During this research project, I became aware that memorials often seemed to have a version of a particular kind of contemplative space and object: the round water sculpture. My observations never suggested that these attracted the attention of students. They did attract my attention. I even made a video putting sites in the US, Japan and Korea together. I include images here out of personal respect for the people whose lives and deaths were being memorialized.
The ritual chamber at the entrance to the Korean War Memorial Museum is peaceful, dark and free of contentious rhetoric.
In Tokyo there is a city memorial honoring those who died in the US air raids during the spring of 1945. I have never seen anyone else there but the more I learned about the consequences of those raids the sadder I became.
The Osaka Peace Museum did have a memorial which engaged the students. It listed the names of Osaka people who had died and also offered an opportunity for students to make ringing sounds with a variety of different pieces of equipment. They also enjoyed my photography.
US public memorials rare offer explicitly contemplative places but plaques sometimes speak to the need. 
In this case the reference is to remembrance in the form of an apology.
This last is a stone set into the ground outside the Ahn Chun Gun memorial museum in Seoul. The museum is quite crowded.
The stone sits quietly outside .
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