Hokuchin Memorial Museum — Attraction in Asahikawa

I visited the Asahikawa Hokushin Memorial Museum, expecting a historical exhibition that presents a balanced view of Japan’s past. However, what I encountered was a highly selective narrative focusing only on the Russo-Japanese War (1904–1905) as a defender of Russian agression, while completely ignoring the broader impact of Japan’s expansion in East Asia.

The museum glorifies Japan’s military victories, portraying the war as a heroic struggle against Russia, but it makes no mention of Korea/ China, which were deeply affected by Japan’s actions during and after the war. The exhibits fail to acknowledge that Japan used this war as a stepping stone to colonize Korea in 1910, leading to decades of oppression and suffering.

The audio guide was particularly concerning, as it depicted Japanese soldiers as selfless warriors fighting for the Emperor, without any reference to the consequences of Japan’s imperial ambitions. The war is presented as a justified and honorable conflict, completely omitting the brutality and political maneuvers...

An absolute MUST if you're a fan of Golden Kamuy as well as Japanese history! Incredibly helpful staff. They offered a self guided app in English that had numbers to follow with information at each stop and a map of the museum. One elder staff member even made sure I understood how to use the app and follow along and asked for feedback. I was able to use Google translate for any placards that I wanted to read more about too.

At the end they had some Golden Kamuy costumes they let me try on and a cute little store! The girl working the store was incredibly sweet and we chatted about Golden Kamuy through Google translate. This was probably the highlight of my experience on top of a wonderfully cared for museum....

The museum is free entrance. I believe there is a dedicated staff would guide each of us visiting in Japanese - that was what I saw but I didn’t get one as I’m a foreigner. They surveyed where you from, gender and age before you entered the museum. Pictures and videos are not allowed. I downloaded the app but they’re mostly what I could read on the limited English description inside. I can understand kanji but not Japanese overall so I wasn’t fully understand. But the collection itself is quite rich. Also my first time to learn about some fact from the war from a different perspective - at least the names are different! I just wish I could understand...