Project Reach: Japan

A good listener often helps a speaker find self worth and self respect.
This is especially true of senior citizens when their stories about life are listened to avidly by children, who then share the stories with the community.

An NPO called “Showa Memories” (Showa no Kioku) started a movement in 2007 throughout Japan to encourage children to interview people from the older generation by listening and writing down senior citizens’ stories about their lives.

This is a concrete way to honor people of the Showa generation as Japan prepares to celebrate “Respect for the Aged Day” on 21 September.

Those interviewed by the NPO project were born during the Showa Era (1926-1989). The Shōwa Era is the period of Japanese history corresponding to the reign of Emperor Hirohito from December 25, 1926 to January 7, 1989. This was the longest reign of all the Japanese emperors, thus the project title “Showa Memories.”

Showa Memories’ organizers hope to have recorded 5000 senior citizens’ oral histories through their “listening-writing” project by 2010.

The NPO’s “listening-writing” events have gathered senior citizens throughout Japan to meet with young people so that the younger generation has the chance to understand the experiences that shaped the lives of the elderly.

In one such gathering in Nakagawa, Hokkaido the whole town got behind the project, gathering the town’s children to sit down with the older people and encourage the kids to take out pens and paper to listen and write down the spoken narratives of the older citizens.

NPO organizers of this oral history project say the purpose of doing this is: a) to enable the elderly people of the Showa Era to pass along their personal and historical memories of the period to succeeding generations, b) to create better understanding and communication between old and young people, c) to raise awareness in local communities about Showa history, d) to help older people feel important about themselves and their times, motivating them to continue being active, and e) to give children more understanding about Japan's history and geography.

The NPO also sends staff or volunteers to listen and write down the oral histories and memories of the Showa elderly, as well as bringing school children to old people's care centers where they can listen to the Showa stories and ask questions. The NPO holds seminars for volunteers about listening and writing. They then edit and publish books and brochures based on the oral histories of the elderly, and hold workshops about Showa history.


During the Showa period, Japan experienced the Great Depression, the rise of ultra-nationalism, the 1937 invasion of China, and the Second World War. In August 1945, the country suffered the only two atomic attacks in history. This was followed by the American occupation of Japan which lasted for seven years, a period that saw sweeping democratic changes.

In the 1960s and 70s the Japanese people created the "economic miracle" that has made them the second largest economy in the world. The Showa Era is therefore a time of war and peace, poverty and riches, radical changes - and many memories.

NPO members say that they are running out of time to record and pass on the oral histories of the people who lived through this period, and if it is not done as soon and as carefully as possible, the memories will disappear forever.

They feel it is good for both sides -- the elderly and the young -- to talk about the events of the Showa past. The project is touching the lives of many people. Not just the Showa generation, but present day young children, university students, families of the elderly who may never have heard these stories before, and the readers who have access to the books and brochures generated by the project.

The NPO hopes to reach as many people as possible with these narratives of ordinary people who witnessed an extraordinary era.

Also, the NPO members are listening to and recording the memories of Japanese families that lived on the four northern islands off the coast of Hokkaido, which were occupied by the Soviet Union during the closing days of World War II. Their stories will be published under the title Northern Territories Memories. Another book being compiled consists of the stories of people from the Niigata Prefecture area called, Joetsu Memories. These projects are supported by contributions from the Nippon Foundation.