that even 60 years after the war, the Japanese Government is still incapable of facing its war responsibility.
by sosidan
| 2005-07-29 23:39
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