Japanese museums shun video artwork on wartime atrocities acclaimed abroad

[Summons Global Attention: Japanese Museums Reluctantly Exhibit Internationally Praised Video Art About Wartime Atrocities]

A video installation anchored by the testimony of a former Japanese soldier — recounting the mass killings and sexual assaults inflicted on Chinese civilians during the war — will open in London next month, though the artist continues to search for a museum in Japan that will take on the award‑winning work.

Creating ‘The Angels of Testimony,’ contemporary artist Meiro Koizumi has earned widespread international acclaim, yet domestically many museums remain hesitant to show the piece, which forces confrontations with the violence perpetrated by Japanese troops in the Sino‑Japanese conflict.

“Koizumi, 50, said, “The work will only be fully realized when viewers see it in Japan,” expressing his aspiration for a future exhibition back home.”

Inside the gallery three illuminated screens rise from the shadows, with the central presence being the late Hajime Kondo, a former Imperial Japanese Army soldier who was 99 years old when the film was captured.

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