Page 501 - Le Operazioni Interforze e Multinazionali nella Storia Militare - ACTA Tomo II

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a supporting role at best. The entire exhibition regards local history from a military
perspective, thus representing the “otherness” of the local community: as female, soft,
homely, supportive vis-à-vis a militarized masculinity. By regarding Hokuchin-Memo-
rial’s section on local community as a nostalgic representation of the imaged past, the
longing of the exhibition makers for social cohesion and tradition connected to the ideal
of gunto becomes obvious. The city is shown as a safe and cozy home, inhabited by gen-
tle and caring mothers and women, and where mutual respect prevailed between soldiers
and civilians. At Hokuchin-Memorial the display of local community focuses on the
rather uncontested images of the past. Also the representation of Asahikawa’s soldiers
does not mention atrocities against civilians, sexual violence or other war crimes.
Instead a counter-narrative has been created by depicting Japanese soldiers as friend-
ly, reliable neighbors, but also as sacrificing and dying heroes. By doing so, the repre-
sentation of the local division and their actions circumvent general questions of Japan’s
responsibility for war and atrocities, as it have been described earlier. Furthermore, the
nostalgic reference to gunto and the “good old days” in Hokuchin-Memorial might also
serves as a blueprint of how Ground-SDF officials and civilian supporters possibly im-
agine good military-societal relations in a garrison town in the future.