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This article was downloaded by: [UQ Library] On: 05 November 2014, At: 07:28 Publisher: Routledge Informa Ltd Registered in England and Wales Registered Number: 1072954 Registered office: Mortimer House, 37-41 Mortimer Street, London W1T 3JH, UK Journal of Intergenerational Relationships Publication details, including instructions for authors and subscription information: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/wjir20 Liberty Osaka: Creating Opportunities for Intergenerational Learning about Human Rights Timothy D. Amos a a National University of Singapore Published online: 20 May 2010. To cite this article: Timothy D. Amos (2010) Liberty Osaka: Creating Opportunities for Intergenerational Learning about Human Rights, Journal of Intergenerational Relationships, 8:2, 177-182, DOI: 10.1080/15350771003741972 To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/15350771003741972 PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR ARTICLE Taylor & Francis makes every effort to ensure the accuracy of all the information (the “Content”) contained in the publications on our platform. However, Taylor & Francis, our agents, and our licensors make no representations or warranties whatsoever as to the accuracy, completeness, or suitability for any purpose of the Content. Any opinions and views expressed in this publication are the opinions and views of the authors, and are not the views of or endorsed by Taylor & Francis. The accuracy of the Content should not be relied upon and should be independently verified with primary sources of information. Taylor and Francis shall not be liable for any losses, actions, claims, proceedings, demands, costs, expenses, damages, and other liabilities whatsoever or howsoever caused arising directly or indirectly in connection with, in relation to or arising out of the use of the Content. This article may be used for research, teaching, and private study purposes. Any substantial or systematic reproduction, redistribution, reselling, loan, sub-licensing, systematic supply, or distribution in any form to anyone is expressly forbidden. Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at http://www.tandfonline.com/page/terms- and-conditions

Liberty Osaka: Creating Opportunities for Intergenerational Learning about Human Rights

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Page 1: Liberty Osaka: Creating Opportunities for Intergenerational Learning about Human Rights

This article was downloaded by: [UQ Library]On: 05 November 2014, At: 07:28Publisher: RoutledgeInforma Ltd Registered in England and Wales Registered Number: 1072954 Registeredoffice: Mortimer House, 37-41 Mortimer Street, London W1T 3JH, UK

Journal of IntergenerationalRelationshipsPublication details, including instructions for authors andsubscription information:http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/wjir20

Liberty Osaka: Creating Opportunitiesfor Intergenerational Learning aboutHuman RightsTimothy D. Amos aa National University of SingaporePublished online: 20 May 2010.

To cite this article: Timothy D. Amos (2010) Liberty Osaka: Creating Opportunities forIntergenerational Learning about Human Rights, Journal of Intergenerational Relationships, 8:2,177-182, DOI: 10.1080/15350771003741972

To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/15350771003741972

PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR ARTICLE

Taylor & Francis makes every effort to ensure the accuracy of all the information (the“Content”) contained in the publications on our platform. However, Taylor & Francis,our agents, and our licensors make no representations or warranties whatsoever as tothe accuracy, completeness, or suitability for any purpose of the Content. Any opinionsand views expressed in this publication are the opinions and views of the authors,and are not the views of or endorsed by Taylor & Francis. The accuracy of the Contentshould not be relied upon and should be independently verified with primary sourcesof information. Taylor and Francis shall not be liable for any losses, actions, claims,proceedings, demands, costs, expenses, damages, and other liabilities whatsoever orhowsoever caused arising directly or indirectly in connection with, in relation to or arisingout of the use of the Content.

This article may be used for research, teaching, and private study purposes. Anysubstantial or systematic reproduction, redistribution, reselling, loan, sub-licensing,systematic supply, or distribution in any form to anyone is expressly forbidden. Terms &Conditions of access and use can be found at http://www.tandfonline.com/page/terms-and-conditions

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Journal of Intergenerational Relationships, 8:177–182, 2010Copyright © Taylor & Francis Group, LLC ISSN: 1535-0770 print/1535-0932 onlineDOI: 10.1080/15350771003741972

WJIR1535-07701535-0932Journal of Intergenerational Relationships, Vol. 8, No. 2, Mar 2010: pp. 0–0Journal of Intergenerational Relationships

