# Japanese Lifestyle during WW2 : A Museum Found!



## Shinpachi (Mar 23, 2013)

A pair of the 2000 lb bomb replicas of the B-29 welcomed me abruptly.

Living in Osaka for more than thirty years, I did not know this city has anything like a war museum.
As Osaka people are generally optimistic, I thought they had forgot the war.

This was awesome experience even for a modern Japanse like me to be shown hundreds of actual exhibits of older Japanese livingwares, documents, weapons, debris of air raids, postwar viewpoint about the Japanese war crime and so on.

Will you join me for this mysterious trip for a while?
Thanks.


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## Shinpachi (Mar 23, 2013)

Actual debris of the 2000 lb bomb.
Plate thickness looks just 1 inch.


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## vikingBerserker (Mar 23, 2013)

Excellent, thanks for finding this place and posting pics!


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## Shinpachi (Mar 23, 2013)

Thanks vB. I'm going to introduce them by category as much as possible.


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## Shinpachi (Mar 23, 2013)

M69 Incendiary bombs.
I think these are rather restored ones than replicas as I find some original-look parts on them.


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## Shinpachi (Mar 23, 2013)

Explanation of the Incendiary bomb.
An E46 incendiary bomb contained 38 M69s as submunitions bundled by the steel belts.

One of the belts hit a man's helmet in March, 1945.
He survived but his three ribs were broken by impact.


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## Aaron Brooks Wolters (Mar 23, 2013)

Very interesting material Shinpachi. Thank you for sharing sir.


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## Shinpachi (Mar 23, 2013)

Thanks Aaron.
This will be a hard thread for me because exhibits are not necessarily happy things for Americans.
I am going to be a cool historian as war was over! 

Oh, Thanks MM for your like too!


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## mikewint (Mar 23, 2013)

Shinpachi, my friend, post away and please do not worry about giving offense. The war is long over, terrible things were done on and by both sides. It is long past the time to forgive and share our mutual humanity. As always excellent photography and thank you


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## fubar57 (Mar 23, 2013)

Very interesting Shinpachi and I agree with Mr. Wint.

Geo


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## meatloaf109 (Mar 23, 2013)

Yes, I would like to see more.


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## vikingBerserker (Mar 23, 2013)

I agree, please post everything. If it bothers some people they don't have to read it. I for one am interested in the Japanese's perspective.


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## Messy1 (Mar 23, 2013)

Very interesting post! Thanks as always!


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## herman1rg (Mar 23, 2013)

We must never forget.


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## evangilder (Mar 23, 2013)

Horrible things were done and said by both sides during the war in the Pacific. I think it is an interesting study in human behavior to see how things get viewed from the opposing sides. I have seen wartime cartoons, propaganda posters and the like that would be shocking by today's standards. But it is better to show and have people learn from it than to hide it, which could possibly make it happen again. I think most of us here look at history with an eye on facts and what happened. There is some emotion because of many factors, but it is the people who remove the emotional parts of history that have a better understanding of it.


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## Gnomey (Mar 23, 2013)

Agreed Eric.

Good shots Shinpachi! Thanks for sharing.


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## meatloaf109 (Mar 23, 2013)

evangilder said:


> Horrible things were done and said by both sides during the war in the Pacific. I think it is an interesting study in human behavior to see how things get viewed from the opposing sides. I have seen wartime cartoons, propaganda posters and the like that would be shocking by today's standards. But it is better to show and have people learn from it than to hide it, which could possibly make it happen again. I think most of us here look at history with an eye on facts and what happened. There is some emotion because of many factors, but it is the people who remove the emotional parts of history that have a better understanding of it.


My father was not a forgive and forget kind of guy. He fought in both the Atlantic and the Pacific, and was on ships sunk by U-boats on several occations, and in Kamikazi attacks off Okinawa. Oddly enough, he reserved most of his vitrol for the Japanese. It always vexed him when I would study and build aircraft (and ships and tanks,) from the other side.
I have always felt that it was important to understand the other side. 
I extend a hand of friendship to all the sons of World War Two Veterans, no matter where, or how, your parent may have served. As long as we try to understand the causes of that war and strive to eliminate them, I think we are on common ground.


