As you properly look at the date of this post, you realise there is a rather large gap between week 3 and 4’s post. Perhaps the week was so chaotic I did not know where to start or more probably it was the sheer pressure and inability to ever compare to the masterpiece of spoken word by fellow scholars. Despite it being tremendously inspiring it may or may not have inadvertently resulted in a severe case of writers block. Not that I’m pointing fingers…
Week 4 tested every part of our vows with a near miss of 'till death do us part' and threw us the first big spanner of the trip. A mighty typhoon which the two British girls took on in flip flops and jeans. Despite some poor judgement, can you name a better way to test our resilience? Guess we weren't willing to accept “Japan Summer” isn’t just sun and crippling humidity 24/7. Got to thank the lovely man at an Izakaya who donated us a much-needed umbrella which was our lifeline for the rest of the week.
All rain aside, it did however result in our highlight of the week; a call from lovely Beccy! Which we reassured her we are working very hard and not letting Japan's natural hazards get us down (looking back I’d call it a trial run for the events of week 5).
The week started in Nagasaki, with a flight back to Tokyo and straight to meet with Misato at the International House of Japan and Professor Warren Stanislaus from Showa Women’s University. Professor Warren is leading the Asian Women’s Leadership Programme at his university, in which he had asked Misato to lead a session on Peace building in east Asia. It was amazing to hear all about the programme in which 10 students from each University in South Korea, China and Japan travel together spending a week at each university learning together. As it happens the world really is so small, realising that Warren and I (and the only other person in the lobby) were all from within a 5-minute walk from each other back home in London.
Then we were off to our air b and b in a new area in Tokyo, Shimo-Kitazawa following a great recommendation from Matt. Safe to say the air b and b was a little different to online, but not much of a shock when you filter for cheapest in the area.
The next morning, we were up early (ish) and spent the day following up on work after the conference, including writing up all our notes, and working on the group proposal document. We spent time reflecting and discussing interesting themes that came out of the conference as potential topics for our final presentation in week 6.
Mid-week we visit the Korea Museum in Shinjuku which is a community led museum with no funding from the government. It focuses on confronting Japan and Koreas shared history to build a better understanding of historical tensions and work towards reconciliation and peaceful coexistence. Megumi, a volunteer from the Korea museum toured us around Korea town, taking us to a local Korea restaurant and telling us about the diversity in the area. Where the Korea museum is located is one of the most diverse areas in Tokyo, with 41.5% diversity.
In the afternoon we returned to the Korea museum to help with the translation of materials into English as there was no English materials in the museum: just Korean and Japanese. The entire day was so fascinating, and we couldn’t be more grateful to Megumi for how kind and generous she was with taking the time to meet with us and teach us so much.
Throughout the week Lottie and I had been getting quite sick, and initially thought that it might just be that we were run down and tired. We conveniently ignored the bathroom walls coated in black mould, but after trying to fix the aircon, realised that may have been the root of our problem. Few layers of black mould and no window would surely do the trick.
Safe to say I became pretty codependent with air b and b support for the next 7 hours to the extent I was messaging rather desperately as we sat locked out, mid typhoon, with everything still inside after the host’s AI bot changed the entrance codes for us. Would probably call that the low point of the week.
Every cloud and all that, lovely air b and b support booked us into a 5-star hotel free of charge. So far out of budget I'd say the black mould was worth it.
After all the stress of the night before we were up bright and early, to meet across town for a full day of events and meetings. We met at 8am with other members of Wake-Up Japan, headed to the venue where we did self-introductions as well as an overview of the day. As it was August 15th, the commemoration day in Japan for the end of WWII, we attended the Chidorigafuchi National Cemetery and Yasukuni Shrine and Yūshūkan military museum.
We first visited the national cemetery, which felt very different from Yasukuni Shrine. The cemetery is a secular site of remembrance, whereas Yasukuni is a Shinto shrine where the spirits of those who died in service to Japan are enshrined. This has made the shrine particularly politically contentious, especially because 14 Class A war criminals were also enshrined there in 1978. The shrine considers enshrinement to be permanent, meaning that removing them is not seen as a simple administrative decision. This has contributed to Yasukuni becoming a particularly sensitive site in Japan’s relationships with countries such as China and Korea. August 15, the anniversary of Japan’s surrender in 1945, is one of the shrine’s most significant days and brings together people with very different views on Japan’s wartime past, sometimes resulting in protests and confrontations.
We also visited the Yūshūkan military museum, which is located within the shrine grounds. What I found particularly interesting was how closely the museum’s exhibitions are connected to the wider narrative of Yasukuni. As I walked around, I noticed that there was very little acknowledgement of Japanese responsibility or wrongdoing throughout the country’s wartime history. The language used to describe certain events also stood out to me, with terms such as “incidents”, “strategy” and the “Korea problem” presenting events in ways that felt very different from the way I had previously encountered them. The museum is often s described as the “Yasukuni view of history”, which has been criticised for downplaying Japanese militarism and imperialism.
Visiting both sites and the museum was both harrowing and fascinating. It made me think about how the same historical events can be remembered and presented very differently depending on who is telling the story. I found myself comparing this with the UK and the ways in which we selectively acknowledge some of our own historical wrongdoings.
After visiting the shrine and museum, we returned to the venue where we watched the broadcast of the Emperor and Empress’ commemoration address. Following this, we discussed our thoughts from the day, including the different perspectives we had encountered and why Yasukuni remains such a politically contested and sensitive site.
Once the commemoration event was over, Lottie and I were straight on a train (or three) to the International Christian University to meet with Ikuko who had lived just up the road from us in Leeds for the past 30 years! She told us all about her work and experience of post war reconciliation, particularly with British prisoners of war and the journey that took her to become a pastor. We are so grateful for how welcoming she was, to learn from her and letting us try some Japanese snacks, which I should have taken everyone's reservation and lack of enthusiasm for a pickled plum far more seriously. Not a snack for the weak.
All in all, it was a busy week but we wouldn't have it any other way!!