The , also known as , is a

peace museum A peace museum is a museum that documents historical peace initiatives. Many peace museums also provide advocacy programs for nonviolent conflict resolution. This may include conflicts at the personal, regional or international level. Peace m ...

established in August 1991 based in the city of

Osaka is a designated city in the Kansai region of Honshu in Japan. It is the capital of and most populous city in Osaka Prefecture, and the third most populous city in Japan, following Special wards of Tokyo and Yokohama. With a population of 2. ...

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

. It focuses on the destruction of the city during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

and the broader themes of the tragedy of war and the importance of peace. It is funded by

Osaka city is a designated city in the Kansai region of Honshu in Japan. It is the capital of and most populous city in Osaka Prefecture, and the third most populous city in Japan, following Special wards of Tokyo and Yokohama. With a population of 2.7 ...

and

Osaka Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Kansai region of Honshu. Osaka Prefecture has a population of 8,778,035 () and has a geographic area of . Osaka Prefecture borders Hyōgo Prefecture to the northwest, Kyoto Prefecture ...

.War museum may scale back on Japan aggression September 14, 2013
''

Japan Times ''The Japan Times'' is Japan's largest and oldest English-language daily newspaper. It is published by , a subsidiary of News2u Holdings, Inc.. It is headquartered in the in Kioicho, Chiyoda, Tokyo. History ''The Japan Times'' was launched by ...

'' Retrieved October 7, 2015 In 2015, after pressures by members of the

Japan Innovation Party The was a political party in Japan. It was launched on 22 September 2014, following the merger of the Japan Restoration Party headed by Tōru Hashimoto, and the Unity Party, led by Kenji Eda. On 27 March 2016 the party merged with the Democrati ...

, exhibits were changed; the section on U.S. air raids in Osaka Prefecture between December 1944 and August 1945 was expanded and items related to Japan's actions in Asia were removed. The spirit of the museum was radically altered and transformed: it became a conservative museum.

Founding and early history

The museum was established in 1991 and was rare in Japan for showing the atrocities committed by Japan as well as the tragedies suffered by Japanese people. In 2000 it hosted a symposium by the Osaka-based

historical revisionist In historiography, historical revisionism is the reinterpretation of a historical account. It usually involves challenging the orthodox (established, accepted or traditional) views held by professional scholars about a historical event or times ...

group "Society to Correct the Biased Display of War-Related Materials" with

Shūdō Higashinakano is a Japanese historian. He is a professor of intellectual history at Asia University (Japan), Asia University who Nanjing Massacre denial, maintains that the Nanjing Massacre ("The Rape of Nanking") committed by Japanese troops during the Second ...

of Asia University as the keynote speaker. A Chinese government spokesperson stated that hosting the event would hurt the

Osaka bid for the 2008 Summer Olympics Osaka 2008 ( ja, 大阪2008) was one of the five short-listed bids for the 2008 Games, presented by the city of Osaka, Japan. The city won its right to represent Japan over Yokohama when chosen by the Japanese Olympic Committee. The IOC Evaluat ...

. Osaka later became the first city to be eliminated from the bidding process, with the games later being awarded to Beijing.

Political pressure to censor

Since opening, the museums exhibits were described as "masochistic" by conservative groups. In September 2013 the museum unveiled a plan to put more emphasis on the

Bombing of Osaka The bombing of Osaka during World War II first took place from the middle of the night on March 13, 1945, to the early morning of the next day. There were also bomb raids on June 1, 6, 7, 15, 26, July 10, 24, and August 14, the last day of the war ...

during

. There was a possibility that exhibits dealing with

Japanese war crimes The Empire of Japan committed war crimes in many Asian-Pacific countries during the period of Japanese militarism, Japanese imperialism, primarily during the Second Sino-Japanese War, Second Sino-Japanese and Pacific Wars. These incidents have b ...

may be reduced. When it became clear that the plans were to "drastically" reduce the material on Japan's aggression, the ''

'' printed an editorial calling on the museum to reconsider and stated that "The plan by the center — which is dedicated to studies of the war and efforts to foster peace — contradicts its purported independence."

