Shōwa-kan — museum of daily life in wartime 昭和館
Founded in 1999 after years of requests from the families of the war dead
The museum opened on 27 March 1999, after years of requests from the Japan War-Bereaved Families Association (日本遺族会), which still runs it today on behalf of the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare. Its stated purpose is to pass on to future generations the hardships of everyday Japanese life between about 1935 and the sixties (rationing, reconstruction, the decade of the economic boom), not the military operations, which remain outside its remit: among the objects on display are also the ‘three sacred treasures’ of the post-war years (television, refrigerator and washing machine), so called as a joke after the imperial treasures. The building was designed by the architect Kikutake Kiyonori.
Tokyo
Kudanshita
