Near the end of the museum, there was a 40-minute animated film shown to us that promotes peace. We were told before-hand that the film was intended for all the elementary school children who take field trips to the museum, not adult college students. By the end of the film, I was nearly crying. The story opened with a family enjoying a picnic in Osaka park underneath the plum blossoms. The children we excited by how nice a day it was, when the mother commented that they should be greatful for beautiful days like this. She then went on to tell a flash-back story of when she was a little girl living in Osaka with her family. Her mother and her two younger siblings, one still an infant, would often go the country side to gather edible roots, and would come home to cook dinner for the family. Her father was in the Imperial Japanese army. One night, sirens started sounding and the family awoke in a panic. They gathered themselves together, put on their debris/ flame protecting head covers, and fled to the bomb shelter in their back yard. While the family waited, safe in their bunker, the destruction of Osaka played out across the screen. Children stood in the street screaming for their parents, clusters of firebombs struck the ground near families, distorting their bodies as the flames engulfed them. Buildings crumpled to the ground, people ran about in general panic. After the bombing had subsided, the family continued business as usual, until later in the day, another bombing run occured. This time, their bomb shelter was desroyed before they could reach it, so the family had to forge ahead into the destroyed city to find a community shelter. Unfortunately, by the time they reached it, the shelter was packed full with dozens of families seeking refuge. As the family stood in front of the shelter figuring out where to go from there, a direct hit from cluster of fire bombs destroyed the shelter and all its inhabitants, throwing the girl and her family backwards into the street. After a moment of eerie silence you hear the young girl scream out in pain- shrapnel had torn through her forearm. Her father attempted to bandage the wound, but the blood kept pour through each layer of bandage he wrapped.
Finally, he had to set about beginning to tourniquet the wound. While her father was tending to her arm, the girl noticed that her baby brother, who was strapped to her mother's back, had a gaping hole ripped through the center of his body caused by the explosion, and he was very clearly dead. No one had noticed for a full five minutes that this had happened. All attention was diverted from the girl to this dead baby for a moment, the grief was overwhelming for everyone in the audience. The father then had to take the girl to an army medical camp because she was losing too much blood, and he simply told his wife to keep the baby with her. There was nothing else to do but continue on with the dead child strapped to her back- where could they have burried him?
The film ended with the girl growing up without her arm (it had been amputated) and eventually ending up at the happy place with her family where the film had opened. Her last sentenced roughly translated was "Peace is ABSOLUTELY better than war."
I was struck by a few things in the film, obviously. First, though the US was clearly responsible for these strategic fire bombings of major metropolises, the film never demonized any specific thing, and there was no clear 'bad guy'. The only feared 'character' was the bomb as it hit the ground and engulfed people in flames. Also, this film was intended for ELEMENTARY school children, and was shown to them regularly. It was a cartoon. I cannot think of a single school in America where violence and imagery of that level would be allowed be shown. I even had to have a parent waiver signed in high school when my school was going to show the Passion of the Christ. Interesting thought.
*Dislclaimer* Some of these images are very graphic and, in my opinion, are not intended for small children.
The Peace Museum, vast, well-funded. 
This is the very first sign you see when entering the exhibits. Though-provoking.
A recreation of a portion of Osaka hit hardest by the fire bombs.
Explanations
Thousand stitches- literally a thousand stitches sew into a cloth by an army or navy member's wive. The number 1000 has significant meaning in Japanese culture. The husbands were supposed to be protected by harm by wearing these thousand stitches. Here is another example of the power of 1000 in Japan:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sadako_Sasaki
Japanese draft card- it was red.
Explanation of the draft
Japanese WWII era house, complete with bomb shelter in the entryway (hatch near the shoes)
Japanese WWII era house.
Images of Japanese war crimes around the Asian/ Pacific. Click on the images to enlarge them and see their descriptions.
Slaughter of Chinese villagers by Japanese forces.
The above image really, really got to me.
Japanese Nationalist thought was very intense. These are civilians living on Okinawa who preferred suicide over loss of the island to American forces.
The US unfortunately bombed and destroyed the only congregation of Catholics in this part of Japan.
Bottles melted by the Atomic explosion.
A door from Auschwitz concentration camp. A Holocaust display was set up immediatly next to the atomic bomb display. Whether intentional or unintentional, it certainly sends a message.
Below are stories from survivors of bombings in Japan.
The statue outside the museum. There was no description or name for the statue.
It was a powerful trip with a strong message that favored peace. There were some controversial exhibits, some things I may have done differently, and things I didn't necessarily agree with, but I think it is important to post this because strong feelings of peace are part of the culture here. There is an annual poll conducted by the Japanese government among the Japanese people to measure defense consciousness. The question posed asks what would the person do if Japan was invaded by a foreign power. Fifty percent of the population consistently answer that they would either do nothing (15-20%) or do not know what they would do(~30%). Approximately 38 percent say that they would either join the Japanese self Defense force (2-3% of the population) or support the Japanese self defense force. About 1-2% say they would fight like guerrillas.
I wonder what this poll would look like in the United States...
Food for thought, interesting topic.
-Sarah
We've already been invaded, perhaps the question is moot.
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