The Asia-Pacific Journal | Japan Focus Volume 6 | Issue 5 | Article ID 2746 | May 03, 2008

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The Songs of Nippon, the Yamato Museum and theInculcation of Japanese Nationalism

Yuki Tanaka

The Songs of Nippon, the Yamato Museumand the Inculcat ion o f JapaneseNationalism

Yuki TANAKA

Si vis pacem para pacem

Over many years textbooks and conservativeeducational policies such as “moral education”have been central to the discussion of thepropagation of Japanese nationalism. These areimportant facets of the persistent efforts toraise national sentiment. In recent years,however, new avenues for inculcatingnationalism have emerged. This essay examinestwo such examples to gauge the role of popularculture in creating “love of nation” amongchildren and youth.

The Songs of Nippon and Yasukuni Shrine

In April 2006, Yasukuni Shrine ran a musiccompetition, inviting people to submit newlycomposed songs on the theme “Songs thatmake you love Japan,” as part of an event tocommemorate “the end of the Great East AsianWar.” Two hundred and thirty one songs weresubmitted in the three months before theclosing date and six songs were ultimatelyselected by a panel of judges headed bymusician Tsunoda Hiro. All six songs werewritten and sung by young amateur or semi-professional musicians, who are virtuallyunknown in Japanese music circles.

Tsunoda is a 58 year old singer, jazz drummer,and composer. In the early 1970s he played at

famous jazz festivals in Montreuil and Newportas a member of one of Japan’s top jazz groups,the Watanabe Sadao Quartet. In 1971, his songMary Jane became a big hit. However, his fameas a jazz musician quickly faded andsubsequent efforts to form new bands all endedin failure. His recent songs express strongnational sentiment.

Following the competition, Yasukuni Shrineproduced a CD entitled Nippon no Uta (Songsof Japan), comprise of the above mentioned sixsongs, together with another song, written byUchida Tomohiro, a relatively unknown writerof children’s songs, and arranged by Tsunoda.All the songs on the CD, except for one,composed and sung by a group called AreiRaise, are in the fashionable folk song style,characterized by a soft, slow melody, withsentimental, hackneyed phrases mingled withpatriotic sentiments.

The following are extracts from some of thesesongs.

Spin your endless dreamKeep walking without looking backYour heart is unshakableEmbrace your motherlandThis is the nation to which you will alwaysreturnThe land of Yamato, with its gentle breeze’

‘We are blessed with peaceful daysThanks to those who endured harsh timesThose who had little food and water day afterdayYet kept a strong will and dreamt of a distantfuture

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I pray for eternal peace and loveThat is what I wish, sitting by this little streamof pure water

One of the songs entitled The Last Courage, bya group called Lily, does not include a singlereference to Japan, the nation, or subjectswhich imply national sentiment. Instead it is amélange of hackneyed phrases like these:

We live helping each other, connecting witheach otherDream, you, love and IHow long should we keep runningWe do not realize even if we are running thewrong wayThe more we struggle to live, the morehappiness we gainWe don’t want to cry, therefore we believe inthe last courage.

Riding on A Dragon, the song written byUchida and arranged by Tsunoda, exudesJapanese sentiment, through evocation of thecourage and sacrif ice of the wartimegeneration:

No matter how times change, there are thingsthat we must not loseWe will revitalize this nation that you loved somuchAtop a cherry tree where we aspire to be,We find a blossom of our unchangeable oathYou protected this nation of eight islands withyour own hands,With endless dreams and ever-lasting loveThank you for your dreams, Thank you for yourloveWe, too, will protect this golden countryRiding on a dragon, riding on a dragon.

Are not these songs too mediocre to attract theattention of young people and become big hits?Indeed, few copies seem to have been sold atthe Yasukuni Shrine shop.

One exception is the song entitled Kyoji (Heroic

Spirits), a rap song, by the group Arei Raise[Eirei Raise], comprised of three young boys.This group was formed when one of the boyssaw a leaf let for the Yasukuni musiccompetition shortly before the closing date.Indeed, they did not even have time to nametheir group before submitting their work. Whentheir music was selected as one of the bestpieces, Tsunoda named the group Arei Raise, apun on a Japanese expression meaning“departed spirits of war heroes in the nextworld.”