FROM THE FIELD

Program Profile: A Practice-Based Article

Liberty Osaka: Creating Opportunities for Intergenerational Learning about

Human Rights

Program ProfileT. D. Amos

TIMOTHY D. AMOSNational University of Singapore

The Osaka Human Rights Museum, Liberty Osaka, is located in Naniwa onthe site of a historic outcaste community dating back to the mid-Tokugawaperiod (1600–1868). Current residents of Naniwa who self-identify as descen-dants of this former outcaste community often refer to themselves as Bura-kumin, a word literally meaning “people of the hamlet.” While historicalsystems of economic exploitation and social discrimination continue toadversely affect the lives of Naniwa residents today, much has also changedin this community in recent years. As the center of Buraku activism and iden-tity politics in Japan since around the late 1960s, the political organization andactivism of local Burakumin led to the successful development of impressiveneighborhood infrastructure and facilities, built with considerable financialsupport from municipal and prefectural governments. The Naniwa communityremains today one of the major places in Japan where traditional Buraku activi-ties like leatherwork and the making of Taiko drums (traditional Japanesedrums used in performance which utilize leather skins) are still practiced. Yet,a decrease in government funding in recent years as well as a declining youth

The author would like to express a sincere thanks to Ota Kyoji, curator at the OsakaHuman Rights Museum, for his kind assistance in helping him to research this article. Mr. Otagenerously gave of his time and expertise to assist in research when the author first visitedthe museum in 2007. He also contributed numerous promotional materials published by themuseum along with a brief précis in Japanese concerning the museum’s efforts in facilitatingintergenerational learning.

Address correspondence to Dr. Timothy D. Amos, Assistant Professor, Department ofJapanese Studies, National University of Singapore, 21 Lower Kent Ridge Road, Singapore119077. E-mail: [email protected]

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population has also meant that local residents, the local government, andaging activist groups have had to creatively reimagine their activities in orderto appeal to the next generation.

The Osaka Human Rights Museum, also known as Liberty Osaka,established primarily through the efforts of members of the Buraku LiberationLeague in 1985, offers exhibits on the history and contemporary realities ofBurakumin and 12 other Japanese minority groups including displays onrelatively well-known minority groups such as Japan’s indigenous peoples,Ainu, and resident (Zainichi) Koreans, but it also offers unique displaysrelated to discrimination against HIV sufferers, AIDS patients, and the homeless.The museum is dedicated to educating people from all backgrounds aboutthe realities of minority life in Japan, but it also represents an importantattempt to bridge the generational gap between aging activists and a newgeneration of youth who principally learn about the plight of Japan’s minoritygroups in classroom settings and through the familiar lexicon of humanrights.

Visitations to the museum provide an important opportunity for cross-generational learning about human rights and political activism. Young peo-ple, ranging from elementary school to university age, visit the museum aspart of their studies on human rights issues. School-age youth currentlyaccount for about 45% of all visitors. In order to better facilitate visitationsby younger students, the museum employs a sizable body of volunteers, themajority of whom are of retirement age or older and members of one of theminority groups featured in the exhibit. Through a dual emphasis on creat-ing a fun, interactive environment outside of the classroom and offeringguided tours by people who have firsthand experience with the difficultiesof living as members of minority groups in Japan, Liberty Osaka attempts tobetter facilitate young visitors’ understandings of human rights issues andpolitical activism. Conversely, younger visitors also offer museum staffnumerous opportunities to learn ways to successfully communicate withyounger generations.

Hiroshi Imura, an elderly long-term volunteer guide at Liberty Osaka,explains the usual procedure for receiving student groups to the museum.Before large groups visit the museum, the full-time curatorial staff meet upwith the volunteer guides and discuss the specific plan for the scheduledtour. At the group orientation session before the viewing of the mainexhibit, staff show a computer presentation specifically designed for the visitinggroup. Imura notes that special attention is always made to try to explainthings as simply as possible to the students (Imura, 2008). Young studentswalking around the museum with school activity sheets are actively encour-aged to approach these volunteers to clarify information contained in theexhibits. Volunteer staff, conscious of their inability to always answer withcertainty questions about the specific plight of all minority groups exhibitedat the museum, publish their own volunteer guide newsletter containing

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informative articles, book reviews, autobiographical notes, and notes onpertinent issues related to their activities in preparation for this visits. Volunteersalso organize their own workshops where important issues related to theirvolunteer guide activities can be discussed. Imura confesses that his earlyexperiences as a volunteer were not always successful but that he was ableto learn from more experienced guides:

The more senior guide volunteers seem to be enjoying themselves, but Iwasn’t able to do this at all (at first), breaking out in cold sweats everytime I had to answer a child’s question. These same senior guides wor-riedly watching my attempts at guidance, gave me plenty of advice, suchas “your explanations are too long,” “you are repeating yourself,” and“the children will lose interest if you are too persistent.

