The Asia-Pacific Journal | Japan Focus Volume 5 | Issue 12 | Article ID 2604 | Dec 01, 2007

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The Women's Active Museum on War and Peace: Its Role inPublic Education

Nishino Rumiko

The Women’s Active Museum on War andPeace: Its Role in Public Education

Rumiko Nishino

This is the second article of a three part seriesintroducing historical museums in Japan andtheir role in public education on issues of war,peace, war crimes and reconciliation. The firsta r t i c l e(https://apjjf.org/../../../products/details/2594) isTakashi Yoshida’s “Revising the Past,Complicating the Future: The Yushukan WarMuseum in Modern Japanese History(https://apjjf.org/../../../products/details/2594).”T h e f i n a l a r t i c l e(https://apjjf.org/../../../products/details/2603) isby Mr. Kim Yeonghwan, the former associatedirector of Grassroots House Peace Museum(http://ha1.seikyou.ne.jp/home/Shigeo.Nishimori/) who describes the peace and reconciliationprograms that the Museum sponsors.

I. The “Comfort Women” Issue and theOrigins of the Women’s Active Museum(WAM)

What we euphemistically call the “comfortwomen” system was a violent system initiatedby the Japanese state to coerce women intosexual slavery and deprive them inhumanely ofbodily control, pride, security, future and hope.In August 2005, sixty years after Japan’sdefeat, we opened the Women’s Active Museum( W A M ) o n W a r a n d P e a c e(http://www.wam-peace.org/eng/) in Tokyo inorder to preserve the history and memory ofthe wartime violence committed by theJapanese military against women. The museum

is small, occupying only 1,238 square feet.

Entrance of WAM

Inside WAM

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Inside WAM

There were three reasons that we openedWAM. The first was to preserve records of theWomen’s International Tribunal on Japan’sMilitary Sexual Slavery (hereafter, theWomen’s Tribunal), which was held in Tokyo inDecember 2000 with judges from fivecontinents who specialize in international law.

Women’s International War Crimes Tribunal onJapan’s Military Sexual Slavery

The second was to honor the women of Korea,China, Taiwan, the Philippines, Indonesia, theNetherlands, Malaysia, Burma, Papua NewGuinea, Guam, and Japan who dealt withtrauma, psychological suffering, and physicaltorment not only during the war, but also in thepostwar per iod , as a resu l t o f the i rmaltreatment. The third was to establish a base

for peace and human rights activism in order towipe out wartime violence against women andto promote a more trusting relationshipbetween Japan and its neighbors in Asia.

II. Remembering the Women’s Tribunal

Since 1991, when Kim Haksoon publiclytestified to her suffering as a “comfort woman,”victims across Asia began to share theirexperience openly. One of the reasons thesewomen kept silent for half a century was thatthey lived in societies that emphasize the virtueof chastity. As a result, they worried aboutsocial discrimination and prejudice or beinglabeling as “shameful” or “filthy.”

Another reason why these victims werehesitant to speak out was that wartime sexualviolence against women has rarely been triedas a war crime. The twentieth century was fullof war and, without exception, all of these warsand military conflicts involved sexual violenceagainst women. In these wars, women wereexploited as tactical and strategic weapons,treated rather as war trophies than humanbeings, and forced to become sex slaves of menas “wives” and “comfort women” against theirwill. Yet it was only recently that the definitionof “war crimes” was understood to includesexual violence against women. In my view, thelack of attention to sexual violence hascontributed to the repeated occurrence ofsexual violence in war. For these reasons,women remained silent about their traumas inthe face of the mistaken social view that thevictims were “shameful.”

The Women’s Tribunal in 2000 was establishedto secure justice for those women who stood upafter f i f ty years of s i lence. I t was aninternational people’s tribunal supported by awide range of people across the globe. The goalwas to try those who were responsible forJapan’s wartime sexual violence.

Sixty-four surviving victims participated in thetribunal, testifying before a gathering of more

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than one thousand people from around theworld. The survivors told their stories,sometimes through tears, of their strugglesduring and after the war. For example, MaximaRegala de la Cruz, who was abducted from hertown in the Philippines in 1944 at the age offifteen, testified that she and her mother“couldn’t tell anyone or we could be executed.It was so shameful so we dug a deep hole andcovered it.” Her testimony was one of theexamples that illuminated the trauma that thesurvivors experienced during the postwaryears.

On December 4, 2001, the final judgmentissued in the Hague found all ten of theaccused, including Emperor Hirohito (not as anindividual, but as the Supreme Commander ofthe Imperial Army and Navy) guilty of crimesagainst humanity and called on the Japanesegovernment to provide remedial measures tofulfill its responsibility. They stated the needfor Japan to “acknowledge fu l l y i t sresponsibility and liability for the establishmentof the ‘comfort system,’ and that this systemwas in violation of international law” and to“issue a full and frank apology, taking legalresponsibility and giving guarantees of non-repetition.”[1] The judgment was based notonly on the testimonies of the survivors andmassive numbers of documents but also on thetestimonies of Japanese veterans, historians,international lawyers, and psychologists whospecialize in the study of trauma.

