A museum is a place for emotions and actively engages in emotional work. The museum has been active in constructing nationalism and patriotism. However, since the memory boom, museums began to represent the past with personal stories and heritages that can rupture the nationalist narrative. In particular, museums tend to expand emotional exhibitions to represent the painful and traumatic past while actively accepting the paradigm shift of ‘emotional turn’.BR Some museum researchers and practitioners argue that museums should realize its social responsibility for social justice through emotional exhibition. They believe that emotional exhibitions can evoke visitors’ empathy and sympathy, which can be a driving force for changing visitors’ opinions on social problems.BR In this article, emotional exhibition techniques that represent the sensitive past, and empirical studies on visitors’ emotional responses and empathy were reviewed and analyzed. According to the studies, the majority of visitors to the museum have not not respond emotionally to emotional exhibitions, and even if they did, few experienced a fundamental change in their perspectives or opinions. However, there were a small number of visitors who engaged emotionally to past events or empathized with victims and changed their perspective or opinions. Teaching and learning in museums needs to be structured in such a way that, paying attention to those points, it challenges learners’ habituated cognitive and emotional responses to specific events or figures and provides opportunities for self-reflection on their perspectives and emotions.