Since opening in June 2019, the Imphal Peace Museum has been visited by over 14,000 people (as of March 26, 2020). Of these visitors, 143 are from Japan and 152 from other countries. The museum has been temporarily closed since late March this year due to the global COVID-19 pandemic.
Ms. Yui Nakamura, senior program officer of the Asia Peace Initiatives Department at SPF, which promotes the Imphal Peace Museum project, reflected on the museum’s progress over the last year.
“As the visitor numbers clearly show, the Imphal Peace Museum has had an outstanding impact. It is now one of the main tourist attractions within Manipur. It also serves as a symbol of peace between the governments of Japan and India. Until very recently, Manipur has been one of the hardest hit regions in Northeast India by prolonged insurgencies and counter-insurgencies. As a result of this exposure to violence, the people value peace. The creation of the museum in a place like this, along with the international attention that it has gathered, has had a major effect on the locals and all those who wish to know more about Manipur’s history. Accurate information about the Battle of Imphal must be provided to visitors because, as a peace museum, its central theme inherently revolves around war. The museum has a duty to educate visitors based on information verified by experts. For the past two years, we have been collaborating with local filmmakers to record and preserve testimonies about World War II in Manipur and in the neighboring state of Nagaland from people who experienced the war first-hand. As of last year, we have collected interviews from 114 people, with invaluable recordings including songs from the war. We will do our best to support the museum so that these materials may be displayed by the end of fiscal year 2020.”
Other References:
1. Please see the links below for videos of the ceremony.
http://live.imphalpeacemuseum.com/https://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=emb_share&v=vW_moHOEFTs
2. For more information on the Imphal Peace Museum, please see the article below.
New Imphal Peace Museum in Manipur Stands As Symbol of Reconciliation