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## Crimea_River (Mar 23, 2013)

A mature view and one that I share. Very interesting thread Shinpachi and please keep posting more.


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## Shinpachi (Mar 23, 2013)

Thank you very much my honorable friends and members for so many thoughtful and generous comments.
They certainly encourage me to step forward.
I do appreciate.

This museum is officially called "Osaka International Peace Center" founded by both Osaka City and Osaka Prefectural Government in 2001.
This is also known as "Peace Osaka" but who would imagine this is a sort of war museum unless we were born and educated in Osaka 
More than sixty percent of visitors are school children and their tour is started with these two message boards.


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## vikingBerserker (Mar 23, 2013)

A population that decreased by half in 8 months, that's really amazing.


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## Shinpachi (Mar 23, 2013)

Thanks for your kind comment, vB.
You can see a diorama under the floor through the glass, footage videos and photos on the wall about the air raids.


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## Shinpachi (Mar 24, 2013)

These stuff show aftermath as they are.


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## Shinpachi (Mar 24, 2013)

Home shelter and typical living room in 1945.
To prevent night bombing, light bulb was covered by dark cloth or people purchased special bulbs for the purpose.

The 4th photo shows fire-extinguishing shells which probably contained water.


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## Aaron Brooks Wolters (Mar 24, 2013)

Thank you Shinpachi.


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## Shinpachi (Mar 24, 2013)

You are welcome, Aaron. Any comment is helpful as I do not know exactly how you would feel to see these photos.

In the 5th photo above, you can see a large glass bottle with a long stick. That is to polish rice as polished rice was not available in the market any more in 1945 because of labor shortage. My mother once told me it was her job after school. She had to pick rice some hundred times to get peeled neat rice.

National uniform in the left is type otsu(= b). Type ko(= a) had no chest pockets.
It could be used as military uniform too when enlisted.

A small wooden device on the table is a tobacco roller. I am curious but do not know how to use it.

Tour continues.
Thanks!


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## A4K (Mar 24, 2013)

Great thread Shinpachi-san, arigatou!

Very interesting to see the Japanese perspective, history books are often so one sided.


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## evangilder (Mar 24, 2013)

Thia is great stuff, Shinpachi-san. Very few of us got to see anything like this growing up from the other side. WWII took a very heavy toll on civilians, and Osaka looks like it really took a pounding. 

The bomb shelters look like they might help if incendiaries weren't used. General LeMay liked using those on Japanese cities. Having seen footage from some of the Tokyo fire-bombing raids, it was truly horrifying.


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## vikingBerserker (Mar 24, 2013)

I agree, and please post everything.


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## Shinpachi (Mar 24, 2013)

Thanks A4K for checking!
These exhibits had utterly drawn me back to 1945.

Other miscellaneous goods.
The last photo shows a catalogue of simplified wooden helmets as no more steel for citizens.


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## Shinpachi (Mar 24, 2013)

Oh, Thanks Eric and vB again!


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## Shinpachi (Mar 24, 2013)

Air raids as observed by the citizens.


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## Shinpachi (Mar 24, 2013)

"Air raids" as a category ends with these testimonies.
"Soldiers" and "War Crimes" will follow.


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## mikewint (Mar 24, 2013)

Shinpachi, very powerful exibits and testimony. Reading the word "enemy" and understanding that it refered to America is a difficult transition as to us "enemy" meant Japan. That testimony could have been written by civilians from any country in WWII. Truely terrible words to read. Thank you, please continue to post


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## vikingBerserker (Mar 24, 2013)

Those pics are powerful, were they painted by kids?

This museum looks like it was well done!


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## Shinpachi (Mar 24, 2013)

It is some difficult for the postwar generation like me to understand the enemy as America but yes it meant so, Mike.
The first pic was painted by a grownup but the rest three were by kids, vB.

