Jap war veteran inaugurates peace museum
A former officer of the Japanese Army which occupied Panay Island during World War II on Saturday led the inauguration of a museum to promote continued peace and reconciliation 64 years after the war ended on the island.
Former Capt. Toshimi Kumai, 93, said he hopes that the Panay Peace Memorial Museum would help in the understanding of the war and to deepen the friendly relations between Japan and the Philippines.
“I am happy that we are living in a new era of relations between Japan and the Philippines. But I'm also sad and feel sorry for those who died without seeing this,” Kumai said in a speech at the inauguration ceremony at the Bankers Village IV, Barangay Tabuc Suba in Jaro District here.
Kumai also launched the English edition of a book he wrote in 1977 narrating his experience as the a captain and adjutant of the Japanese Army Garrison on Panay Island from Oct. 12, 1942 until the surrender of Japanese forces on the island in September 1945 and his imprisonment.
He said that he will donate proceeds from his book to the museum.
The P2-million museum funded by the Tokyo-based Japan-Philippines Volunteer Association (JPVA) is located beside the office of the Iloilo Nikkei-Jin Kai, Inc., an association of Japanese descendants in Iloilo City.
Tomoji Sakai, the museum's curator, said they envision the museum not only as a repository of books and artifacts on the war but as a venue were Filipinos and Japanese would meet and discuss the past shared by the two countries.
“We most especially hope that the younger generations would come here to understand the relations between the countries,” said Sakai in an interview.
The museum contains reading materials about the war, photographs and video clips. It also host memoirs and personal letters of Japanese soldiers who died in the war.
One gripping letter is a farewell note by Lt. Col. Ryoichi Totsuka who was sentenced to death as a war criminal after the war.
Written to his wife Sadako and sons Kazuaki and Yoshihiko after he received his sentence, Totsuka proclaims his innocence.
“I was imposed the death penalty. The US court sentenced me to death by war crime. I have not committed neither any act of torture, murder of any non-combatant, nor any shameless act (sic),” he said.
In his letter, he said it pained him to leave his family with their reputation ruined because he was sentenced as a war criminal.
The book launching and inauguration of the museum was also attended by former guerrillas who fought against the Japanese troops.
“This shows the reconciliation, remorse and friendship after the war,” said engineer Rodolfo Lataquin, president of the 6th Military District WWII Veterans Association Inc.
Lataquin said that while memories remain about the war, “there is no anger and vindictiveness any more.”