Imura reveals that he has acted as a guide for students from places as faraway as Okinawa and Kyushu and adds that learning is always a two-waystreet: “[s]ometimes the questions from students really make me think,requiring me to go back and study my subject again” (Imura, 2003).

Imura has also found his work highly rewarding despite the steeplearning curve. He adds that “one of my biggest joys is talking to elementaryand junior high school children about the exhibits.” One experience withjunior high school students during a spring special exhibit left a particularlydeep impression on him. While Imura was standing in front of a letter ofapology from a company president who had engaged in discriminatory hir-ing practices, several students enquired, “Was this company really bad?”Imura informed the students that not so long ago in Japan certain compa-nies discriminated against people during the hiring process for reasons thathad nothing to do with their ability to do a good job and that on occasionsome people were even refused government positions. Imura added thatthe letter in front of them was written by a company president who had uti-lized an illegal list that contained all of the details of former outcaste areasin Japan in order to discriminate against potential employees. Imura told thestudents how this case concluded in a particularly positive way: “After thisapology, I went on to say, the company became well-known for its respectof basic human rights, establishing official learning programs for employees,dealing respectfully with their clients and becoming engaged in socialreforms” (Imura, 2007).

While not always easy to receive precise feedback from students abouttheir real impressions, it is clear that some youth do find their experiences atthe museum rewarding. One local teenager from Osaka, for example, com-mented that the educational materials and the supplementary explanation bythe volunteer guides were particularly useful (“Raikansha no koe,” 2007). It isclear, too, that the guides on occasion are able to offer visitors much morethan a simple tour of the exhibits. Yukiko Imashiro, for example, a female

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volunteer guide at the museum, recorded the following interaction with ayoung person:

Recently I met a young man whose parents were apparently born inBuraku communities. His father hadn’t told him about this—the youngman had stumbled upon this fact by chance—and when he asked hisfather about it received no reply. Thankfully the young man hadsomeone he could talk to about this. A knowledgeable lecturer at thepreparatory school the young man attended simply explained to himthe history of Burakumin and told him that this was nothing to beashamed about. During his high school years, the young man appar-ently refused to talk about himself at all and found it difficult to makefriends but was able to make friends during his time at preparatoryschool.

Imashiro has kept in touch with this young man and concludes that “thesedays he is very bright, although his mistrust towards his parents still lingers.I think this young man, who knows very little about Buraku history, will beable to better understand the pain and sadness of his parents through learning”(Imashiro, 2008).

Not all volunteers are elderly, however. On occasion, the more commonpattern of elderly guide and young student is reversed, with the volunteerbeing more youthful and the visitor to the museum a senior citizen. Thevolunteer guide Yoshiko Niisaka recounts the following episode of one ofher experiences at the museum:

After only five days of training, and with no experience in volunteering,I took my place in the exhibit hall in January 2006, without any confi-dence in my ability to explain “human rights” to Museum visitors. Onthat day, I found an elderly gentleman, probably aged between 65 and70 years old, wandering outside the entrance to the main exhibit locatednear the guidance room. I asked him if he finished looking at theexhibit. He turned around and headed towards Corner I. When hereached the sign which read “The Right to Work,” the elderly gentlemanpointed at it and without speaking gestured to me with his hands. I wasat a loss what to do. I did not know sign language. But after a while Irealized that he, too, did not know it either. I took out a notepad andpencil. All I could do was nod my head at what he wrote. Maybe it wasdue to a problem with his vocal cords, or perhaps something else, butapparently he could no longer work and he could barely make a living.It seemed as if he wanted to tell someone about how difficult his lifewas and how much uncertainty he was feeling about his health. I was sohappy that he put so much energy into talking to me with a pencil.Being open and listening to people: isn’t that what “human rights” is? Ithas been a year and a half since I learnt that lesson from that “silver”gentleman. (Niisaka, (2007)

