A collection of partly burned historical documents named "Ichigayadai Shiryo" (Ichigayadai historical materials) is currently exhibited at the Center for Military History of the Defense Ministry's National Institute for Defense Studies.

It is believed that these documents were once stored at the Imperial Japanese Army's staff headquarters, which was located at the current site of the Ground Self-Defense Force's Camp Ichigaya in Tokyo. The documents have numerous scorch marks and include scraps showing parts of texts. They are raw materials from one big moment in history.

Around Aug. 15, 1945, huge amounts of official documents were burned by the government, the military and courts and municipal governments across the nation. The Ichigayadai documents were part of these records destined to be burned.

But they somehow survived the destruction and long remained lost in oblivion until they were accidentally discovered in 1996 by the Tokyo Metropolitan Archeological Center during an excavation of the site where the "kamiyashiki"--the Edo (Tokyo) residence of the "daimyo" feudal lord--of the former Owari Han (domain) was located.

The collection contains a wide range of important records, from documents showing that certain matters had obtained imperial sanction, draft memorials to the Emperor (Showa) and various telegrams.

Many texts are hard or impossible to read, but those legible offer detailed information about such topics as war situations in various battlefields, aerial attacks by enemy fighters, damage caused by the atomic bombings and public opinion trends.

Why were official documents destroyed all at once? The late former Justice Ministry Seisuke Okuno, who was a bureaucrat at the Home Ministry at that time, offered an answer in a 2015 interview with The Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper.

Since the Potsdam Declaration, which was issued by the United States, the United Kingdom and China in 1945 and set terms for Japan's surrender, mentioned "stern justice" to be meted out to all war criminals, Okuno said, the militarist government decided to "burn all documents that might be related to war criminals."

Okuno testified that he wrote an order of incineration. In other words, inconvenient truths were destroyed to allow military officers and political leaders to protect themselves and evade responsibility.

Five years ago, at the time of the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II, opposition lawmakers submitted written questions to the Cabinet asking about the process leading to the burning of official documents and the legal grounds for the decision.

In response, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's Cabinet formally decided on a written reply saying it is hard to offer clear answers to the questions, saying records necessary for determining the facts had not been found. The historical facts were buried into the darkness of denial.

Every country's history has both bright and dark sides. We can learn valuable lessons for the future by humbly facing both bright and dark chapters of our history.

Herein lies the importance of leaving accurate records of historical facts.

The lack of documents needed to examine the past and establish common views about history has hampered the efforts to bridge differences in views about the history between Japan and its neighbors and helped breed revisionist attempts to glorify prewar Japan.

Even under the postwar democratic system, this nation's political and bureaucratic institutions have been showing a deep-seated tendency to disrespect the importance of records.

Prior to the enforcement of the freedom of information law in April 2001, ministries and agencies scrambled to put many official documents in shredders, according to some witnesses.

Under the current Abe administration, which has been in power longer than any predecessor in the postwar period, there have been a series of scandals marked by questions about official records.

It has been disclosed, for instance, that important official documents concerning the dubious sale of state-owned land to a school operator linked to Abe's wife were falsified. The guest list of a much-criticized cherry blossom-viewing party hosted by Abe was destroyed.

There is good reason to doubt whether the government is keeping accurate and sufficient records of policy decisions and actions concerning the new coronavirus pandemic.

The public records management law defines official documents as "intellectual resources shared by the public that support the foundation of a healthy democracy."

It is the government's important responsibility to the people and history to keep, properly publish and pass on records of its decisions and actions.

The mistake committed 75 years ago must never be repeated again.

--The Asahi Shimbun, Aug. 16