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But the museum was overwhelming bias; it had those dramatic sculptures with the melting flesh, and those ridiculously enlarged photos of burns and open wounds. The atrocities committed by America were made pretty obvious, but not quite the other way around.
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That`s because it`s a museum about
what happened in Hiroshima. Not a museum about the war in general. I wouldn`t expect them to make a display about anything but the most basic bits of the war (to add context to the event) - as that is not the meaning of the museum. The people who suffered there
were mostly innocent people, sure, part of a huge war, and something inevitable - but blaming the majority of those who died in Hiroshima for something certain troops far away were doing is beyond unfortunate.
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It seems that the Japanese have yet to express true sorrow for their wartime wrongs. I don't think that in any Japanese history class, Japan's war crimes are ever mentioned. Japan's relations with China and South Korea became strained further when in 2005, the PM visited Yasukuni Shrine, and a history textbook was released which glossed over Japan's war crimes, including the "Rape of Nanjing".
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Ah, the great urban legend rears it`s ugly head.
The war, with a mention of "some terrible things were done by our army" - is in 2nd grade history textbooks (1st grade doesn`t do national history - only local, of the town, etc). 3rd grade hits on the invasion of China. 4th has censored photos and a full two pages dedicated to war crimes. 5th has more, and 6th has an additional pamphlet to be covered in a special class.
Middle school is even more in depth, but starts in depth into world history so things get thinner for a while.
High school has a full year dedicated to WWII, with uncensored photos, chapters about the Rape of Nanjing, Unit 731, comfort women, mass killings, etc and a HUGE emphasis on how horrible this was.
Anyone who says that Japan does not teach this has never seen a real Japanese textbook that is in USE in schools. I was personally surprised on how much was covered in a 4th grade textbook. I have a feeling parents in the US would be suing the school if the textbooks showed such pics and had such explicit language in high school - let alone 4th grade.
There is MORE content on the atrocities of the war than there is about what happened to Japan during the war.
The urban legend of it being glossed over comes from a certain group making and publishing a "textbook". ANYONE can make a textbook. I could write one up with lessons about people being born from eggs, etc etc and have it published if I had the money.
That does not mean any school would use it. Private schools choose their textbooks, and as far as I know, only one or two tiny private schools have chosen to use that textbook (total of <200 students) as it does not fit into the national curriculum. In the end, even those students will have to be tested on the material, so will be forced to learn it elsewhere.
All the other normal schools use a set of textbooks that are very clear, very explicit, and very in depth.
ETA; All those examples of "We asked some people on the street, and they`d never even heard of it!" are IDIOTS to begin with. It`s on the same level of those shows where they go around and ask everyone the most simple questions and people can`t answer. It would be sort of on the level of asking someone in the US "Have you ever heard of Pearl Harbor, or Hiroshima?" and having absolutely no clue.
(It`s been a couple years since I looked through all of this, but I`m fairly certain I`m right about the grades.)