Here is a full translation of Kyoji:

Even with those two atomic bombsYou could not burn down our nation, SirWe overcame that disasterJapan is great, after allWith few natural resourcesWith many descendants of talented peopleWho overcame the human experiment withnuclear weaponsLet’s learn from the wisdom of our ancestorsWith the full experience of the Sino-Japanese,Russo-Japanese, and Great East Asian HolyWarsThe experience of Edo, Meiji, Taisho, Showaand HeiseiThis spirit of progress cannot be replaced byanything elseThat is our unauthorized intangible culturalassetJapan’s counterattack will soon be launchedFirst we must arm our hearts with nucleararms

People always survive, thanks to the sacrifice ofothersBut the important thing is what we do with thatsacrificeIt has been sixty years since the war endedIt’s now time to respect the spirits of warheroes and the end of the warJapan’s war was noble and grand, whether itwas right or wrongTo fight the enemy, knowing you would be

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defeatedTo fight to win from time to time at the risk ofyour own lifeOur ancestors were not wrongWe just love JapanWe are neither right nor left, we are simplybald headedWe like Japan and the Japanese a lotDon’t forget our hopes and prideFor a start, raise your voices, you Japaneseboys and girlsThe spirit of Kamikaze is always with usLet’s change the way people see “the typicalJapanese”With hip hop scenes

We really love this countrySo we want to keep our hearts as gold as ournation isWe Japanese are strong minded, trainingourselves day after dayLet’s make our song everlastingWe can get together here whenever we likeOur feelings echo each otherAnd become a rainbow under the sky ofYasukuniThere are things that we cannot doYet there are things that only we can doThings that even we can doLet’s keep singing until our voices grow hoarseDon’t forget what we inherited from ourancestorsKeep them in mind all the timeAnd pass them on to the next generationLet’s walk together towards our future

Nippon, A beautiful countryNippon, The country where the sun risesNippon, A magnificent countryNippon, Nippon, NipponNippon, The country where gods liveNippon, The country that we love so muchNippon, Our countryNippon, Nippon, Nippon

View and listen to it here

Listen here to their song Kudan (anallusion to Yasukuni Shrine) with photos ofkamikaze pilots and texts of their lettershome

This song, particularly the last phrase with therepeated words “Nippon” (“Japan”), is so jauntyand rhythmic that it could easily be chanted bya crowd of Japanese supporters at a WorldFootball Cup match. In fact, chanting “Nippon”seems to be adopted from the actual footballsupport group cheering at the World Cupgames.

On August 15, 2007 - the 62nd anniversary ofthe end of the war - Arei Raise launched its firstCD album, entitled Kyoji, using the title of itsfirst song selected for the Yasukuni CD. Thisnew CD contains eight rap songs including arap version of the national anthem Kimigayoand the above-mentioned title track. One of theother songs, Kudan, bears the name of thedistrict in Tokyo where Yasukuni Shrine islocated. This song, dedicated to kamikazepilots, uses extracts from the last letter senthome by a young Kamikaze pilot - ‘DearestFather, Dearest Mother, the only regret I leaveon this day is that I was unable to show yousufficient filial piety. I can’t thank you enoughfor giving birth to me and allowing me to live afruitful 20 plus years.’

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Kamikaze pilots prior to takeoff

Rap music is extremely popular amongJapanese youth, as it is among young people inmany parts of the world. Its historical origins -as an expression of rebellious sentiment byAmerican black and Hispanic youth - haveendeared it to some Japanese minority youth,particularly those of Ainu and Okinawan origin,who have begun to adopt rap and integrate itwith their own ethnic melodies, therebycreating somewhat novel and appealing newmusic. One example is the band, Ainu Rebels,comprised of 16 Ainu youth who recentlyformed a band that promotes Ainu pridethrough rap performance.

Ainu Rebels band

This enthusiasm for imported styles is notshared by some Ainu elders, however, who fearthe mixture of foreign music with their ownmay destroy the authenticity of Ainu culture.The leader of the Ainu Rebels, Sakai Mina, isthe 24 year old daughter of Sakai Mamoru, whowas active in organizing worker movementsagainst the exploitation of day laborers inSanya in the1980s, and died mysteriously inApril 1988. His body was found floating in acanal near the Tokyo Bay.

