Kyoto Museum for World Peace, Ritsumeikan University
(Aug. 2005) The Kyoto Museum
for World Peace is the first peace museum in the world created
by a university. Ritsumeikan University’s decision to establish
this peace museum was based on a desire to represent Japanese
war history as accurately as possible. In the thirteen years
since its establishment, over 450,000 people have visited
the museum, and approximately 260,000 people have attended
the over fifty special exhibitions hosted by the museum over
the years. The peace museum is particularly proud to have
hosted student groups from over 3,000 different schools, approximately
half of those being elementary schools. RU’s peace museum
has developed into a leader of peace education in both national
and international circles.
An Honest Account of History
Ritsumeikan University has a past history of institutional
militarism. In 1928, RU organized an armed unit called the
Ritsumeikan Imperial Guard to protect the imperial palace
during the enthronement ceremony of the Showa Emperor (Hirohito).
In the years during and preceding World War II, RU was deeply
involved with defense education studies and even counted
an Institute for Defense Studies among its academic faculties.
Between 1943 and the end of World War II, the university
sent some 3,000 students to the front and approximately
the same number of students to military factories. Many
of these students were killed, either in battle or during
air raids.
Shortly after the end of World War II, General Douglas
MacArthur of the General Headquarters of the Allied Powers
decided that militaristic universities should be dismantled
and RU was among the three universities he enumerated for
abolishment. At that time, RU drastically changed its philosophical
direction from war to peace by inviting Dr. Suekawa Hiroshi
from the Osaka Municipal University to be the president
of RU. Dr. Suekawa went on to serve as chancellor of the
Ritsumeikan Academy from 1949 to 1969. During his years
at RU, he made great efforts in reconceptualizing the university
by introducing a series of democratic reforms that established
the Ritsumeikan University educational ideals of peace and
democracy.
In
1953, Chancellor Suekawa arranged for the Wadatsumi Statue,
which was created by the famous sculptor Hongo Shin and
depicts the grief and anger associated with war, to be displayed
at Ritsumeikan University. On December 8th, 1953, the university
held a ceremony in front of the statue and university officials
vowed to never again become involved in a war or send students
to the battlefield. Since that day, a similar anti-war ceremony
has been organized every year on December 8th at RU.
In 1990, on the 90th anniversary of RU, professors and
students decided to establish a peace museum in order to
give new life to the educational ideals of peace and democracy.
After two years of planning and construction, the Kyoto
Museum for World Peace was established on May 20, 1992.
The Mission of the Peace
Museum
As Professor Anzai Ikuro, the museum’s director since 1995,
explains, “the fundamental principle of the peace museum
is to face the past faithfully. We must face the past sincerely
and admit what actually happened in history. We feel that
the Japanese government is not facing the past faithfully
and (as a result) there are many controversial problems
between Japan and Korea and China. But the peace museum
believes it is very important to face the past faithfully.
So we display not only the damage and aftereffects of the
wars as experienced by Japanese people but also the aggressive
acts conducted by the Japanese military forces in the Asia
Pacific region. This is one of the most honest museums to
display both what we experienced in the war as well as the
experiences of the Asian people at that time.”
The Kyoto Museum for World Peace encourages an understanding
of the importance of establishing peace by conveying the
tragic realities of war and illustrating the efforts of
those who oppose war. The museum features a critical review
of Japan’s own militarist past, while also maintaining an
exhibition devoted to the courageous efforts of Japanese
people who opposed the war. In the spring of 2005, the peace
museum went through a massive renewal, including significant
revisions to the permanent exhibit which now contains materials
from the Manchurian Incident in 1931 to the Iraq War, as
well as other recent conflicts around the world. Continued
. . .
(Aug. 2005) The Kyoto Museum
for World Peace is the first peace museum in the world created
by a university. Ritsumeikan University’s decision to establish
this peace museum was based on a desire to represent Japanese
war history as accurately as possible. In the thirteen years
since its establishment, over 450,000 people have visited
the museum, and approximately 260,000 people have attended
the over fifty special exhibitions hosted by the museum over
the years. The peace museum is particularly proud to have
hosted student groups from over 3,000 different schools, approximately
half of those being elementary schools. RU’s peace museum
has developed into a leader of peace education in both national
and international circles.
In
1953, Chancellor Suekawa arranged for the Wadatsumi Statue,
which was created by the famous sculptor Hongo Shin and
depicts the grief and anger associated with war, to be displayed
at Ritsumeikan University. On December 8th, 1953, the university
held a ceremony in front of the statue and university officials
vowed to never again become involved in a war or send students
to the battlefield. Since that day, a similar anti-war ceremony
has been organized every year on December 8th at RU.
