Osawa Xiongji, who participated in the war of aggression against China, gave his daughter an inscription before his death, asking her to erect a monument for him and apologize to the people of China. As a result, I was opposed by my family. Twelve years later, osawa’s last wish was realized.

　　　　　

　　　 The ashes of seven Class-A war criminals, including tojo hideki, are buried under the "Monument of Seven Scholars" in Izu Mountain, Rehai City, and Japanese Prime Minister Ji Tianmao wrote the inscription. It was bombed in 1971, and the cracks on the monument can be clearly seen by the author.

　　　　Author: Wang Xiaokui

　　　　Everyone who has been to Japan, with a little attention, will find and be amazed at the number of monuments in Japan. From these monuments, it is not difficult to see that Japanese society has an opposing understanding of World War II: one end is to support the war wholeheartedly, and the other end is to thoroughly reflect on the war and bear the responsibility for harm. The distance between these two ends can be said to be "infinite" Because it is impossible to unify its own historical understanding, when facing China and the victimized countries in Asia, the information sent by Japan is often vague and contradictory.

　　　　　　深夜盗骨

　　　　1948年12月24日深夜，驻扎在日本横滨的美军正沉浸在圣诞前夜的欢乐之中，横滨市内的久保山火葬场发生了一起偷窃案。三个黑衣人蹑手蹑脚地潜入火葬场，用事先准备好的工具，在残灰坑里掏了些东西后匆忙遁去。此前一天，依照远东国际军事法庭的判决，东条英机(第40任首相)、板垣征四郎(原陆军大臣、关东军参谋长)、木村兵太郎(原缅甸方面军司令官、陆军次官)、土肥原贤二(原第12方面军司令官)、武藤章(原第14方面军参谋长)、松井石根(原中支那方面军司令官)、广田弘毅(第32任首相)7人在东京巢鸭监狱被执行绞刑。他们的尸体被运到横滨久保山火葬场火化。由于担心会被人拿走作为象征物，美军对这些人的尸骨严加看管，甚至传说要抛撒到太平洋里。眼看这7人的骨殖就要灰飞烟灭，甲级战犯小矶国昭的辩护律师三文字正平、横滨市火葬场附近兴禅寺的住持市川伊雄、火葬场场长飞田美善心有不甘，遂有深夜盗骨之举。

　　　　　Monument to the Seven Scholars

　　　　Eleven years later, on April 19th, 1959, a monument named "The Monument of Seven Scholars" was erected in Izuyama, Rehai City, about 100 kilometers away from Tokyo. Buried under the monument are the ashes of seven Class A war criminals stolen by those three people. At that time, after the ashes were stolen, there was nowhere to keep them. Ash thieves and the families of seven war criminals remembered that there was a statue of Guanyin in Yidoushan, named "Xingya Guanyin", which was built after the commander-in-chief of Nanjing Campaign and Class-A war criminal Matsui Shigen returned from the battlefield in China. It is said that he was recalled to Japan and retired from the army soon after he occupied Nanjing because of disagreement with the military. Around 1939, he asked the old army to bring back 10 altars of blood and soil from dachang town, Nanjing, the site of fierce fighting at that time, and burn them into a Guanyin statue, named Xingya Guanyin. Guanyin Temple was built next to it, and an altar was set up to pay homage to the war dead in Nanjing. And he himself built a house near this Guanyin statue and lived here. The abbot of Guanyin Temple, Yidan Renli, is an ardent supporter of Matsui. On May 3, 1949, Hirota Hiroshi’s son, tojo hideki’s wife, Wu Tengzhang’s wife, Sanwen Zhengping and others came to Izuyama, falsely claiming that they were friends’ ashes and asking Yidan to keep them temporarily. Knowing this, Yidan hid the ashes in a crevice under Guanyin. On September 8, 1951, the Treaty of San Francisco was signed, and it came into effect on April 28, 1952. The control of the US military over Japan was gradually relaxed, and this "monument to the Seven Scholars" was created.

　　　　Next to the "Monument to the Seven Scholars", there is also a monument to Class B and Class C war criminals. In the nearby guanyin temple, a memorial tablet was specially set up for Indian lawyer Paru, who advocated Japan’s innocence at the Tokyo trial that year, to thank him for his "justice" and "conscience" towards Japan.

　　　　Tomb of seven martyrs

　　　　On July 17, 1960, Sanwen Zhengping and others sent part of the stolen ashes to Aichi Prefecture, the hometown of Matsui Shigen, and built the "Tomb of Seven Martyrs" in Sangen Mountain, Sudou Town, about 150 kilometers away from Nagoya. The inscription on the tablet reads as follows:

　　　　Because the United States used the atomic bomb, the Soviet Union tore up the non-aggression treaty and the lack of materials, Japan was finally defeated. Eleven countries, including the United States, China, Britain, the Soviet Union, Australia, France, the Netherlands and India, held an international trial in the Far East. On the 23rd night of the 23rd year of Showa, Kenji Toshihara, Shigen Matsui, tojo hideki, Wu Tengzhang, Shiro Banyuan, Hirota Hiroshi and Heitaro Kimura were hanged. Lawyer Sanwen Zhengping took out their remains from Kuboyama Crematorium in Yokohama City and placed them in Izuyama, Rehai City. Later, thanks to the kindness of Sudou Town, the remains were buried at the top of three mountains. With the consent of the survivors, the tombstone was built with the support and support of two lawyers, Ichiro Kiyoseki and Yu Sugawara. Looking at the other side of the ocean, we should explore the truth of the Pacific War and work hard to achieve permanent peace.