Ainu rebels perform live at Alta Space

It is ironic, however, that rap is now eagerlyadopted by groups like Arei Raise, whichpromote national sentiment and thus endorsethe anti-minority policies adopted by Japanesestate authorities. It is well recognized that theauthorities continue to sanitize Japanesewartime atrocities not only against neighboringAsians but also against Japanese minoritygroups, as is evident, for example, from therecent text book affair regarding thecompulsory group suicide of Okinawan citizensduring the battle of Okinawa. There are, ofcourse, those who think rap and hip hop musicare an insult to the heroic Japanese spiritsenshrined at Yasukuni Shrine. Regardless, itseems that songs by Arei Raise have a youthfollowing – particularly among the so-called

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NEETs (Not in Education, Employment orTraining). Indeed, the members of Arei Raisethemselves belong to NEET. It is well knownthat some young NEETs seek identity throughpatriotism, as a means of regaining self-respect. Some, for example, are fans ofnationalistic and xenophobic comics, such asthose written by Kobayashi Yoshinori. Thereseems to be a similar phenomenon developingin the world of Japanese rap music as well.

It is also ironic that these patriotic NEETyouths, who are themselves the victims ofJapanese government policies of “economicrestructuring and social reform” are unable tounderstand that young Kamikaze pilots - whowere of a similar age at the time - wereexploited by the military leaders and politiciansof a government on the verge of collapse. If onereads carefully Kike Wadatsumi no Koe (Listento the Voices from the Sea: Writings of FallenJapanese Students), a collection of wills andletters written by young student soldiersincluding Kamikaze pilots, one can easilyunderstand that Kamikaze pilots did not die forthe “noble cause” of defending Japan.

Listen to the Voices from the Sea

Rather, through an indescribably painfulpsychological process, many soughtjustification for their forced suicide in aneffort to defend their own beloved familymembers.

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Letter from Kaiten pilot in Naval specialforces

Some professional military pilots rejected thelogic of the Kamikaze. Lieutenant Seki Yukio, aprofessional naval pilot, is a case in point. InOctober 1944, when ordered to carry out asuicidal mission by his senior officers, Seki tolda colleague shortly before departure ‘We canno longer save Japan. It is a desperate measurethat they have now decided to kill the bestpilots like myself. I can drop a 500 kilogrambomb on the deck of an enemy aircraft carrierwithout killing myself’; ‘I am not going to diefor the emperor, nor for Imperial Japan. I amgoing to carry out this mission for my belovedwife. I cannot refuse an order, so I will die toprotect my wife. I will die for my beloved. Isthat not splendid?’

In Usa city of Oita Prefecture, a Japaneserestaurant called Tsukushi-Tei was frequentedby many Kamikaze pilots before departing fortheir last missions. The columns and lintels ofthe Japanese rooms of this restaurant are full ofmarks of sword cuts that the young Kamikazepilots made, heavily drunk and swingingaround their swords. These marks convey thefrustration experienced by these boys and thedepths of bitterness at their forced self-annihilation. If any rap music is to be composedabout Kamikaze pilots, it should convey theprofound bitterness and anger of these youths.Undoubtedly, their anger, which they could notbe clearly expressed in the political situation atthe time, was directed at the military leadersand politicians who had little concern for thesacrifice of the lives of thousands of young menunder the grand but meaningless justificationof “defending the nation,” despite their clearknowledge of unavoidable defeat in the war inthe very near future.

In addition to the music competition, YasukuniShrine is trying to appeal to young peoplethrough other new programs. For example,“ecology” is one of the issues that Yasukuni

Shrine has recently begun promoting. OnN o v e m b e r 1 1 , t h e W o r l d P e a c eCommemoration Day of 2007, the shrine held apublic symposium on ecology and educationunder the title To Live. Here is the text whichadvertised the symposium:

Protect the Japanese “Spirit”Japan’s nature is unusually rich inthe worldDense forest, pure water, and mildclimate have had a considerableinfluence on the Japanese “spirit”

Japan’s education used to beoutstanding and impressed the restof the worldIt provided children with theworld’s highest level of academicability

However, now, Japan’s nature issufferingJapan’s education is distortedSuch conditions may seriouslydamage the Japanese “spirit”

What is the Japanese “spirit”?What should we do to protect theJapanese “spirit”?

Let’s think about these issues, withour guest speakers, ecologicalmountaineer Noguchi Ken, andeducational scholar TakahashiShiro, who tackles educationproblems.

Noguchi is well known in Japan as a young andsincere mountaineer who regularly goes toMount Everest and collects garbage that othermountaineers have left at various places in themountains.