Preserving the historical memory of the victimsand survivors of Japan’s wartime “comfortsystem” will contribute to recovering theirhonor and preventing similar violence againstwomen in the future. In addition, their storiesshed important light on the need to overcomethe past and suggest ways that reconciliationmight be accomplished.

III. Five Principles of the Museum

The museum has five guiding principles that ithopes will help create a future without violence

against women. The first is to focus on wartimesexual violence and support justice, withoutgender bias. In doing so, we try not to fall intothe trap of empiricism and pay substantialattention to the testimonies and oral historiesof the survivors and victims. The second is notonly to gather and exhibit data on individualvictims, but also to try to articulate who isresponsible for the victimization. For thisreason, we do not just exhibit artifacts of“comfort women”; we also detail the military’ssystem of command, structure, and operationsthrough the testimonies of veterans and otheraccounts. The third is to create an action basethat will promote a non-violent future. Toachieve this goal, we hold meetings andpromote events that will help the survivors ofJapan’s wartime sexual violence gain somejustice. The fourth is to operate the museumwithout financial support from any government.Instead, we derive our support from a non-profit organization we founded called theHuman Rights Foundation for Women’s Warand Peace. The museum has two full-time staff,and a twenty member steering committee thatmeets once a month to operate the museum.Operating expenses come mainly frommembership fees and donations from thepublic. The fifth is to promote a popularinternational movement across nationalboundaries. With this in mind, we try to buildan international network to strive toward apeaceful and non-violent future.

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Staff

Collections/Documents

IV. Activities and Problems

Since 1997, the year all junior high schooltextbooks started to discuss the “comfortwomen” issue, historical revisionists haveincreased their challenges to public education.They have claimed that “comfort women” wereprofessional prostitutes and that the womenwere not forced into sexual servitude.Seventeen years have passed since thesurvivors identified themselves publicly, and wehave been fighting against these revisionistswho, nonetheless, seem to be gaining instrength and influence in Japan.

Right-wing extremists have occasionallyharassed us at the museum, yet we continue toreceive the support of many dedicatedmembers and donors. We have organizedspecial exhibitions on the Women’s Tribunal,journalist Matsui Yayori who dedicated her lifeto battle discrimination and violence againstwomen, and the Korean “comfort women” whowere left behind after Japan’s defeat and notrepatriated. In June, we are planning to have aspecial exhibition on “comfort women” forjunior high-school students. We have alsocoordinated public lectures and forums toeducate the public. We have interviewedveterans, done field work in various nations inAsia, conducted archival research, madedocumentary films, and published testimonies,

booklets, and monographs.

Growing numbers of high school students,college students, and people in their twentiesare coming to the museum. Some schools makefield trips to our museum a part of theircurriculum. Although we still receive harassinge-mails, I believe the museum is graduallyexpanding its role in public education.

Student Visitors to WAM

Student Visitors

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Visitors from Kusazu, Gunma

Workshop at the museum

V. The Role of WAM in East AsianReconciliation

WAM is an active museum that tries to rescuehidden memories of women forced into sexualslavery in order to alter public consciousness.It is modeled after the “Topography of Terror”exhibition in Berlin – a project that came tofruition with the help of many ordinary citizens.The exhibition was established on the site ofthe former headquarters of the German SecretState Police and the off ices of the SSleadership and the Reich Security Main Office.It was there that the Germans planned thekilling of Jews and other crimes againsthumanity. The Allied bombing left theheadquarters in ruins, and what was left was

subsequently demolished. Nonetheless,ordinary people worked to influence politicsand create an exhibition space that wouldpreserve the history of war and the memory ofthose crimes committed by the Reich. GerhardShoenberner, a representative of the project,stated that he hoped to establish a museumthat not only displayed records of victimization,but that would also become a center ofinformation, education, and empowermentwhich could help transform each individual intoa socially active citizen. Our museum followsthis concept.

Recently, the former Minister of EducationNakayama Nariaki, led about 130 lawmakers ofthe Liberal Democratic Party in submitting aproposal to Prime Minister Abe Shinzorequesting to revise Chief Cabinet SecretaryK o n o Y o h e i ’ s 1 9 9 3 s t a t e m e n t t h a tacknowledged that the military was “directly orindirectly involved in the establishment andmanagement of comfort stations and thetransfer of comfort women” and extended thegovernment’s “sincere apologies and remorseto all those ... who suffered immeasurable painand incurable physical and psychologicalwounds as comfort women.”[2] Nakayama andhis fellow politicians urged Abe to state thatneither the military nor the police were directlyinvolved in the coerced abduction of women,although private business people might havebeen involved in such activities. Responding tothe request, Abe stated the government couldfind no evidence to support the idea that“comfort women” had been abducted throughcoercion. Abe’s remark invited criticalresponses from other countries. Such remarksfrom the Japanese government makes its“apology” look insincere and preventsreconciliation in Asia.

