The Osaka International Peace Center (大阪国際平和センター, Ōsaka-kokusai-heiwa-sentaa), also known as Peace Osaka (ピースおおさか, Piisu-Ōsaka), is a museum established in August 1981 based in the city of Osaka, Japan. It focuses on the destruction of the city during World War II and the broader themes of the tragedy of war and the importance of peace. There are exhibits on Japan's role in the war and its invasion of China, Korea and southeast Asia as well as the Auschwitz concentration camp.[1]
Exhibits edit
Exhibition Room A, on the second floor of the Osaka International Peace Center, covers the bombing of Osaka and other factors of Japanese domestic life during the last four years of the Pacific War, mentioning neighborhood associations, school mobilization, nationalistic textbooks, and civil defense measures.[2]
Exhibition Room B, on the first floor, covers the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere and is critical of the Imperial Japanese Army's actions in East Asia. One panel is entitled "Invading the Asian Continent," and is accompanied by displays of the Imperial Japanese Army's involvement in the Second Sino-Japanese War. There is also a section on the annexation of Korea in 1909 and Korea under Japanese rule, ending with a note that "Japan has still many unsolved problems" regarding the human rights of the 680,000 resident Koreans in Japan today.[3]
Exhibition Room C, on the third floor, advocates the end of "disputes and wars over ethnic, religious, or ideological differences."[4] These exhibits focus on the threat of nuclear weapons, but also argue that starvation, poverty, and degradation of the global environment are also threats to world peace. To emphasize these threats to peace, the museum includes a replica of the Doomsday Clock.
Information edit
- Address: 2-1 Osakajo, Chūō-ku
- Telephone: 06-6947-7208 Fax: 06-6943-6080
- Hours: 9:30am–5:00pm (entrance until 4:30pm)
- Holidays: Monday, Day following National holidays, last day of every month, New Year period.
References edit
- ^ Pamphlet describing museum exhibits (in English)
- ^ Seltz, Daniel (Fall 1999). "Remembering the War and the Atomic Bombs: New Museums, New Approaches". Radical History Review. 75: 103-104.
- ^ Seltz, Daniel (Fall 1999). "Remembering the War and the Atomic Bombs: New Museums, New Approaches". Radical History Review. 75: 104.
- ^ Pamphlet describing museum exhibits (in English)
External links edit
- Osaka International Peace Center (in Japanese)
34°40′54″N 135°31′48″E / 34.68167°N 135.53000°E
Category:Museums in Osaka Category:Peace museums Category:World War II museums in Japan
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