Thanks for your kind comments


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## evangilder (Mar 24, 2013)

As Americans, we were pretty much shielded from any of that kind of horror, so it's even more powerful. I am thankful that we are no longer enemies.


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## Matt308 (Mar 25, 2013)

I am also, Shinpachi-san. I pray that the ending of the war spared us both nation's the further shedding of unnecessary bloodshed.


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## A4K (Mar 25, 2013)

Wish humans would cultivate wisdom, not budgets, and put an end to wars altogether. Those personal accounts and pictures are heartrending


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## Shinpachi (Mar 25, 2013)

Frankly, I was prepared for furious backlash from your side till I started this thread.
But now I am much impressed with your so many heartful words which are truely based on humanism.
In this point, I think I was still a same Japanese as my fathers and grandfathers.

I must tell you such same humanitarian words as yours were also delivered to the older Japanese during the air raids in the form of handbills from the B-29s.
Mutual cultures were too much different to be understood each other. 

They may be still different as the museum does not even translate.
The handbill says "Escape together with your family! We will start bombings within a few days but our targets are military facilities only, not you. Escape! "

I now understand what it meant. 
Thank you very much.

Thanks, A4K, for your kind comment too!


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## Crimea_River (Mar 25, 2013)

Excellent thread Shinpachi and powerful exhibits indeed.


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## vikingBerserker (Mar 25, 2013)

Truly.


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## mikewint (Mar 25, 2013)

Bombs unfortunately are non-selective and factories must have workers who invariably live near their place of work. War cannot be sanitized.


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## Shinpachi (Mar 26, 2013)

Full translation of the handbill.

"To the Japanese People

Don't you want to save lives of you, your parents, brothers, sisters and friends? If you want to 

do so, please read this handbill well.

Within a few days, US Air Force will carry out bombings against the military facilities 

located in all or somel of the cities listed behind this handbill.

There are military facilities and factories producing munitions in these cities. 

Though US Air Force will destroy all weapons that your military authorities are going to 

use to prolong this losing war, we cannot tell exactly where our bombs will fall as they 

have no eyes. As you know, America of humanism does not want to hurt innocent people. 

So, please evacuate from the cities listed behind. 

American enemy is not you. It is your military authorities who are drawing you into 

their war. The peace America thinks is just to liberate you from the oppression of your 

military authorities because much better new Japan can be built up after that.

Why don't you have your new leader who can stop the war to recover peace?

Other cities not listed behind might also be bombed but all or some of the cities 

listed will be bombed at least. As this is our warning, please evacuate from the cities 

listed behind."



Thanks Crimea_River, vB and Mike for your kind comments again!
Tour continues.


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## Shinpachi (Mar 26, 2013)

Soldiers.


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## Shinpachi (Mar 26, 2013)




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## Shinpachi (Mar 26, 2013)




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## Shinpachi (Mar 26, 2013)




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## Shinpachi (Mar 26, 2013)

Kamikaze pilots.

The 3rd photo : "Recruiting home dogs for a military dog".


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## Shinpachi (Mar 26, 2013)

War Crimes.


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## Shinpachi (Mar 26, 2013)

Chinese soldiers being interrogated.
Nanjing Atrocity (Chinese Text Books).
Unit 731(Vivisection Data).


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## fubar57 (Mar 26, 2013)

Great stuff Shinpachi. Do you know the purpose of the book in Post#49

Geo


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## vikingBerserker (Mar 26, 2013)

What an incredible place this museum is!


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## evangilder (Mar 26, 2013)

This is great information to educate people. I can remember many times hearing that the Japanese did not acknowledge atrocities in China, and it is good to know that it is. This has been a great way to raise awareness and see it for ourselves. Even though the war has been over for almost 70 years, there are still things we don't know about each other. That is why I am thankful for forums like these were we can learn from each other and better understand ourselves and our former enemies.