　　　　The inscription attributed Japan’s defeat to the use of atomic bombs by the United States, the Soviet Union’s sending troops and the so-called lack of materials, and described the trial of the Far East International Military Tribunal as a "post-event judgment." Although the inscription as a whole does not directly judge the war itself, the message conveyed between the lines is very clear. On the surface, it is to "seek" the truth, but this "truth" is very clear in the heart of the monument builder. And look at the inscription on the poem tablet next to it:

　　　　Crying and martyrdom, seven friends in prison.

　　　　Yaoyun town prison is full of wind and wind,

　　　　Last night, seven stars were killed in the middle of the night.

　　　　Violent revenge is too old,

　　　　When will the revenge be settled?

　　　　This poem tablet is like a footnote for the tablet of "Tomb of Seven Martyrs". Hiroshi Oshima, the Japanese ambassador to Germany during World War II, won Hitler’s trust in promoting triple alliance’s activities in Japan, Germany and Italy. After the war, he was classified as a Class-A war criminal and sentenced to life imprisonment. In his poems, he described the Nest Duck Prison where war criminals were held as a hell on earth, praised seven war criminals as "seven stars", cursed the Tokyo trial as "violent revenge" and vowed to "avenge" them.

　　　　Stone tablet shapes memory.

　　　　As we know, all countries, including China, have the custom of "erecting a monument to the deceased", which aims to symbolize the meaning of the deceased’s life through the "stone", a visual medium that can last forever. The words carved on the stone not only show the dead, but also show the evaluation and judgment of the people and events related to the monument. In this sense, the monument is a symbol of value, and it is also a setting that constantly evokes and creates memories. Benedict Anderson especially emphasized the significance of the Monument to the Unknown Soldier and the Cemetery in the Imaginary Community to construct the "Imaginary Space" of the modern nation-state.

　　　　In another book, Language and Power, Anderson regards the monument as an ideographic setting, and expresses specific contents with its "specific form". The so-called "specific form" here is essentially a kind of "landscape" creation. Stone tablets or relics constitute a specific public space, which visualizes the "past" through "landscape" and then shapes the historical memory of the event figures.

　　　　Lawrence, an American historian, pointed out that "memory is not simply a repository of the past, but is constantly revised according to the needs of reality." In other words, what matters is not what happened in the past, but that we always recast the past according to the imagination of reality. "

　　　　From this point of view, it is clear that Sanwen Zhengping and others risked their lives to steal the ashes, and the purpose of the stone monument is very clear. They understand that the war is over as a "past", and when people arouse the memory of the war, they need to carry it out through some media. And the information conveyed by this medium will directly guide people to build their imagination. They stole the ashes and built a "landscape" through the tree monument, which showed their explanation of the incident and their evaluation of the characters.

　　　　Blasting of the Red Army

　　　　It is precisely for this reason that, on the opposite side, this monument is an existence that must be erased. Eleven years after the "Monument to the Seven Scholars" was built, in December 1971, the Japanese Red Army "East Asian Anti-Japanese Armed Front" sent people to plant bombs under the monument, and the monument was turned into three pieces with a loud noise. The Japanese Red Army issued the following statement:

　　　　In 1948, Ji Tianmao, the head of imperialism, wrote an inscription on the monument of the seven men who died in the country, which was built for evoking the souls of Class-A war criminals. This is a product of completely affirming and beautifying the aggression and counter-revolutionary ideology of old Japanese imperialism. It is the spiritual symbol of Japanese imperialism’s neo-colonial aggression.

　　　　It should be noted that the Japanese Red Army was rejected by Japan and the international community because of its terrorist violence such as hijacking, assassination and explosion. However, its political stance is to completely oppose Japanese militarism, advocate that Japan should bear the responsibility of war, and apologize to the war-stricken countries. Their understanding of war represents the leftmost end of Japanese society.

　　　　Of course, the stone tablet was bombed, and the stone tablet erector refused to admit defeat. At all costs, they imported special adhesive from Germany to glue and repair the stone tablet and stand in its original place again. Now we can clearly see the cracks in the monument. When the author visited the site, Miao Jing, the female abbot who guarded the monument and protected the temple, said meaningfully: They are a professional violent group, and the carefully planned and strictly implemented blasting plan did not blow up the monument. Isn’t this an act of god?

　　　　The "war" around the monument of the Seven Scholars is very symbolic. Ford, an American historical geographer, pointed out in his "America Carved on Stone Monuments: Scenery of Violence and Mourning" that human beings generally have ways to treat historical sites, such as "sanctifying, choosing, reviving and erasing". The specific way to choose depends on the value judgment of the society on related people and events. In the landscape treated in the above four ways, "how individuals, groups and even society as a whole explain and understand the basic attitude of the past" is engraved. From the history of the "Seven Scholars" being "consecrated", "erased" and "revived", it is not difficult to see the opposing composition of Japanese society’s understanding of World War II. At one end, it is to support the war wholeheartedly, while at the other end, it is to thoroughly reflect on the war and bear the responsibility for harm. Yoshikawa, a famous Japanese anti-war activist, used "the torn dead" to describe the different attitudes of Japanese society towards the war dead, pointing out that the distance between the two ends can be said to be "infinite". On the next stone tablet, we can see the other end of the "infinity" that confronts the "monument of the Seven Scholars", that is, another "landscape" of Japanese war memory.