Friday, June 06, 2008

Peace Tower: Detail (3)

Click to enlarge.

4 comments:

  1. I will apologize if my comment is unpleasant.
    Did you take these photos in Miyazaki? If so, I think the statues are not symbol of peace. Those statues had been built to arouse the morale in wartime. After the world war, people of Miyazaki changed the name hypocritically.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Tomtom,
    Thanks for your comment, and I believe you're absolutely right. The photos were taken in Miyazaki and the statues represent guardians of agriculture, fishing, commerce, and "self-defense" (I've only posted three so far). From what I've read, though, it was actually named "Peace Tower" when it was built (somewhat "hypocritically" during WWII), but I'm willing to concede that I might be mistaken about this detail. It's interesting that, today, much is made of the fact that the tower was constructed of individual stones from around the world. What is generally not mentioned is that the stones were donated by Japanese ex-pats!

    Thanks again for your comment.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I am from Miyazaki (lived quite near the park!) and now living in germany. but the first comment is true. As far as i can remember, under the GHQ's control, one of the 4 figures for "self-defense" were removed for several years.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Anonymous,
    Thanks for that interesting detail!

    ReplyDelete