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## A4K (Mar 26, 2013)

Amen Eric!

And echo Dave's comment. Seems to be a GREAT and very 'honest'/ unbiased museum - showing all aspects of the nations war experience in the same light. Hope to see it personally some day.

Thanks again Shinpachi for this thread!


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## proton45 (Mar 26, 2013)

Hello Shinpachi...
Thanks for this thread, this is a very interesting visit into the museum. I have been to Osaka, however I did not find this place. Very powerful exhibits...thanks again


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## mikewint (Mar 26, 2013)

Shinpachi, Excellent as always. I note that the book in #49 is in English. At some point, in their schooling, would Japanese students read/ be exposed to a book like this one? I too have heard that war crimes are not a open topic in Japan


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## Aaron Brooks Wolters (Mar 26, 2013)

I agree with Evangilder. This thread is a great way to better learn, know, and understand your culture. Thank you my friend.


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## barney (Mar 26, 2013)

On top of the other comments, Shinpachi, you are a great photographer. 

I'm named for an uncle who died at Buna but the time for hate is long past. 

My mother has a steamer trunk filled with WWII memorabilia. A few years ago she and I spent an evening going through it. There's even a letter in there from Patton (memo-graph) saying rah rah to the troops. It was like a trip to a museum. I ate a Tums (antiacid pill) that was older than I was. 

Thanks for sharing. If you have more I look forward to seeing it.


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## Shinpachi (Mar 27, 2013)

The books in Post#49 are supplementary books used in English class at Malaysian schools.
Japanese school text books also contain these older Japanese war crimes samely as the 2nd photo of #50 shows. The two books placed under the Chinese text books are Japanese ones though you only see heads of them in my photo.

This museum was once blamed by Japanese nationalists as too honest a decade ago when it opened and is still a controversial place between the anti-war activists and the right wings. 


Photos:
Bataan Death March
Thai-Burma Railway Incident (Known as Death Railway Incident)
Allied POWs in Changi in Singapore

and two more in Borneo and Korea. Last one is explained like -
A patriotic Korean farmer was cut his right arm when he held a Korean flag before the Japanese army. Then, he held it by his left hand. He was again cut his left arm by a Japanese soldier.

Thank you very much again for your kindest comments guys!

How do you do barney! Thanks for your precious experience with your mother too.
That sounds very impressive.

Tour is almost ending but I will try to check if anything more there before leaving.


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## barney (Mar 27, 2013)

*How do you do barney! Thanks for your precious experience with your mother too.
That sounds very impressive.
*

I've enjoyed your posts for some years now so I find it a privilege to write you a few words. Here is what I think is an amusing story concerning the trunk of WWII memorabilia.

My parents were married two weeks before my father was inducted into the army and they were very much in love. My mother saved every possible item from that time, ration cards, the things you put in your window if a husband or a son was in the service, newspaper clippings and anything she received in the mail from her husband. 

My father wrote every day. Once overseas, he couldn’t reveal his location, the censors cut a hole in his letter if he did. By the way, I wonder how the ships and planes crossing the oceans during this time could carry anything else with all this mail. Well, my father got the idea of visiting places of interest (like a castle in England) and found that if he mailed a brochure it would go through. Thus, he figured his sweetheart always knew where he was. When he got home the question she had for him was, “Why were you sending me all of this stuff?”

Anyway, like your visit to the museum, although not nearly so grim, the trip into trunk presented a picture of life as it was back then.


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## A4K (Mar 27, 2013)

More moving pictures Shinpachi-san, arigatou.

I can understand the museums predicament. There is a 'Terror' museum here in Budapest dedicated to the memory of those tortured and killed under the Russian occupation from 1945-1989, which has also been opposed by various groups. Likewise the Statue park set up in 1999, displaying the huge Russian statues once displayed throughout Budapest...


