◆ Jiang Feng, chief writer of "Japanese Overseas Chinese Daily".
Not like in China. On the occasion of the 10th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China, when the economy was still in difficulty and fatigue, on the side of Tiananmen Square, the center of the capital Beijing, a magnificent history museum (today's National History Museum), which was called one of the "top ten buildings" at that time, was established. In the center of Tokyo, the capital of Japan, there are Yasukuni Shrine and Yushukan, which are "religious legal persons" that highlight Japan's tortuous military history, and the "National Museum of History and Folklore" that the central government paid for was only decided to build in 1966. At that time, Japan's post-war economy was in a period of rapid growth, and the central government's purse was gradually plumping and thick, so it was built to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Meiji Restoration in 1968. The location is in Sakura City, Chiba Prefecture, which is nearly an hour away by express train from Tokyo's Ueno Station. Tokyo is so big that there is no National Museum of History and Folklore!
On a holiday in the late autumn of 2020, I visited the National Museum of History and Folklore, the largest museum in Japan to date, like a "single traveler". When I got off the train at Sakura Station on the Keisei Line, I heard from the railroad staff that it would take more than 15 minutes to walk to get to the hotel, so I immediately called a taxi because I didn't want to "fight hard" and wanted to spend more time looking and thinking.
After the taxi stopped, I felt that my vision suddenly widened. That kind of long distance, that kind of wide distance, I have never seen it in front of other museums and art galleries in Japan. Walking up the stairs on three floors, you will see the blue sky and the "National Museum of History and Folklore" under the sun fluttering in the wind. At that time, I was a little surprised.
Time is short, and I really did a bit of a visit. The theme of the first exhibition room is "Prehistory and Antiquity". Frankly, I am reluctant to read more about the "prehistory" of Japan, because I know that there have been more than one case of tampering and falsifying excavated artifacts in Japan. The purpose is nothing more than two: one is to consciously "lengthen" the history of Japan, because the long history of the neighboring countries next to them makes them feel "Alexander" all the time; The other is to subconsciously "internationalize" the history of Japan, so that the history of the isolated island is no longer lonely.
The theme of the second room is "Middle Ages", and it explores Japanese culture and life from the Heian period to the Azuchi-Momoyama period from different perspectives, including aristocrats, samurai, and commoners. Here, we consciously avoided the bloody style of Japan's "Warring States Period" and consciously avoided the contest of "martial arts", emphasizing "relations with Asia and the West."
The theme of the third room is "Early Modern Period," and one of the topics is "What was Japan's relationship with the international community around the 18th century?" The Edo period is known as the era of "national lockdown", but what is being done here is an exhibition that "reverses" and subversively concludes.
The theme of the fourth exhibition room is "folklore", and a large part of it is related to rituals and ghosts, life rituals, and memorials for the deceased. I have pointed out many times that the fundamental difference between Chinese and Japanese cultures lies in the different perceptions and operations of the "culture of life and death". This time, I had new feelings.
The theme of the fifth exhibition room is "modern times", and the three key words of "civilization and enlightenment", "colonization and industry", and "enriching the country and strengthening the army" run through it. Among them, there is also the content of "developing Hokkaido and the modern age of the Ainu people". Think about the recent Japanese media "wildly criticizing" the language education of ethnic minorities in China, I don't know if the Ainu language is still being passed down today?
The theme of Room 6 is "Modernity". Although I had expected that the government-funded museum would avoid and conceal much of this history, I did not expect that there was only one specific army number on display in this part - "57th Company". Why is this so? I couldn't figure it out, so I hurriedly checked it on my phone. It turned out that this company was a "local company" that was created after the Meiji period from left = Sakura.
I suddenly remembered the governor of Chiba Prefecture I interviewed a few years ago, and he once "complained": "Narita Airport is obviously on the territory of Chiba Prefecture, but what is the name of 'Tokyo Narita International Airport', this is robbing our Chiba Prefecture of popularity!" "This kind of thing doesn't happen in China. I would like to have another conversation with a major provincial leader in Anhui who said, "We are proud to have the 'University of Science and Technology of China' in Hefei!" It seems that the fact that there is only the number of the 57th Company, the Sakura Company, in the sixth exhibition room of the National Museum of History and Folklore of Japan is also the result of this "localism". In Japan, it is clear that "localism" has become a close partner of "historical revisionism."
When I came out of the National Museum of History and Folklore, I didn't bother to enjoy the "Tea Room Sankyei" and went straight to the "Castle Ruins Park" in Sakura Castle. There is a "Sakura Company Stone Monument" that is not too high, and the history of this company is written on it: in 1894, it participated in the Sino-Japanese War; In 1914, it participated in the Japanese-German Qingdao War; After 1931, it became an integral part of the Japanese Kwantung Army and was stationed on the "Manchu-Soviet border" for a long time......
For me, the biggest takeaway this time was the discovery of the ruins of the army that was part of the Japanese Kwantung Army. The site of the National Museum of History and Folklore was once the camp of the 57th Company during the Japanese war years. I purchased a limited edition copy of the "Sakura City Historical Materials Series" - "The History of the Sakura City Branch of the Imperial Military Association in the Countryside", and after flipping through a few pages, a new idea came to me - one of the entry points for studying the Japanese Kwantung Army should be local companies.
Pursuing the truth of history in the hidden history is a historical move in the journey of history. Because of this, I am willing to be a "single donkey" and continue to be a "donkey". (May 19, 2024 in Tokyo)