Japanese museums shun video artwork on wartime atrocities acclaimed abroad

A video installation built around the testimony of a former Japanese soldier on the killing of civilians and sexual assault in wartime China will go on display in London in October, even as its creator struggles to find a museum willing to exhibit the award-winning work in Japan.Created by contemporary artist Meiro Koizumi, “The Angels of Testimony”, has won acclaim overseas, but Japanese museums have been reluctant to exhibit the work, which confronts memories of violence committed by Japanese troops during the Sino-Japanese war.“The work will only truly be complete when people can see it in Japan,” said Koizumi, 50, who hopes it will eventually be exhibited in his home country.Three screens emerge from the darkness of the exhibition space. At the centre is the late Hajime Kondo, a former Imperial Japanese Army soldier who was 99 when the work was filmed.Kondo entered military service in 1940 and was sent to China, where he fought in areas including Shanxi province.The late Hajime Kondo, a former Imperial Japanese Army soldier, appears in a video installation by Meiro Koizumi. Photo: Meiro Koizumi/KyodoA book published in 2005 compiling his testimony recounts an episode in which another soldier showed him the brain of a Chinese person, saying it could cure illness.“Do you remember?” Kondo is asked in the video. Apparently unable to recall the episode, he breaks down in tears.