This October, two documents submitted by Japan were entered into the UNESCO Memory of the World Register. One was the “Archives of Toji Temple;” this registered national treasure from Kyoto is a precious resource for the study of Buddhist history and the history of the temple. The other was “Return to Maizuru Port,” which comprises of 570 documents concerning the Japanese soldiers who were transported from Manchuria to Siberia by the Soviets right after the end of the Second World War. During that period roughly 600, 000 Japanese detainees were forced into hard labor, and it is said that 60,000 died. The documents include 200 hundred waka (short Japanese poems) which describe their life there and other notes smuggled back to Japan. Maizuru is a port city in Kyoto Prefecture that faces the Japan Sea, and 660,000 repatriates from the continent disembarked there. The Maizuru Repatriation Memorial Museum, where these documents are preserved, is located here. The return to Maizuru is also remembered because of the popular song “Ganpeki no Haha” (Mother on the Quay), which was based on the story of a real mother who stood waiting on the quay believing that her son was still alive, – even though he hadn’t returned – whenever a ship carrying returning soldiers docked. On the other hand, the “Nanking Massacre Records” submitted by China were also included in the Memory of the World Register this time. It was an incident instigated by the Japanese military during the Japan-China War, however, there is a huge difference in the way Japan and China view the issue. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced in a statement, “It is problematic that UNESCO, an international organization that should be neutral, has approved an application based on China’s one sided point of view.” The worry is that China may use UNESCO’s approval to politicize the issue. The Memory of World Register should serve as a caution over the human folly of instigating wars, but ironically it has becomes the cause of new disputes.