Exhibits before 2015

Exhibition Room A, on the second floor of the Osaka International Peace Center, covered the

bombing of Osaka The bombing of Osaka during World War II first took place from the middle of the night on March 13, 1945, to the early morning of the next day. There were also bomb raids on June 1, 6, 7, 15, 26, July 10, 24, and August 14, the last day of the war ...

and other factors of Japanese domestic life during the last four years of the

Pacific War The Pacific War, sometimes called the Asia–Pacific War, was the theater of World War II that was fought in Asia, the Pacific Ocean, the Indian Ocean, and Oceania. It was geographically the largest theater of the war, including the vast ...

, mentioning neighborhood associations, school mobilization, nationalistic textbooks, and civil defense measures. Exhibition Room B, on the first floor, covered the

Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere The , also known as the GEACPS, was a concept that was developed in the Empire of Japan and propagated to Asian populations which were occupied by it from 1931 to 1945, and which officially aimed at creating a self-sufficient bloc of Asian peo ...

and was critical of the

Imperial Japanese Army The was the official ground-based armed force of the Empire of Japan from 1868 to 1945. It was controlled by the Imperial Japanese Army General Staff Office and the Ministry of the Army, both of which were nominally subordinate to the Emperor o ...

's actions in East Asia. One panel was entitled "Invading the Asian Continent," and was accompanied by displays of the Imperial Japanese Army's involvement in the

Second Sino-Japanese War The Second Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945) or War of Resistance (Chinese term) was a military conflict that was primarily waged between the Republic of China and the Empire of Japan. The war made up the Chinese theater of the wider Pacific Th ...

. There is also a section on the annexation of Korea in 1909 and

Korea under Japanese rule Between 1910 and 1945, Korea was ruled as a part of the Empire of Japan. Joseon Korea had come into the Japanese sphere of influence with the Japan–Korea Treaty of 1876; a complex coalition of the Meiji government, military, and business offic ...

, ending with a note that "Japan has still many unsolved problems" regarding the human rights of the 680,000 resident Koreans in Japan today. Exhibition Room C, on the third floor, advocated the end of "disputes and wars over ethnic, religious, or ideological differences." These exhibits focus on the threat of nuclear weapons, but also argue that starvation,

poverty Poverty is the state of having few material possessions or little income. Poverty can have diverse social, economic, and political causes and effects. When evaluating poverty in ...

, and degradation of the global environment are threats to

world peace World peace, or peace on Earth, is the concept of an ideal state of peace within and among all people and nations on Planet Earth. Different cultures, religions, philosophies, and organizations have varying concepts on how such a state would ...

. To emphasize these threats to peace, the museum includes a replica of the

Doomsday Clock The Doomsday Clock is a symbol that represents the likelihood of a man-made global catastrophe, in the opinion of the members of the ''Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists''. Maintained since 1947, the clock is a metaphor for threats to humanity ...

Exhibits after changes in 2015

After renovations in 2015, the exhibit areas became: * Zone A (2nd floor): The appearance of Osaka in 1945 and now * Zone B (2nd floor) Explains why Japan waged war with the US * Zone C (2nd floor): Life in Osaka during the war * Zone D (1st floor): Osaka reduced to ashes * Zone E (3rd floor): Osaka after the war * Zone F (3rd floor): What all of us can do to maintain peaceOsaka International Peace Center
Exhibition Guide
(PDF) (April 2015) Retrieved October 7, 2015

Information

* Address: 2-1 Osakajo, Chūō-ku * Hours: 9:30 am – 5:00 pm (entrance until 4:30 pm) * Holidays: Mondays, days following national holidays, last day of every month, New Year period.

References

External links

Osaka International Peace Center
{{Authority control Museums in Osaka Peace museums in Japan World War II museums in Japan Historical revisionism Osaka Castle Museums established in 1991 1991 establishments in Japan