The promotion of peace education through guides in peace museums. A case study of the Kyoto Museum for World Peace, Ritsumeikan University

Abstract

This paper focuses on how peace education at a peace museum is promoted by a volunteer guide service for visitors. Peace museums are places where many materials related to war and peace history are on display. To support the learning experience of museum visitors, many peace museums in Japan provide a volunteer guide service. The Kyoto Museum for World Peace, Ritsumeikan University, started such a service more than 20 years ago. A citizens’ group, called Friends for Peace, is in charge of the museum guide activities in cooperation with the museum. This article explains the purposes and nature of the service, and also reports on a survey of similar services offered by other peace museums in Japan.

Keywords:

• peace museum
• volunteer guide service
• learning peace
• dialog
• complementary relationship

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. From the list of peace museums in Museums for Peace Worldwide, mentioned above, 31 museums which could be accessed by e-mail or fax were chosen.

2. The ratio between non-government and government peace museums in all 56 museums in Japan is: Non-government museums: 22 (39%); Government museums: 34 (61%).

3. Four museums which have a citizens’ independent association of peace museum guides are as follows: (1) Hiroshima Peace Culture Foundation (public foundation) for Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum (national): 224 peace museum guides and 44 survivors who give testimonies. (2) A Supporters’ Association for Okinawa Prefectural Peace Memorial Museum (prefectural): 10 peace museum guides. (3) A volunteer group for Peace Aichi (private): 20 museum guides and 70 survivors who give testimonies. (4) Nagasaki Foundation for the Promotion of Peace (public foundation) for Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Museum (national): 162 museum guides and 41 survivors who give testimonies.