An exhibition of the results of the first government study on mental wounds among soldiers of the now-defunct Imperial Japanese military who fought in World War Two is underway at a museum in Tokyo.
The event began on Wednesday at the Shokei-kan in Chiyoda Ward. The national museum conveys the history of wounded service members.
In fiscal 2024, the government began its first probe on mental wounds of soldiers and their families. It studied materials left by patients and academics, as well as memoirs written by wounded service members and their families.
The exhibit shows that there were at least around 7.85 million wounded soldiers of the army in the last four years of the war. About 8 percent of them suffered neuroses or other mental illnesses.
The exhibit covers more than 10,000 patients of an army hospital that treated mainly soldiers with mental and neurological disorders. It says about 4,300 of them were diagnosed with schizophrenia and around 1,200 suffered from hysteria.
Among the displays are records kept by patients’ families. One person wrote that a former soldier was unable to work even about 30 years after the war, and that his family was extremely poor and looked down on by others.
The government study covered patients confirmed to have been service members wounded in the war, based on their clinical charts and other records.
But observers say there were many who did not seek help from medical institutions. The government says it will consider looking into such cases.
A visitor in his 70s said the exhibit reminded him of a neighbor near his childhood home who was teased for being confused because of the war. He said he realized prolonged war can cause such damage to people.
An official of the museum, Kitamura Akira, said service members long suffered mental scars, as did their families. He expressed hope that many people will become aware of the situation.
The exhibit runs through October. The museum plans to expand it into a permanent exhibition from around February.
AloJapan.com