ABSTRACT
Rikkun Land, the Ground Self-Defense Force (GSDF) Public Relations Center in Tokyo and the Hokuchin Museum in Asahikawa, Hokkaido, represent GSDF's recent attempts to increase public understanding and support. This chapter will contrast how these exhibitions address Japan's wartime history and how discuss local history, gender and war memories are represented. It also describes the city's development and civilian life in Asahikawa, making it unique among Japan Self-Defense Force (JSDF) museums. The contrast between Rikkun Land and the Hokuchin Museum, and not only in terms of the representation of women, is particularly significant because the GSDF PR Center was originally intended to be built at Camp Makomanai in Sapporo. By regarding the Hokuchin Museum's section on local community as a nostalgic representation of the imagined past, the longing of the exhibition creators for social cohesion and tradition connected to the ideal of gunto becomes obvious. This nostalgia aims to recreate a lost home and revive the supposedly good old times.