In order to further reconciliation in Asia, Japanneeds to squarely “face the historical facts,” asKono stated in 1993. And to accomplish this, itis essential to have a history of imperial Japanthat can be shared with the countries

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victimized by Japan’s expansion into an empire.To remember Japan’s role as a perpetrator, inmy view, is neither shameful nor counter toJapan’s national interests. In order to promotereconciliation in Asia, Japanese society must doits best to recover the honor of the victims ofJapan’s colonial aggression and to prevent thesame gross violations of human rights fromhappening again. To settle our historicalproblems once and for all, I firmly believe, it isessential for us to form a cross-national andcross-ethnic community across Asia.

[1] The Hague judgment is available here(http://www1.jca.apc.org/vaww-net-japan/english/womenstribunal2000/Judgement.pdf).

[2] Statement by Chief Cabinet Secretary KonoYohei on the result of the study on the issue of“comfort women” on August 4, 1993, availableh e r e(http://www.mofa.go.jp/policy/women/fund/state9308.html):

The Government of Japan hasbeen conducting a study on theissue of wartime “comfortwomen” since December 1991. Iwish to announce the findings ofthat study.As a result of the study, whichindicates that comfort stationswere operated in extensiveareas for long periods, it isapparent that there existed agreat number o f comfortwomen. Comfort stations wereoperated in response to ther e q u e s t o f t h e m i l i t a r yauthorities of the day. The thenJapanese military was, directlyor indirectly, involved in theestablishment and managementof the comfort stations and thetransfer of comfort women. Therecruitment of the comfortwomen was conducted mainly by

private recruiters who acted inresponse to the request of themilitary. The Government studyhas revealed that in many casesthey were recruited againsttheir will, through coaxing,coercion, etc., and that, at times,a d m i n i s t r a t i v e / m i l i t a r ypersonnel directly took part inthe recruitment. They lived inmisery at comfort stations undera coercive atmosphere.As to the origin of those comfortwomen who were transferred tothe war areas, excluding thosefrom Japan, those from theKorean peninsula accounted fora large part . The Koreanpeninsula was under Japaneserule in those days, and theirrecruitment, transfer, control,etc., were conducted generallyagainst their will, throughcoaxing, coercion, etc.Undeniably, this was an act,with the involvement of themilitary authorities of the day,which severely injured the honorand dignity of many women. TheGovernment of Japan would liketo take this opportunity onceagain to extend its sincereapologies and remorse to allthose, irrespective of place ofo r i g i n , w h o s u f f e r e di m m e a s u r a b l e p a i n a n di n c u r a b l e p h y s i c a l a n dpsychological wounds as comfortwomen.It is incumbent upon us, theGovernment o f Japan , tocontinue to consider seriously,while listening to the views oflearned circles, how best we canexpress this sentiment.We shall face squarely thehistorical facts as described

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above instead of evading them,and take them to heart aslessons of history. We herebyreiterate our firm determinationnever to repeat the samemistake by forever engravingsuch issues in our memoriesthrough the study and teachingof history.As actions have been brought tocourt in Japan and interest hasbeen shown in this issue outsideJapan, the Government of Japanshal l cont inue to pay ful la t tent ion to th is matter ,including private researchedrelated thereto.

Nishino Rumiko is Director, Women’s ActiveMuseum on War and Peace, Tokyo.

For other articles on Japanese and East Asianmuseums and history education illuminatingissues of war, peace and war atrocities, see:

Kirk A. Denton, “Heroic Resistance andVictims of Atrocity: Negotiating theMemory of Japanese Imperialism inC h i n e s e M u s e u m s ”(http://japanfocus.org/products/details/2547)

Frederick R. Dickinson, “Biohazard:Unit 731 in Postwar Japanese Politics ofN a t i o n a l ‘ F o r g e t f u l n e s s ’ ”(http://japanfocus.org/products/details/2543)

Laura Hein and Akiko Takenaka,“Exhibiting World War II in Japan andt h e U n i t e d S t a t e s ”(http://japanfocus.org/products/details/2477)

Philip Seaton, “Family, Friends andFurusato: ‘Home’ in the Formation ofJ a p a n e s e W a r M e m o r i e s ”(http://japanfocus.org/products/details/2469)

Posted at Japan Focus on December 16, 2007.