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## Shinpachi (Mar 27, 2013)

Thanks barney and A4K again.
It is very interesting for me to know that different peoples have similar experiences in different countries.
My grandmother once told me that she was unable to know how her enlisted son was because of military censorship.
She anyway kept sending foods, like cookies and pickles, addressed to her son in the army.
After the war, her son (my father) thanked her "Thanks mother. I shared your gifts with my comrades. We were all happy."

New Mayer of Osaka City suggested to close this museum in May 2012 as he did not want to show Japanese miserable past to the world anymore.
There were fierce oppositions from experts and anti-war activists as history is history. He agreed but cut the budget half. 

From the museum exhibits, 
Glory and Setback of Japanese Settlers in Manchukuo.


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## Shinpachi (Mar 27, 2013)

OK, no more.
Thank you very much for joining me, guys.
It was a thrilling but very educational tour with you 

Last photos:
Appearance of the museum.


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## vikingBerserker (Mar 27, 2013)

Awesome Shinpachi! THANK YOU for posting all of this, it was extremely educational!


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## Shinpachi (Mar 27, 2013)

You are welcome and Thank You too, vB.
I have understood your unchanged humanism over the century at last!


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## mikewint (Mar 27, 2013)

Shinpachi, again, my friend, many, many, thanks for taking the time to photogaph, post, and comment on your tour. These are difficult things to see and hear about but if we hide the past we cannot learn from it and hopefully prevent such horrors from happening again.


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## Shinpachi (Mar 27, 2013)

Thank you very much, Mike, for your many candid comments.
Frankly, I was surprised to read your comment of #42 as the old handbill was telling the same thing to the older Japanese!
So, I thought I should translate them all.

As told to vB, I have understood your unchanged humanism over the century at last.
That is awesome experience to me.
Thank you very much.

Peace to the World!


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## fubar57 (Mar 27, 2013)

That was a pretty sad thing for your mayor to do. The past can't be changed but you can learn from it to try and make sure it doesn't happen again. Thank you for posting this Shinpachi.

Geo


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## Shinpachi (Mar 27, 2013)

Thank you very much, Geo, for your kind readings and postings too.

The new mayor Toru Hashimoto, 43, is representing younger generation's frustration against the indecisiveness of present Japanese politicians.
He only wants to be Prime Minister of Japan but to be so I think he must learn not only politics or history but what human trust is much more.
He easily makes lies and that will let himself collapse sooner or later.


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## mikewint (Mar 27, 2013)

Amazing, politicians are the same everywhere in the world


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## meatloaf109 (Mar 27, 2013)

Politicians are just like preachers or priests, they will always tell you that they have your best interests at heart, when always, it is about money and power.
Shinpachi, if you can, please post pictures from more museums around Japan. I know that I have learned much, and I wish to learn more!


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## Crimea_River (Mar 27, 2013)

Thank-you Shinpachi!


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## A4K (Mar 28, 2013)

fubar57 said:


> That was a pretty sad thing for your mayor to do. The past can't be changed but you can learn from it to try and make sure it doesn't happen again. Thank you for posting this Shinpachi.
> 
> Geo



Echo Geo's post.

ARIGATOU Shinpachi -san for this tour. As the saying goes: those who don't learn form history end up repeating it. I think this is a very important museum, and hope the NEXT mayor of Osaka (after this new guy...) will be wiser.

Evan


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## Shinpachi (Mar 28, 2013)

Thank you very much for your many kind comments again!

As meatloaf109 asked me to introduce more museums, I have tried to check how about Sendai City as I was born there.
There was none fifty years ago.

Yes, the city has it now as "Sensai Fukko Kinenkan (Memorial Hall of War-damage Reconstruction)".
What surprises me is the Kamikaze headband exhibited there is same one as Osaka's!
You can check it in here.

They were not hand writen but printed after all.
Probably, millions of the headband would have been printed and distributed to the people.
In a sense, this may be a historic discovery because the headband was not necessarily a symbol of the Kamikaze pilots.

