In 1868, Edo changed its name to Tokyo. In the "Old and new Tokyo" zone, the old Japanese daily nessecities collected by an American zoologist Edward S. Morse are interesting. He came to Japan in 1877 and is well-known to us as the discoverer of the Oomori shell mound. He was surprised to find cheap daily goods made with Japanese craftsmanship, and started collecting them. He kept a journal while staying in Japan (published as "Japan day by day" in 1917), and it tells us how much he liked Japan and the people. We wish a copy to be displayed in this section.

　In the "World War II" zone, the display of some stuffed animals may seem out of place among those burnt telepoles or bent steel frames caused by the Tokyo Air Raid in 1945. But they are there to commemorate the 27 zoo animals killed with poison in August and September 1943. Why?, because the governor of Tokyo at that time (Shigeo Oodate by name) was afraid that if an expected air raid should destroy the zoo, the fierce animals such as lions and elephants might get free and attack people.

The burnt electric pole	The animals which killed with poison	The tusk of the starved elephant John.

　The explanation for the tusk reads:
　"There were three elephants kept then in the Ueno Zoo named John (male), Tonky and Wang Lee (females). Tonky was everybody's favorite because it was cute, clever, well-tamed and did many tricks. And since Tonky didn't eat any poisoned potato given, they decided to kill it by starving. Then it started doing tricks whenever the keeper appeared.
After all, John died on August 29, 18 days after they stopped feeding, while Wang Lee and Tonky lived a little longer untill September 11 and 23 (accordingly), for the keeper coudn't help feeding occasionally against the order. "
Soon after the War, all the Japanese elementary students who heard this sad story on the radio cried. It makes us cry now and surely will do in the future.



　In the "After War" zone, we can watch Riki-Dozan (a Japanese pro-wrestler born in Korea) beating American wrestlers on the TV set which used to be placed on the street for public showing around 50 years ago. Of couse its picture tube and other electronic parts have been replaced with new high-tech ones, and only the cabinet is 50 years old.

	A woman guide seen behind Muga.	A security guard who might have been watching us. This is a shot taken when we turned around near the exit.	Some people may be able to daydream about being "a spy from the cold country" in a situation like this. But we have to make sure that we are not complaining about the Museum staff.

Bad news!, we couldn't find those stuffed animals in the next time we visited it in January 2001. They only said the exhibition was a subject to change, so ask the museum for the newest information.
If you want to make believe that you are a spy, you should visit it on weekdays because the museum is too crowded on weekends to feel like being eyed and tailed anytime anywhere.

 Some typical streets and houses of Fukagawa in theEdo period have been reproduced in the museum. English brochure is prepared.