The exhibits center on posthumous writings, personal belongings, and memoirs of students who died in the war. It's on the first floor of an ordinary large apartment building, so the location is a bit hard to find. Free admission.

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I had been working right nearby and finally got to visit, but first I'd like to state a disclaimer. What I write below is strictly my personal opinion. ★There was a reason, or rather a motive, for my visit here. Going into it deeply isn't possible here, so I'll avoid it. But it was the Nagoya mayor's “for the homeland…” remark, which clearly struck me as wrong. Everyone's views deserve respect, but as a remark from someone in public office, I can't help but question it. ★While traveling in Europe and America, I was collecting “poems of apology for the aggression by Japan's military cliques, and words and deeds of Japanese people abroad during wartime.” ★In the midst of that, I felt dismayed at remarks by ministers and politicians from Japan, reported by the European mass media, that the “Nanjing Massacre” never happened. It felt to me as if remarks of this kind were par for the course for Japanese politicians and leaders. ★Whenever such remarks were reported, the places I visited in Europe were always the same. ☆The 🇫🇷 Verdun battlefield, where the cross grave markers of World War I victims stand in endless rows. ☆The Resistance memorial graves resting in the Forest of Fontainebleau on the outskirts of Paris. ★Returning to that habit, I thought the places to go in Japan were ☆“Mugonkan” and ☆this place, the “Wadatsumi no Koe Memorial Museum.” ★Remarks like the one I mentioned at the start may fade when confronted with the exhibits here, but surely they will never shine. ★The point, I think, is what we learn from this effort in a corner of this apartment building, which conveys how long it has persevered. Though different in form, I was reminded of the “Akita Ujaku Memorial Museum” in Aomori, which had a similarly unique setup. That's because I sensed a similar way of conveying things.

This is a memorial museum that truthfully records the history of Japan's invasion of China. No tickets, free admission. The content here is very real, describing the letters and inner journeys of Japanese university students who were forced to take part in the war back then. Although the Japanese government has deleted records related to Japan's invasion of China from textbooks and other records, this place clearly records the various crimes Japan committed in the past. Precisely because of this, only by facing history squarely can we better cherish today's peace. May the world be at peace and never have war again!

A free memorial museum. It's in a corner of an apartment building, so you go “Is it really here?” After all, units 102 and 202 are the museum. Letters written by people of that time. By reading them, you can touch their feelings, even just a little. You can watch a huge amount of DVD material, but getting through it all is impossible, both in sheer volume and given the opening hours. If you lived nearby, you'd just have to keep coming back bit by bit. Since this is a free memorial museum, on my way out I bought a sort of collection of letters from those who went off on tokko (special attack) missions. I won't say you have to donate to a free place, but since it did so much for me, I personally want to support it however I can.

A memorial museum mainly dealing with materials related to the mobilization of students. I thought it would be about stressing the horrors of war, but the memoirs and other materials actually on display didn't feel very tragic, and they made me think that joining the military may have felt close to what we'd now call getting a job (things like: we can't just let ourselves be killed, so war can't be helped, but the strictness of the military is unpleasant; or ordinary civilians being critical of students' carefree attitude). Perhaps the intention is to show raw materials as they are without overdramatizing, but I got a somewhat inconsistent impression of the exhibition's message. Still, I think it's a facility whose very existence is meaningful, and it's certainly worth a look.