6 ZOOM JAPAN number 21 may 2014

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If the Yushukan Museum represents the at-tractive, glossy, rose-tinted version of Japanesehistory, its direct opposite can be found about

30 kilometres north of Tokyo, in Saitama Pre-fecture. After getting off at the tiny TsurugashimaStation, we hail a taxi and direct the cluelessdriver to a one-storey building lost among anendless sea of fields. Inside we find books everyw-here – some of them neatly arranged on shelves,many more inside the many cardboard boxespiled up in each room and even the corridor –and the three people who guard these preciousdocuments for which the place is known. Welcometo the Chukiren Peace Memorial Hall, a resourcecentre devoted to teaching the truth about Japan’swar-time atrocities. Founded in 2006 by the As-sociation of Returnees from China, it housesmany important documents including almost

200 memoranda in which war veterans tell of allthe grisly things they have done and seen whileposted in China. Today Serisawa Nobuo andMiyamoto Naoko – the only two regular membersof staff – welcome us, together with Keio Uni-versity’s Emeritus Professor and Chukiren ChiefDirector, Matsumura Takao.

You have to admit this place is rather off thebeaten track.

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SeriSaWa Nobuo : When it started, former chair-man Niki Fumiko used to live next door, so shechose the place partly out of personal convenience.Also, we can’t afford Tokyo’s high prices. Evenafter becoming an NPO, we haven’t acceptedthe government’s admittedly paltry financial aid.We want to preserve our independence, so weonly manage to exist through membership fees,our fund-raising campaigns, and the help of about20 volunteers. Of course, for many people trekking all the wayto this place is rather inconvenient, but we arenot a common public library. Most of our visitorsare scholars and journalists who need to consultour documents and books for their research. Thatsaid, everybody is welcome here.

the other day when i mailed you to arrangethe interview, you seemed to be worried wemight be right-wingers…SeriSaWa Nobuo: Yes, that’s true. The Associationand this place have attracted many attacks from

ultra-conservative groups. I remember when [no-toriously nationalist] Sapio magazine once wrotea four-page article portraying us as a bastion ofanti-Japanese sentiment. If right-wingers catcheven a small factual mistake on our part theyblow it out of all proportion, so we must be verycareful.

While Chukiren’s mission is to present thetruth about WWii, many conservatives – led

by the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP)– persist in denying the facts despite all theproof and testimonies now available. What doyou think of the ongoing textbook controversy?MatSuMura takao: The origins of this problemdate back to the mid ‘50s when the Ministry ofEducation rejected several social studies textbookmanuscripts. Arguably, the most famous victimof such a policy was respected historian IenagaSaburo, who fought a long battle with the Ministryand even sued it in 1965 in what is considered, tothis day, the most famous challenge to textbookcensorship. Then in 1996, a group of nationalistsfounded the Japanese Society for History TextbookReform with the aim of fighting what they consi-dered a “masochistic view of history”, and injectinga sense of pride in Japan’s past. In order to achievetheir goal they have published their own textbooksthat, of course, present a biased, one-sided viewof many past events. The problem with textbookselection is that Japan is the only “democratic”country where the Ministry of Education has theright to impose its textbook choices on schoolsnationwide. Three years ago, for example, a fewtowns in Okinawa rejected this prejudiced wayof presenting history, and independently adopteda different textbook, only for the Ministry to de-mand “corrective action” against their act of re-bellion.

are you worried by how things have evolved inthe last few years? MatSuMura takao: Of course I am. This is aclear attempt on the part of the LDP-led govern-ment to hide what really happened between Japanand its Asian neighbours before and during thewar. On top of that, the government’s attack oncivil liberties has lately increased in pace, mostnotably with the recent enacting of the StateSecrets Law and the attempt to reinterpret theConstitution in a nationalistic, militaristic way.

Why is this law so dangerous? MatSuMura takao: In 1923, two years afterthe Great Kanto Earthquake destroyed Tokyo,the government promulgated the Peace PreservationAct. Now, three years after the 11th of March di-sasters, the government has come up with thislaw. It seems that after a big calamity and theensuing crisis, confusion and social turmoil, theauthorities feel the need to take control of the si-tuation in order to stifle any criticism of thepolitical elite. This time, of course, the nuclearplants are the biggest problem, and Mr Abe doesn’tlike the growing popular rejection of nuclearenergy. So the LDP’s goal is to crush the opposition.

