It is a nationally funded museum for families of war dead. Mostly shows life under war in Japan and what ordinary people in Japan experienced during the Asia Pacific war. Absolutely no mention of what the Imperial Japan did to fellow Asian nations. Though it has a different tone from war glorifying Yasukuni Shrine.

A truly shaking experience. The museum very plastically tells the whole story of the sufferings of Japanese families on the era of the militarism and later during the wars. There’s detailed, interactive info on the 2.5M of soldiers fallen on a hundred of WW2 fronts and on the ongoing efforts to exhume and honor their remains. The exhibition is generally very rational and critical against the war; but still, the atrocities committed by the Japanese troops are never mentioned here. This is the source of the controversy surrounding this museum. It’s fully in Japanese (no English except in a downloaded app, apparently not targeted at us foreigners) and, what is the worst, they forbid to take photos (apparently due to the copyrights of the presented photographs, which often belong to Americans). = -1 star

Great value for money, I really liked the exhibits and the period advertising pieces/posters. I would haved loved to be able to buy reprints of some of the ads.

Great museum on the daily life of ordinary Japanese people before, during, and after World War II. Although you can download the audio guide app in English, most of the exhibits are in Japanese. Admission costs 300 yen and is free on Showa Day (April 29). We took about 2 hours to visit the permanent exhibition (7th and 6th floor), but unfortunately we did not have enough time to visit the other floors. If you want to see everything, I recommend visiting early in the morning. Beware you cannot enter the building from 13:30 to 14:00 due to disinfection.

I love this museum although there is no English translation on the exhibits. You can download an app to get English information for everything.

Great museum! Not a lot of English, but with a translater on your phone you can understand most things. Nice collection and cool layout. Even with no Japanese I think most foreigners can understand what’s going on. I wish there was a bit more English, and more souvenirs to buy!

One of my favorite places in Tokyo. I make it a point to visit when I'm in Tokyo. The permanent exhibits on the last 2 floors are breathtaking and truly immersive. If you have some time to spare you should stop by the audio video room where you can browse a great deal of pictures and videos of the showa era. I admire how the museum is solely devoted to teaching younger generations about the hardships and pain of war so to avoid repeating the same mistakes of the past. I felt no political influence on how the facts were depicted and reported.

Relatively smaller museum. Inspiring stories of how Japanese went thru the war. 300 yen entry, would take you around 1.5 hour to finish the visit.

Not too big but the service is great. None of the placards are in English but this is not a penalty. They have an app available to use that gives you translations in English anyway. Other than that, amazing experience showing the struggles of Japanese civilians during World War II.

Great museum on Japanese history. There are lots of kids in school groups but this is a great place for adults also. Architecture is very interesting in the outer lobby. And next-door is a huge lotus pond

●Hours 09:30 to 17:30 (admission until 17:00) ●Admission Free ●Closed Mondays ●If Monday falls on a public holiday, the following day ●Open on Mondays during summer break season The year end and New Year holidays (December 28 to January 4) When Shinjuku Sumitomo Building is closed ●Access 33rd floor, Shinjuku Sumitomo Building 2-6-1, Nishi-Shinjuku, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo 163-0233

Great museum for those who like warfare history and weapons.

Couldn't hold my tears when I was here. Such a nice place to keep those memories alive and remembered. Worth a visit whether you're a history enthusiast or not.

Many bilingual signs helps everybody enjoy this wonderful and poignant exhibit.

We can see everyday life of citizens, soldiers, before and after ww2

Very nicely laid out. They had an app where we could follow along in English to fully understand. The staff was very helpful.

Focuses on the life of Japanese people before, during and after world war II. Didn't go into any detail about the war itself. Interesting descriptions in English and there was also a photo exhibition on level 2 when we visited which appeared to have photos from the collection of an American family after the war. Haven't been to other war museums in Japan to contrast

This was a surprising find after touring the Imperial Palace and surrounding gardens and walking out of lunch nearby. It had great information with a free English audio guide, though descriptions on individual items are not translated. It was still a good amount of information, well maintained and presented, and quite moving to see the Japanese perspective and impacts on the lives of the people.

If you cannot read Japanese, not necessary to visit this museum since almost %95 of information signs are in Japanese language. The museum is not tourist friendly enough.

Very cool to see how Japan was pre-WWII and post-WWII.

Has two levels with all the different items during the Showa period. Great place if you want to kill time for an hour or two but no more than that. I was able to enjoy looking at all the things comfortably in an hour. Very informative though mostly everything was in Japanese. I really enjoyed watching the showa period videos at all the different booths.