Day 3 - Tokyo Further Continued

On our third full day in Tokyo, we split up in the morning because Sean had a lunch scheduled with some Japanese attorneys he knows at the Shiga firm.  Saeki-san, Kubo-san, and Gyoda-San all say “Konnichiwa.”

Meanwhile, Chris went to the National Showa Memorial Museum, which focused on daily life for the Japanese during and after WWII.

After the war, it took 7 months to get new textbooks for schoolchildren written and printed.  In the meantime, any war-period propaganda was pasted over.

After meeting back up, we went back to the veteran's memorial where traditional music was being performed.  We will try to get videos posted later, but here is a quick picture.

Near the memorial is Yushu-kan, Japan’s war museum.  This museum’s exhibits range from Japan’s early efforts to ward off encroachment from the west up through WWII (which is where things get controversial).  

I love the terrifying armor for a horse.

This understated helmet is also quite nice.

In the 19th century, Japan really did get a raw deal from the U.S. and other major powers when all it wanted was to be left the hell alone.  Driven by the whaling industry, the U.S. wanted to expand its interests in the Pacific.  So in 1853, under the command of President Fillmore, Commodore Perry sailed war ships into Edo Harbor and essentially told the Japanese that they had a year to agree to open up to the West for trade and diplomacy or the U.S. would invade.  The following year, Perry returned with even more ships and Japan acquiesced to U.S. demands such as guaranteed safe harbor and provisioning for ships, maximum allowable tariffs (the U.S. and other countries set Japan’s merchant taxes), and various other terms that the Japanese had little say over.

 Japan’s caricaturists were not kind to Perry.

Despite the relationship being pretty unfair, Japan was then a fairly solid ally to the U.S. through WWI.  Japan fought with the allied forces during WWI, yet was prohibited from developing a navy equal to the U.S. or Great Britain.  Particularly galling, a racial equality clause that Japan proposed to the newly formed League of Nations was soundly rejected, and the U.S. Immigration Act of 1924 contained provisions explicitly aimed at halting immigration of Japanese citizens into the U.S.

However, once the museum exhibits got into the events leading up to WWII, Japan’s culpability started to get fairly well glossed over.  Japan’s war with China was characterized as being justified, and atrocities such as the Nanking Massacre were tossed off with a few sentences (“Chinese soldiers disguised as civilians were dealt with harshly…”).  Japan's final, desperate measures, such as planes and submarines specifically designed for suicide missions, were paired with patriotic and heartbreaking letters from soldiers who had decided to die for the glory of Country and Emperor.  

 This rocket propelled glider would be dropped from a bomber and the pilot would steer it directly into enemy ships. 

Ultimately, the WWII exhibits gave voice to a perspective of the war that is obviously quite different from most of the rest of the world, which proved to be both interesting and frustrating.

After the war museum, we split a Japanese pancake from a street vendor and grabbed a few beers from a local microbrewery.

We then grabbed our baggage and schlepped everything to a new hotel that we wanted to try.  Century Capsule Hotel!

Popular with businessmen who regularly have to work in Tokyo, you sleep in a private tube containing a bed, tv, radio, and (not anywhere close to) all of the comforts of home.  

After getting checked in, we grabbed a late dinner of sushi at a ridiculous place where you order at a touchscreen computer mounted at every seat and your food arrives via monorail.   

Stuffed with mobile sushi, we headed back to the hotel for a good night's sleep.