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Noguchi Ken

He is popular among youth and often appearson TV shows, but hardly expresses anynationalistic opinions. He seems to be apoliticaland politically naïve. He perhaps feels that heshould utilize any occasion to promoteecological issues, even an event organized by acontroversial institution like Yasukuni Shrine.Takahashi, on the other hand, a professor atMyojo University in Tokyo, is one of thenationalist academics who belong to theSociety for History Textbook Reform, anorganization promoting a revisionist historytextbooks. From the above-mentionedadvertisement, it is clear that the real topicthat the Yasukuni Shrine wished to highlight atthe symposium was the controversial schooltextbook issue, the ecological issue and the starpower of Noguchi Ken to attract an audience.Yet, it is ironic that Yasukuni Shrine, whichglorifies war – one of the most ecologicallydamaging human activities – exploits popularecological concern for the propagation of theirreal aim: to inculcate nationalism andpatriotism among the youth in Japan.

The Yamato Museum and Supremacy ofJapanese Technology

The Japanese government and the Ministry ofDefense are also utilizing ostensibly non-militaristic issues such as scientific technology

in order to quietly infiltrate nationalistic ideasinto the minds of Japanese youth, in order topave the way for the eventual abolishment ofArticle nine of Japan’s constitution. One suchexample is the Yamato Museum.

The Yamato Museum

On April 23, 2005, just months before the 60thanniversary of the atomic bombing ofHiroshima and Nagasaki and the end of theAsia-Pacific War, Kure City Maritime Historyand Science Museum was officially opened atthe port of Kure, about 40 kilometers fromHiroshima city. Despite its name, this four-storey museum is filled almost entirely withexhibits related to the Japanese Imperial Navy.They include a huge model of the BattleshipYamato, replicas of artillery shells used by theYamato and other Japanese battleships, areplica of the Kaiten (a human suicide torpedo)and zero fighter planes. A more accurate namewould be the Kure Military History and ScienceMuseum,” although the museum is knownthroughout Japan as the Yamato Museum. Thisrefers to the main exhibit, which is a model,one-tenth the actual size of the battleshipYamato, the world’s largest, heaviest, and mostpowerful battleship ever constructed with nine460mm canons firing 1.36 tonne shells. Apamphlet produced by the Kure City Councilcalls it “the Yamato Museum,” and the officialtitle is not used at all. The museum’s officialwebsite also uses the name “Yamato Museum”.

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Visitors to the museum pass through theentrance on the ground floor to a huge halldisplaying a 26.3meter long model of theYamato, which is the centerpiece of themuseum and can be viewed from all fourstories of the building.

Yamato 1/10 model on display

Visitors then proceed to a separate exhibitionroom containing small models of many otherbattleships constructed at the Kure NavalDockyard before and during the Asia-PacificWar. A series of panels explains how Kuredeveloped into a modern industrial city andprospered, thanks to the Naval dockyard. In thecenter of the room is a large panel with a copyof one of the original blueprints and otherpanels that proudly explain the sophisticatedtechnology used at the time to construct andassemble the world’s largest battleship. Inaddition, panels tracking the path the Yamatotook on its last mission against more than 1,000US ships off Okinawa. Diagrams and photosshow how the ship was attacked and destroyedby U.S. planes and bombers on April 7, 1945,well before reaching the sea of Okinawa.Interviews with surviving crew members arealso shown on a screen.

The Yamato at sea

Yet, there is no mention of the fact that AdmiralIto Seiichi, the commander of Operation Ten-Gofor which the Yamato and several other shipswere mobilized, considered the missionstrategically absurd strongly protested toCommander-in-Chief of the Combined Fleet,Admiral Toyoda Soemu, up to the last moment.One panel circuitously notes that ‘3,056 out of3,332 crew members met their fate alongsidethe ship,’ avoiding the word “dead.” (emphasisadded)

The highlight of this section, however, is alarge screen, which repeatedly shows a colorful15 minute long film which explains in a verysimplistic manner how post-war Japaneseindustrial technology, ranging from oil tankers,to automobiles, bullet trains, electricappliances, binoculars and more, developed asa result of the technology used to construct theYamato.

