War and peace: Keep stories about Tokyo Raids alive for next generations

The Tokyo Raids in 1945 killed more than 100,000, mostly civilian lives. This is a fact, not a story, that can teach us the importance of an ordinary but irreplaceable peace. The survivors have done their best to keep the storytelling going for the last 76 years. However, with only 10% of Japan’s population who can share their personal experiences left today, we need to figure out ways to keep the stories alive. Japan faces the challenge of teaching our children about war and peace, an essential lesson to build a sustainable society.

The brutal Tokyo Raids of 1945

The Tokyo Raids in 1945 are lesser-known historical events even in Japan, though the number of the estimated casualties surpasses those from the day of the nuclear bombing in Nagasaki. This firebombing of Tokyo which started on March 10, brutally targeted Tokyo civilians, including women and children. Moreover, because they were not soldiers, many bodies did not return to their family nor did survivors receive pension and support after the war.

There is a small museum founded by general donations, operated by a private foundation called The Center of the Tokyo Raids and War Damage. This three-story building open to the public is the only museum dedicated explicitly to documenting the event. Unfortunately, the scale does not compare to the Hiroshima Peace Museum or Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Museum. It stands in a quiet residential area in Koto-ward, the eastern part of the largest city in Japan.

Although the facility is small, the center has a big mission to “[strive] for peace in the future by communicating the horrors of war,” and wants us to understand the tremendous value of preserving our day-to-day safety. It aims to remind people not to take tranquility for granted.

Japan’s stance in talking about wars

Curator Hiroto Hieshima, who was my guide, alerts, “Japan has a weak system (to communicate about wars). There is a lack of emphasis the Japanese society has placed on war and peace. For example, there are few museums dedicated to wars in Japan, despite so much history and so many stories that exist. In fact, there are no nationally-funded museums, though one can sometimes find temporary exhibitions about wars.” This lack of resources limits the authentic information and education Japanese people can access.

Hieshima also points out that Japanese adults have not discussed wars enough with each other or with children. “School children are not asked to give opinions on wars in general. I can see the difference when I compare Japanese students who visit here with international students. Japanese students tend to be passive, not asking many questions. On the other hand, I get so many questions by foreign visitors, such as ‘why’ and ‘What do you think?’”

Furthermore, children and youth today rarely have family members who can tell them first-hand war experiences, unlike most middle-aged people who may have heard these stories from their grandparents. To many children, even catastrophic events that occurred in their local area have become mere historical facts that they learn about in textbooks.

Keeping the stories alive

The surprisingly small space upstairs of the Center of the Tokyo Raids and War Damage is roughly divided into three exhibitions–before, during and after the Tokyo Raids in 1945. Formerly, this whole space mainly focused on objects from each of these periods.

The renovation of the upstairs last year, however, was designed to shift the visitors’ perspective, featuring more personal stories than solely historical objects. In the second “during” section, the visitors now can read dozens of survivors’ personal experiences about the time of the Tokyo Raids. These short stories, with names and the authors’ ages at the time, express the vivid sensations these individuals felt during the raids. Their words let us begin to imagine how much they endured and lost as human beings in just days.

Curator Hieshima says quietly but firmly, “I don’t think of it as ‘100,000 people died.’” He then points at one picture of a family on a wall, which states each person’s information and where some of the bodies of the family were found, indicating how they died. “A collection of persons with names and families had died. That is why we find value in documenting each survivor’s information as we hear from them or their descendants, even though it is time-consuming and sometimes difficult to deal with privacy aspects. We want the visitors to feel the personal connection with the history by learning about these individuals here.”

The center has also incorporated more technology into its displays. They have attached original QR codes to some of the objects so that visitors can access further authentic information, such as recorded stories of survivors. If you scan the QR code with your smartphone, a video or story related to the object will play on YouTube.

In one of the YouTube videos, a survivor, Katsumoto Saotome describes incendiary bombs used during the raids to burn down the city. He was 12 years old at the time. Saotome describes the bombs falling from the sky saying, “Countless pillars of fire (fell) as if they were going to stab on top of our heads.” He ends the episode by commenting, “I didn’t know that they were such terrifying weapons. I did not expect such large-scale raids would happen.” It is easy to imagine he spoke for thousands of other vulnerable Tokyo citizens who must have shared this feeling of shock.

Feeling the personal connection with history and to the individuals who suffered or died could help us empathize with others in the world, even those who hold different opinions. Realizing that we are alive because someone survived that miserable wartime to pass the baton of life to every one of us can teach us how vulnerable and precious life is.

The pandemic situation brought resiliency

On top of Japan’s fragile system to discuss war and peace, the country faced another challenge because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Like any other museum and facility in Tokyo, The Center of the Tokyo Raids and War Damage has struggled to maintain visitor traffic during the pandemic. It saw a drastic reduction in the number of visitors in 2020, down to 30% of the previous year.

Many school trips, which comprise a large percentage of their visitors and cover some operation costs from admission fees, had been canceled during what felt like never-ending stay-home periods. Schools from other prefectures stopped coming entirely, dropping from more than a hundred schools annually to zero for the first time.

The room on the first floor, typically filled with audiences for survivors’ storytelling events, sat unused and empty. The center had never held online events until the pandemic state of emergency offered no other alternative. Curator Hieshima confesses, “We had to do something somehow. Without enough staff or funds, we learned the know-how as we planned and held online events, including video streaming…We were delighted to find out there was a viewer from Germany during one online event.” Unexpectedly, they have opened a new possibility through a desperate measure. The survivors were invited to tell stories online, allowing people from all over the world to listen.

More can be done to promote a peaceful future

The center has been seeing more young people, including college students, joining their volunteer team within the last two years. The center is eager to utilize the talents for broader programs instead of assigning all volunteers as museum tour guides. For example, they have started using kamishibai, a traditional picture story show for children, as one of their programs. The new volunteer involvement widens the center’s possibilities.

Additionally, they are preparing for inbound tourists to return as the pandemic subsides. Though some English information is currently available, more displays are planned to be translated, as well as on their new website. They are also interested in offering information in other languages such as Chinese and Korean. They have so many ideas and much passion, but the process is rather slow because of limited funds and resources. The center accepts donations and volunteers all year round if you want to be part of the solution.

Within a couple of decades or so, we will be the only storytellers with this knowledge– this time, without first-hand experience. As the years pass, fewer memories remain with us, but the misery our ancestors lived through we must not forget nor repeat. We must ask ourselves if we are doing our part to build a future without wars.

If you are interested in visiting, here are the details:

The Center of the Tokyo Raids and War Damage
[Open] Tuesday thru Sunday
[Hours] 10:30am – 4:00pm
[Admission fee] ・General: 300 yen
・Junior High and high school students: 200 yen
・Elementary students: 100 yen
・Children under 6 and people with disabilities: Free
[Location] Kitasuna 1-5-4, Koto-ku, Tokyo 136-0073, Japan
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