COMMITMENT Never forgetSince 2006, the Chukiren PeaceMemorial Hall has been fighting topresent the truth about the war.

Many files documenting the reality of the conflict. Matsumura Takao manages the centre.

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It’s true that many other countries have similarlaws to protect national security and classifiedinformation, but these papers are routinelywithheld for 30 years, whereas in Japan they canbe withheld for up to 60 years, sometimes evenlonger. That’s just incredible! Even the UnitedStates has expressed concern, and that’s reallysaying something! Only in Japan can you findsuch an unfair law. Unfortunately, this is nothingnew. Indeed, this is a country where embarrassingdocuments magically disappear. For the last fouryears, for instance, I’ve tried to obtain some do-cuments related to the infamous Unit 731. Allalong, the Ministry of Defence has said it can’tfind them. This is despite that fact that in 1986the American authorities stated in a public hearingthat they had returned them to the Japanese go-vernment at the end of the ‘50s. Therefore, lastNovember, I was forced to sue the state. Now,under the present law, even requesting a certaindocument can be punished with a 10-year jailsentence. In such conditions everybody – jour-nalists, scholars, etc. end up censoring their ownwork out of fear. Freedom of speech is in danger.That’s why many municipalities are opposingthe law and people around the country are orga-nizing public assemblies to discuss the matter.

Mr Abe’s foreign policy has been criticized byseveral countries. It doesn’t bode well for Japan'sinternational standing.

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MATSUMURA Takao: It’s very serious becauseJapan is losing the trust of an increasing numberof countries. Japanese politicians are against issuingapologies, with the courts throwing out each andevery case; in other words it’s a general state ofdenial. This lack of trust though, does not extendto the people. I can testify that Japanese andChinese people enjoy a friendly relationship. Weat Chukiren in particular, have always had manyexchanges and even last July a Chinese delegationvisited us. This is very important because in suchconditions the authorities can’t persuade the po-pulation to go to war. It’s only the governmentthat keeps antagonizing our neighbours and themedia are doing nothing to stop it.

Speaking of the media, recently NHK’s Chair-man Momii Katsuto and board member HyakutaNaoki have publicly stated that wartime sexslaves didn’t exist and that the Nanking Massacrehad been exaggeratedSERISAWA Nobuo: It’s a real shame. Journalistsare supposed to be the government’s watchdog,so why aren’t they doing their job? MATSUMURATakao: The sad reality is that jour-nalism in Japan is hopeless. There are, of course,people inside of NHK who oppose Momii's opi-nions but there’s nothing they can do. Whenevera journalist tries to do his job he is transferred toa faraway place where he can do no harm. It’sreally a deplorable situation. Particularly in the

aftermath of The 2011 disasters, NHK’s approachto news broadcasting has changed. For example,when the 8% consumer tax came into effect, theanchor-man urged everybody to accept the taxhike because, “this money is going to be used forsocial security”. Not only is this a lie, but this pa-tronizing style does not belong on NHK. Unfor-tunately, it’s not only NHK. All major papers –the Yomiuri, the Mainichi, now even the Asahi– have changed for the worse; only the TokyoShimbun is doing its job properly.

What are your thoughts on the current state ofpolitics in Japan? SERISAWA Nobuo: It’s a very serious situation.About a year and a half ago, I toured several Eu-ropean cities where I spoke about The political,economic and social consequences of the 2011disasters. I had the chance to meet many people,and nobody understood why the governmentwas trying to revive the nuclear programme,even though 70-80% of the Japanese peopleopposed nuclear energy. That’s when I realizedthat Japan’s constitution and the separation ofpowers notwithstanding, this is not a democraticcountry. Or to put it differently, things haven’treally changed since the pre-war period. That’swhy it is important to continue protesting andto oppose this increasingly authoritarian go-vernment.

INTERVIEW BY J. D.

From left to right: Miyamoto Naoko and Serisawa Nobuo, the only two full-time employees at Chukiren’s Peace Memorial.

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