I have been thinking that the headband was a handmade individually to be a symbol of the Kamikaze pilots first and then people did after them. In fact, the headband in Osaka was explained "Relic of a Kamikaze Pilot" but I thought it funny. "Did he fly without it?"

So deep...


Sorry for my monologue, guys but history is so mysterious 

Thanks.


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## Shinpachi (Mar 28, 2013)

Sorry again. I've found out an answer.

Those printed Kamikaze headbands were given to the student workers, mainly to girls, in military factories by the army and had nothing to do with the Kamikaze pilots.
This site explains details.

Thanks.


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## tyrodtom (Mar 28, 2013)

There is a famous picture of a Kamikaze pilot in the act of tieing the headband on his unhelmeted head. A very famous picture, very clear and a close up, but he is never named in western sources.
I'm sure he has been reconized by some surviving relative or friend in Japan.
If you recall the picture I'm talking about Shinpachi, and know the answer, or any information, I would be thankful.

War is a personel experience, and to see nameless faces just doesn't seem right to me.


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## Shinpachi (Mar 28, 2013)

Hello, tyrodtom.

I think you are talking about Lt Yukio Seki - leader of the first Kamikaze attackers in the Philippines.


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## tyrodtom (Mar 28, 2013)

Thanks Shinpachi, it's nice to have a name for the face.

The picture is used as the front cover photo of Blossoms in the Wind, which is about the Kamikaze. It has interviews with several men trained as Kamikaze, but never used.
I've seen the picture dozens of times, but never with a name.


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## Shinpachi (Mar 29, 2013)

"Blossoms in the Wind"?

Sorry, tyrodtom, but the guy on the front cover is not a true Kamikaze pilot. Maybe an actor of Japanese American.
He wears the headband upside down and it's impossible for a Kamikaze.

The guy I was talking about is this guy.

Very interesting.
Thanks!


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## tyrodtom (Mar 29, 2013)

That's the picture I was talking about, I didn't realize the cover picture on Blossoms in the wind was different.

The cover they're showing online is not the cover I remember. Either they changed the cover picture or my memory of it is bad.
Probably the latter.


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## Shinpachi (Mar 29, 2013)

Thanks, tyrodtom, for your kind confirmation.
I am glad we were talking about the same guy


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## tyrodtom (Mar 29, 2013)

It's sad when you know you're looking at the face of a man who knows he is about to die.


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## Shinpachi (Mar 29, 2013)

His mother lost her husband prior to her only son enlisted.
After his death, his bride left his mother as no child.
His mother suffered poverty to pass away in 1953.
Yukio Seki might have been happy not knowing.....


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## mikewint (Mar 31, 2013)

Adifferent book but the picture appears to be the same


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## Shinpachi (Mar 31, 2013)

Thanks Mike.


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## Gregg (Apr 1, 2013)

*My father enlisted in 1937 and was at Hickam on 12/7/1941. He lost a couple friends almost immediately. I did not know this until 12/7/1956 when our Teacher read this interview for our History Lesson leaving out the man's name.

Then she surprised us all by stating "THAT YOUNG AIRMAN'S SON IS IN OUR CLASS TODAY AND IT IS YOU GREGG!" 

That night at supper I was a little nervous however I asked him if it was true. He was as surprised as I had been in class that morning. That night was the first he spoke of the Attack and it was 15 years later. From then on he shared more and more over the years.

I was engaged to be married and I told my father my BEST MAN'S WIFE is Japanese and was a child in Japan during the bombing and war. I asked him would it be a problem for him if I introduced them to each other? 

My father said, The war has been over for a long time and we need to put those things behind us and get on with our lives. My father and Kay became good friends and Pop taught us a lesson that I will always remember. We all have things to forgive and we have things we pray people will forgive about us as well.*


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## Shinpachi (Apr 2, 2013)

Thanks Gregg for your so sincere and precious message. I have read it three times to understand well together with the clippings. I must tell you first that I feel deep regret and sorry for your father's two friends death by the Japanese attack　in the Hickam airfield. What a horrible experience for your father it would have been!

