Speak out about war's horrors

東京大空襲から60年

    In Tokyo, a project is under way to determine the number of casualties on the basis of newly discovered documents related to the March 10, 1945, air raid. A group of artists and entertainers has produced a CD to complement a Tokyo exhibition on the bombing. Elsewhere in the country, monuments and other memorials for those who perished during the raids have been constructed or are scheduled for construction.

    As memories of the war steadily fade, survivors who have refused to recount their experiences in public are coming forward while those who have been too busy with their daily work to give much thought to the past are telling their children and grandchildren about their sufferings and hardships. Others continue to play an active role as living war witnesses.

    Large-scale air raids by bombers are often indiscriminate. According to war historians, such attacks date to 1937 when German aircraft bombed the Basque city of Guernica during the Spanish Civil War. The primary objective of that operation, they say, was not to attack military personnel and munitions factories but to destroy the city and deprive its residents of the will to fight. In World War II, similar raids were conducted by the Allied Forces as well. Most of the victims were non-combatants — women, children and elderly people.

    Japanese surveys show that more than half a million people died during the air raids on Tokyo and other cities. The March 10 bombing is estimated to have killed 100,000 people. To make an exact tally of the casualties, a group of Tokyo citizens has prepared a "disaster map" showing the routes that victims took to escape the fires. The map, on exhibit at a Tokyo museum, is based on a list of Tokyo's war dead that was discovered four years ago.

    An exhibition on the Tokyo raids is open in Roppongi Hills, a fashionable shopping district. It is attracting young people, as it offers a rare glimpse of wartime Japan. Also contributing to their interest in the war is a commemorative CD that features a song by a pair of young actresses. The song is based on a poem written by a 78-year-old woman who survived the bombing. Thus, in their own way, young people are joining in a war-memorial program.

    Around 1970, civic groups in Tokyo and other bombed cities began to collect information on the air raids to pass down accurate records of the disasters to future generations. The following year, with the publication of Great Tokyo Air Raids by the popular writer Katsumoto Saotome, those groups set up the National Liaison Council on Recording the Air Raids and Other War Disasters.

    The "recording" movement spread throughout the country and involved a broad range of activities, including the collection of related materials, interviews with survivors and an analysis of U.S. military documents released by the U.S. National Archives. In memory of the raids, monuments and statues have been erected in various parts of the country.

    The national council, which meets once a year, held last year's session in Yokohama, one of the cities devastated by bombing. This year's meeting is to be held in Nagaoka, Niigata Prefecture, in August. At a war archive that opened in the city last year, survivors of the raids are often invited to talk to visiting elementary and high-school students. A mother-child statue is to be constructed in the hall by Aug. 1, the date the city was attacked.

    In Tokyo, a plan to open a "peace hall" hangs in the balance because of disagreement in the metropolitan assembly. There is good reason to build a public "war museum" in Tokyo, the most heavily bombed city. Obviously, though, such a project requires cooperation between local authorities and residents. It would be especially beneficial if the museum provided a special space where survivors could tell their stories freely to adults and children.

The Japan Times Weekly
March 19, 2005
(C) All rights reserved

      新たに発見された記録をもとに、大空襲の正確な死傷者数を確定する取り組みが行なわれ、大空襲の資料展を記念するCDも発売された。東京以外の都市でも、空襲の犠牲者の慰霊碑を建立する計画が進められている。

      これまで空襲について個人的体験を語ることのなかった人たちが、つらい思い出を話すようになってきた。戦災の生き証人として、記録を残す活動を続けている人たちもいる。

      無差別爆撃の歴史は1937年、スペイン内戦中の独空軍によるゲルニカ攻撃で始まった。爆撃は、住民の戦意を喪失させるために一般市街を狙った。第2次世界大戦中にも、同様の爆撃が同盟軍により行なわれた。

      太平洋戦争中には、日本全国の空襲で50万人以上が死亡したといわれる。東京大空襲は推定10万人の犠牲者を出した。

      1970年頃、全国の市民団体は空襲の正確な記録を後世に残すため資料収集を始めた。早乙女勝元著「東京大空襲」が出版されるとともに、「空襲・戦災を記録する会全国連絡会議」が結成された。

      空襲・戦災を記録する運動は全国的に展開され、関係資料の収集、生存者とのインタビュー、米軍の記録の分析が行なわれている。犠牲者を悼む慰霊碑も全国で建立されている。

      「全国連絡会議」は、昨年横浜市で開催され、今年は8月に新潟県・長岡市で予定されている。

      東京で「平和記念館」を建設する案は、都議会内で異論があるため進んでいない。最大の空襲被災地である東京に平和記念館を建設ことには意義がある。記念館の中に、戦災の生存者が語り部として入場者に体験を自由に語ることができる場を設ける等、自治体と住民の協力が必要だ。