Joint Cambodian----Japanese peace exhibition opens in Cambodia

(Mainichi Japan)
March 8, 2012

PHNOM PENH (Kyodo) -- A peace exhibition opened here Wednesday jointly organized by the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum and the Okinawa Prefectural Peace Memorial Museum.

The exhibition, titled "Two Peace Exhibition by Two Peace Museums," features profiles, photographs and stories of the victims of the Khmer Rouge's reign of terror in the 1970s and the Battle of Okinawa in 1945. It is set to run for at least three months.

It is being held at the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum, which is located at the site of a torture center where more than 12,000 people were killed under Khmer Rouge rule, and is funded by the Okinawa museum, which is dedicated to the loss of over 200,000 human lives during the Battle of Okinawa.

The exhibition is a result of the Okinawa museum's three----year cooperation with the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum to share the concept and the skills of a peace museum.

In past three years, 11 officers from the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum were trained at the Okinawa museum to learn better exhibition methods and how to preserve materials to effectively convey the peace message to the people and contribute to the establishment of a permanent peace.

Speaking at the opening, Reiko Goya, president of the Okinawa Prefectural Peace Memorial Museum, said, "I want to convey the tragedies of the war to the coming generations through materials and words of those who have experienced it in order to nurture the frame of mind to understand, talk and forgive."

Hiroshi Kawamura, minister of the Japanese Embassy in Phnom Penh, said, "Both Cambodia and Japan have experienced a tragic history, and accordingly, the wishes for peace are exceptionally strong."

Chuch Phouern, Cambodian secretary of state for culture and fine arts, said it is important to have such an exhibition to a send out the message that people around the world desire peace.