Beyond these pre-war and war time exhibits,visitors proceed to another room displayingpost-war industrial technology used by localfactories in Kure. These appear almost as ifthey are advertisements for private companies.As one enters the section, a small panelmentions with scant explanation “the law fortransforming former naval ports,” Most visitorspass this without really understanding themeaning of this law, which was enacted in

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1950, and which applied to the four formernaval base cites – Yokosuka, Kure, Maizuru,and Sasebo. The law transferred the ImperialNavy facilities of these cities to privately-ownedfaci l i t ies or those managed by localcommunities, so as to redirect their industriesto peaceful ones. Article 1 of this law statedthat ‘by changing former naval port cities topeaceful industrial port cities, this law aims tocontribute to accomplishing the ideal ofestablishing a peaceful Japan.’ Ironically,however, not long after the enactment of thelaw, all four cities began to provide facilities forthe U.S. Naval Forces in the Korean War. Theysoon became important bases for Japan’sMaritime Self Defense Forces. In other words,the U.S Navy and the Japanese Self DefenseForces have violated this law almost since itsinception and continue to do so today.

The museum’s official website homepage statesthat ‘The battleship Yamato was the world’slargest battleship, secretly constructed andcompleted in December 1941 at Kure NavalDockyard, as a culmination of the foremosttechnology of the time. On April 7, 1945, it wassunk by American planes, while en route to amission in Okinawa, and 3,056 out of 3,332crew members met their fate alongside theship.

The Yamato moments after the explosion that sank it

Yet, the technology used in the construction ofthe battleship Yamato survived and wassubsequently applied, not only to theconstruction of large scale oil tankers, but alsoto many other fields, including the productionof automobiles and electric appliances, therebysupporting Japan’s post-war rehabilitation. Thismodel of the battleship Yamato, conveys theimportance of peace and brilliance of scientifictechnology to future generations.’ (emphasisadded) Despite this grand claim, however, it isdifficult to find any message about theimportance of peace among the museumexhibits celebrating Japan’s wartime navy.

In May 2006, a group of concerned citizensfrom Kure city lodged a request to the museumto reconsider the way the museum displays andexplains its exhibits, emphasizing the followingfour points.

(1) There is no explanation thatarms and weapons includingbattleships are designed to killlarge numbers of people.

(2) There is no reference to thefact that, in the 15 years of theAsia-Pacific War, during whichmost items at the museum wereproduced and used , Japanplundered natural resources andfood in many parts of Asia andkilled a large number of Asiancivilians, and that at the same timesome 3 million Japanese peoplealso died. The museum chooses,simply, to emphasize proudly thedifferent aspects of militarytechnology.

(3) In the section on historicalbackground, there is no referenceto the forced labor of Korean andChinese workers, nor to theunderground trenches in andaround Kure c i t y made by

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exploiting these workers. Instead,the museum emphasizes only thatthe people of Kure enjoyed amodern life style from early in itshistory, thanks to the Navy, as theywere the f irst in Hiroshimaprefecture to have train and citywater services.

(4) The museum exhibits showlittle consideration for visitorsfrom neighboring Asian countriess u c h a s K o r e a , C h i n a a n dIndonesia.

In responding to this request, the director ofthe museum, Mr. Todaka Kazunari, stated thatthe museum demonstrates to visitors that thereare two aspects to technology – a good one anda bad one. Ideally, he explained, visitors to themuseum should understand that the abuse oftechnology can result in tragedy. Yet nowherein the museum exhibits is there a reference tothe “two aspects” or the “abuse of technology.”

The building of this museum was a costlyexercise. Kure city spent 6.5 billion yen(approximately US$60 million), of which 1.1billion yen was funded by the Self DefenseAgency and 1.3 billion yen by the Japanesegovernment. Given this financial support, itwould seem likely that the museum’s basicpolicies have been influenced considerably bythe official Japanese government view of theAsia Pacific War and the conduct of theJapanese Imperial Navy during the war. Yet, itis important to note that the museum does notopenly express strong patriotism or militarism.Instead, as described above, it takes an indirectapproach, emphasizing Japan’s wartimetechnological superiority in the production ofbattleships and urges visitors –particularlychildren on school excursions – to admireJapan’s military power. In this sense, there is acertain similarity between the exhibition of themodel battleship Yamato and that of the B-29

bomber, Enola Gay, in the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center of the U.S. National Air and SpaceMuseum in Washington D.C. The Enola Gay ispresented as evidence of U.S. military mightand technological supremacy, with noinformation about the devastating destructionof Hiroshima City and the mass killing ofcivilians by the atomic bombing.

