Welcome to the Kyoto Museum for World Peace,Ritsumeikan University.
Since its establishment in 1992,approximately 170,000 people visited the
facility which is the only comprehensive peace museum owned and steered
by a university.The museum has been trying to send peace messages to the
community in cooperation with other domestic and overseas peace museums
including Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum and Nagasaki A-bomb Museum. Ritsumeikan
in wartime was militaristic.It even organized a private security squad called
"Kin'eitai"in 1928 for guarding Emperor's Palace in Kyoto and
sent some 3,000 students soldiers to the front since 1943. A great number
of students were dispatched to war plants,and not a few students coming
from Colonial Taiwan and Korea were expelled from the university. Immediately
after the termination of the Pacific War,Ritsumeikan University made a fresh
start based firmly on the fundamental idea of "peace and democracy"
under the initiative of Ex-president Professor Hiroshi Suekawa.The university
established a democratic machinery called "All-Campus Council",
and made various attempts for democratization such as students' participation
in the process of electing president and dean,and substantial support for
the students' autonomous activities. In addition to the efforts to promote
peace studies and peace education,Ritsumeikan established this facility
in 1992 as a spot for learning peace open to the community. Recently, not
only citizens but also many students from primary, junior-high and senior-high
schools have been visiting the museum.
Standing exhibition of the museum deals with three themes:(1) Aggressions
and sufferings of so-called "15-year war"in the period 1931-1945,(2)Aspects
of the World War
in Europe and the problem of war responsibility,and(3)War
and peace after the World War
. The museum usually holds several special
exhibitions every year.Approximately 20 such exhibitions have been organized
since its establishment including "War and Literature","Development
of Atomic Bombs and the Course of Atomic Bombings","War and Education","World
Press Photo",etc. Citizens established an organization named"Friends
of Peace" whose members have@actively been working in close cooperation
with the museum as volunteer guides for the visitors. In front of the museum,"Rose
of Anne Frank"and"Rose of Aikichi and
Suzu"are planted. Akichi is the name of the radio-operator of a
Japanese tuna-fishing boat that was victimized by a U.S.hydrogen bomb test
conducted in Bikini Atolls in 1954. He, with his wife Suzu, took good care
of roses in their garden,some of which were transplanted to the garden of
the museum here in 1994. In the entrance hall of the museum,there stands
a famous statue named"Wadatsumi-zo",which
is a symbol of the anger,sorrow and agony of the students who were driven
to death in the battlefields. Kyoto Museum for World Peace, Ritsumeikan@University,
is only 10 minute walk from Kinkaku-ji Temple (Golden Pavilion) and Ryoan-ji
Temple famous for its rock garden. Place feel free to drop in anytime when
you have a walk along Kinukake Street.You will surely find something new.
PROFILE
HOME