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The philosophy of some of the aged volunteers toward their work withthe young visitors to the museum finds expression in many ways, includingin their own personal writings and poems. One poem authored by an elderlyBurakumin guide volunteer, Katsumasa Maeda, was given to me as part of aprivately bound collection of his writings titled The Sun Will Rise Again:People are Precious (Taiyo ga mata noboru: ningen wa totoi) after theprincipal author first toured the museum with him. The poem, whichshares the collection’s subtitle for its heading, speaks about this troublingsocial issue in Japan usually referred to as “Buraku discrimination”(Buraku sabetsu) contains the following striking line, a clear reflection ofMaeda’s philosophy in engaging with children at the museum: “Give tochildren the fragrance of the earth, light from the sun, the love of humanity.Give to people with no knowledge of war peace, freedom and equality”(Maeda, 1991).

One further recent development designed to increase interactionbetween the youth who visit the museum and aging residents involves themuseum’s positive engagement with the local community. The museum has,in recent years, played an active role in the building of attractive monumentsaround the area to inform visitors about the historical and cultural positionof Naniwa Burakumin within Japan’s larger history. Staff at the museumhave also scripted, produced, and performed in numerous plays that arehosted in Liberty Hall, the theater adjacent to the museum. Popular musi-cians such as the taiko drum group Ikari have also been invited to performat the hall. Staff at the museum have also actively participated in local festivalssuch as the Naniwa Human Rights Festival that include music concerts andfood tasting.

Terence M. Duffy has described the Osaka Human Rights Museum asamong the first organizations in the world to truly embody what he provoca-tively terms “Museums of Human Suffering” (Duffy, 2004). Museums in thisdiscursive realm serve as extremely powerful sites of social activism. Nolonger places to simply find and study artifacts that can assist in research,Museums like Liberty Osaka construct cultures of human rights thatemphasize the need for a liberation, requiring enlightenment throughchallenging common sense as well as political and legal struggles ofminorities against mainstream society. Within this context, it is widelyacknowledged by the organizers of the museum that they need to createan inclusive culture where aging activists fully engage with younger gen-erations whose understanding of issues related to human rights andpolitical activism will shape the future direction of Japan and the futureplight of the very same minority groups on display. While human rightscultural discourse from one perspective might legitimately be labeled asoft form of moralistic activism, particularly when compared to more radi-cal variants, it is clear that Liberty Osaka does provide an important sitefor older Buraku activists and others concerned with minority issues to

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engage in human rights cultural discourse with younger generations. It isnot merely a site for them to articulate their grievances but also a placewhere genuine intergenerational interaction takes place with groups whowill bear the responsibility for securing and promoting human rightsissues in Japan into the future.

Contact Details

Osaka Human Rights Museum (Liberty Osaka)Naniwa Nishi 3-6-36, 556-0026, Osaka, JapanTelephone: +81-6-6561-5891Admission: Permanent exhibit 200 yen (500 yen for special exhibits)Hours: 10:00–17:00 (closed Mondays, fourth Friday of each month, andpublic holidays)Access: JR Loop Line (approximately 600 meter walk from AshiharabashiStation)Web page: www.liberty.or.jp

REFERENCES

Duffy, T. M. (2004). Museums of “human suffering” and the struggle for humanrights. In B. M. Carbonell (Ed.), Museum studies: An anthology of contexts(pp. 117–122). Malden: Blackwell.

Imashiro, Y. (2008). Deai [A meeting]. Fureai Libatii, 11, 14.Imura, H. (2003). Gaido Borantia hajimete ichinen no ben [Explaining my first year

as a guide volunteer]. Fureai Libatii, 8, 16.Imura, H. (2007). Tokubetsuten: “Buraku sabetsu no genzai” [At the special exhibit

“Buraku Discrimination Today”]. Fureai Libatii, 10, 10.Imura, H. (2008). Okada-sensei no jonestu ni senaka wo osarete [Being urged on by

Mr. Okada’s passion]. Fureai Libatii, 11, 11.Maeda, K. (1991). Taiyo ga mata noboru: Ningen wa totoi” [The sun will rise again:

People are precious].Niisaka, Y. (2007). Koe no nai shirubaa ni senaka wo osarete [Being urged on by a

voiceless silver]. Fureai Libatii, 10, 8.Raikansha no koe [Voices of visitors]. (2007). Fureai Libatii, 10, 15.

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