The Enola Gay at the National Air and Space Museum

The Yamato Museum actively encouragesschool excursions and school study tours fromall over the country to the museum, falselyclaiming that the museum is “the establishmentfrom which peace messages are dispatched.” Italso runs various special events and workshopsfor children at the museum on weekends andduring school holidays. In order to attractchildren and young adults, the museum alsohas a small manga library, which is filledmostly with the manga series Uchu SenkanYamato (The Space Battleship Yamato), one ofthe most popular manga which was made into aseries of films, as well as a long-running TVanimation series from the mid 1970s to early80s. In fact, the story of this manga has littlereference to the real battleship Yamato. Set inthe year 2199, the Earth is attacked withradioactive bombs by an alien known as theGami l a s , and a s a r e su l t , becomesuninhabitable. The surviving people live inrefuges deep underground, and convert theruin of the Japanese battleship Yamato into a

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spaceship. The space battleship departs for along journey to the planet Iscandar, 148,000light years away from Earth, to obtain a devicecalled the Cosmo-Cleaner D, which can cleanradiation covering the Earth. In this journey,the Yamato faces various crises that have to beovercome to save the Earth. The YamatoMuseum made Matsumoto Reiji, the comicartist who produced this manga series, anhonorary director of the museum. It is ratherironic that a museum located so close to thecity that was the first target of the atomic bombhas little concern with the reality of the actualeffects of radiation upon human beings. On thecontrary, it promotes the manga which createsthe myth that human beings can still surviveeven when all of Earth is contaminated withradiation. Fantasizing the battleship Yamatothrough the science fiction form of manga andanimation also distracts children and youthfrom the real issues surrounding the battleship:the horrors of war and the sacrifice of manylives for meaningless missions.

In the first 197 days after the official opening ofthe Yamato Museum on April 23, 2005, onemillion people visited the museum. In the next188 days, a further one million visitors viewedits exhibits, and by May 20, 2007, three millionpeople had visited the museum. The opening ofthe museum coincided with the release of thefilm, Otokotachi no Yamato (Men’s BattleshipYamato), which became a big hit in Japan. Thisfilm does not openly glorify the suicidal missionof the Yamato, but instead romanticizes thedeaths of more than 3,000 crew members ofthe Yamato by emphasizing the young boys’feeling that they were sacrificing their lives inorder to defend their families and lovers. Thusthe film does not question the fundamentalissue of sacrificing people’s lives for war. Thereis no doubt that the film also contributed to thepopularization of the museum itself.

The museum shop sells not only toy models ofthe Yamato and other Japanese battleships,fighter planes, submarines and tanks, but also

the serial pictorial publication, WelfareMagazine, whose cover title shows the ‘f’ of‘Welfare’ as a pistol pointing down. The titleremains a conundrum to this critic, as thisglossy magazine is filled with photographsillustrating the ways and activities of the SelfDefense Forces, from haircut styles, touniforms, equipment, weapons and arms. Itwould appear to be a fascinating source ofinformation to young boys whose imagination isstirred by the myths of the heroism of war.

The long-term impact of the exhibits in theYamato Museum and Yasukuni Shrine’s varioustactics for shaping the ideas of Japanese youthon war and peace cannot be underestimated.Many people throughout Japan are currentlyactively involved in grass-root movementsopposing revision of the Japanese peaceconstitution, the militarization of Japan,revisions of school history textbooks,relocations and expansion of the U.S militarybases on Japanese soil and the like. Someyoung activists are trying to use musical andvisual tools to promote their campaigns. Yet ingeneral, Japan’s grass-root movements remainnarrowly focused on “political issues,” and arenot developing as wide-ranging “culturalmovements.” Can these movements cultivateand develop a distinctive peace-orientedpopular culture – music, manga, films, theatre,fine art and the like – to reach the widerpopulation, including children and youths. Sucha popular culture must counteract the“nationalistic sentimentality” that YasukuniShrine inculcates, and the mythos of“technological superiority” that the Japanesegovernment and the Ministry of Defensepropagate. Such a culture would help peopleunderstand the harsh reality of war (i.e., thereality that people do not die for war, butrather, that war brutalizes and kills people),and at the same time show the values of peace,love and friendship. There is profound truth inthe proverb “Si vis pacem para pace (If youseek peace, prepare for peace),” peaceactivists’ variation of “Si vis pacem para bellum

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(If you seek peace, prepare for war).”

The Are Raise video of Kyoji with Englishsubtitles, but without the powerful wargraphics, is available here.

Yuki Tanaka is Research Professor, HiroshimaPeace Institute, and author of Japan’s ComfortWomen. Sexual slavery and prostitution duringWorld War II and the US Occupation, and acoordinator of Japan Focus. He wrote thisarticle for Japan Focus. Posted May 8, 2008.

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