On the other hand, some Japanese argue that Koreans and Chinese have vastly exaggerated the scale of the suffering and that in any case atrocities are simply an unfortunate part of any war.

''One cannot say that cutting off ears or noses was so atrocious by the standard of the time,'' read a plaque that stood in front of the Ear Mound in the 1960's. That was taken down, but it still angers Koreans that Toyotomi Hideyoshi, the Japanese leader who organized the invasion, is treated in Japan as a national hero because of his actions within Japan.

Over the last decade Japanese school textbooks have made enormous strides in recounting the brutality of the period honestly. Fifteen years ago, not a single textbook referred to the Ear Mound, but it is common in this year's textbooks, and so eventually this bit of history may become much better known in Japan.

''Now about half of all high-school history textbooks mention the Ear Mound,'' said Shigeo Shimoyama, an official of Jikkyo, a publishing company that in the mid-1980's became the first textbook company in Japan to include a reference to the mound. Mr. Shimoyama said that at that time the Education Ministry objected to the reference as ''too vivid'' and forced the publisher to tone it down and also give Hideyoshi credit for piously dedicating the Ear Mound so as to enshrine the spirits of the dead.

''That is such a uniquely deceptive Japanese logic to say that 'we enshrined the spirits after killing these people,' '' fumed Kum Byong Dong, a lecturer at a North Korea-affiliated university in Japan and the author of a book on the Ear Mound. ''The officials at the Education Ministry think the same way as Hideyoshi's people did 400 years ago.''

Koreans react to the Ear Mound in different ways.

When Park Chung Hee was dictator of South Korea in the 1970's, some of his officials urged that the Ear Mound be leveled because it was shameful for Koreans. Other Koreans have suggested that the mound be relocated to Korea to appease the spirits of the dead. But most say that the mound should stay in Japan as a reminder of past savagery, and in any case Japan treats the Ear Mound as a national landmark and would be unwilling to return it.

The Ear Mound is not mentioned in most guidebooks, and it attracts few Japanese or foreign tourists. But children in the Hiroshima public schools, who are particularly sensitive to war because of the atomic bombing there, are regularly bused to Kyoto to see the mound and ponder the suffering that Japan has inflicted on its neighbors.