Japanese Lifestyle during WW2 : A Museum Found!

[A4K]

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...

 

[Shinpachi]

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.

 

[Shinpachi]

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.

 

[vikingBerserker]

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

 

[Shinpachi]

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

 

[mikewint]

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.

 

[Shinpachi]

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!

 

[fubar57]

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

 

[Shinpachi]

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.

 

[mikewint]

Amazing, politicians are the same everywhere in the world

 

[meatloaf109]

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!

 

[Crimea_River]

Thank-you Shinpachi!

 

[A4K]

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

 

[Shinpachi]

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.

 

[Shinpachi]

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.

 

[tyrodtom]

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.

 

[Shinpachi]

Hello, tyrodtom.

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

 

[tyrodtom]

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.

 

[Shinpachi]

"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!

 

[tyrodtom]

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.