However, I must also admit that your father's testimony, like the Japanese planes flew so low as to be pilots witnessed or air attack was carried out against the airfields first, interests me very much. To write this, I have tried to check our older pilots' testimonies. 

Yes, the airfield was attacked first by Zeros and, in a moment later or almost simultaneously, attack against the ships followed.
Even a torpedo bomber strafed the airfield to reduce flyable US aircraft on her way to Pearl Harbor.

This has been a good chance for me to understand your history better.
Please tell my best wishes to your family.
Thank you very much for your posting, Gregg.


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## vikingBerserker (Apr 2, 2013)

That's very cool Gregg, thanks for posting that.


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## fnqvmuch (Apr 8, 2013)

very grateful to you Shinpachi, for thinking to share this here; it is a good thing you have done.
Can you help me though - the museum's interpretive text, in translation, refers to fifteen
years of war before 1945?
thanks again, steven


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## Shinpachi (Apr 9, 2013)

Thank you very much, steven, for checking my thread and launching a good question.

In my impression, the museum could have wanted to use the more popular words "Greater East Asia War" than the "Fifteen-year War" to comprehend the series of wars Japan had committed from 1931 of Manchurian Incident to 1945 of Pacific War as the latter is not only an academic term but not necessarily familiar with the people.

Problem for the museum would have been the former is still preferred by the nationalists.
I believe that they avoided to be misunderstood.

By the way, the words "Pacific War" came from the western world in the postwar and does not indicate the "Greater East Asia War" totally but, when people say "Pacific War" today, there is a tacit consent that both are synonym though the museum could not use it either when it is not correct in historical meaning.


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## evangilder (Apr 9, 2013)

Good point, Shinpachi-san. Growing up, my history classes covering that time period covered WWII from the American perspective. There wasn't a whole lot of context around what led up to Pearl Harbor. It wasn't until later that I understood the events in Asia prior to Pearl Harbor. There appears to be a greater focus on the European Theater than others, at least in my experience, in history texts. But for most people, trying to figure out where the battles were being fought was hard to comprehend with the vast miles between battles. Prior to 1942, I doubt many Americans would have been able to find Guadalcanal on the map.

Museums and discussions like these can help to better understand the time, and the context. You have given many of us a glimpse into things that we would never have seen or known.


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## tyrodtom (Apr 9, 2013)

When I grew up in the 50's, my father and most of my uncles had fought in the Pacific, so I was pretty familiar with the Marine and Naval point of view early on. Then from the 7th grade on most of my teachers were male who had got their teaching degrees thru the GI bill, and were WW2 veterans.
By the time i'd graduated high school i'd heard a lot of war stories, but all from the American point of view.

But during my service in the USAF and Army, and getting stationed in both Japan and Germany, among other places. I always been interested in hearing the other side's viewpoints.


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## Shinpachi (Apr 11, 2013)

Thank you very much, Eric, tyrodtom, honorable Mods and all other members, for your kindest courtesy and generosity to have allowed me to introudce the museum.
This has been a good chance for me to understand better what was going on during the war too.

In my point of view as a Japanese, if I may comment a little bit more, the handbill looked strange to me imagining how my parents would have felt to read it at the time.
They did not believe American humanism at all, so it would have been more effective if the context had taken military ordering style like "Surrender or you will be all killed immediately! We have no mercy!" 

However, I make sure the great success of occupation policy by the allies after the war was you showed your great humanisim to the Japanese people unsparingly. It was a rain of mercy after the drought.

Thank you very much.


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## Shinpachi (Apr 11, 2013)

My parents and their generation would have taken the handbill more seriously to surrender if that should have been writen like this.

"To the Japanese People and Leaders

Stop the battles immediately.
You have fought enough. Your bravery will be honored and handed down to posterity.
But you must know that you have no chances of victory anymore now.

We have no mercy for those who resist. Bear it in your mind well that they will be buried away to the last one."


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