Japanese museums shun video artwork on wartime atrocities acclaimed abroad

A video installation built around the testimony of a former Japanese soldier on the killing of civilians and sexual assault in wartime China will go on display in London in October, even as its creator struggles to find a museum willing to exhibit the award-winning work in Japan.

Created by contemporary artist Meiro Koizumi, “The Angels of Testimony”, has won acclaim overseas, but Japanese museums have been reluctant to exhibit the work, which confronts memories of violence committed by Japanese troops during the Sino-Japanese war.

“The work will only truly be complete when people can see it in Japan,” said Koizumi, 50, who hopes it will eventually be exhibited in his home country.

Three screens emerge from the darkness of the exhibition space. At the centre is the late Hajime Kondo, a former Imperial Japanese Army soldier who was 99 when the work was filmed.