I used to work with this wonderful vocalist, Junko Ochi. She once started singing the tune, “Satokibi Batake” (Sugarcane Field). This is a song about how Okinawa People saw the war toward the end of WWII, intended to tell people the cruelty of the war, therefore the song is to wish for peace. We used to play this tune as a duet and the audience seemed to like it very much. I had nothing against it, except, there is a line that goes “The war has come from the sea (meaning U.S. of course), and that bothered me so much. For people lived in Okinawa, it is true that the war came from the sea, however, that is not how WWII started.
Japan took control over Manchuria and Korea, and at the end became a victim of Atomic Bomb. This does not mean Japan is only the victim of the war. The massacre in Nanjin where much more than 100.000 Chinese people were killed by Japanese, as among many examples. Not victim but real perpetrator. In Japanese school curriculum, this cruelty of Japanese is hardly discussed, so I will not be surprised if some of young Japanese people never heard of Nanjin Massacre.
My grandfather was a newspaper man sent to occupied Korea, and my mother was born there. She used tell me how badly Korean people were treated under the Japanese occupation. I used to have many Asian students while teaching in Berklee College, and we talked about WWII sometimes. Right now, we have so many Chinese students in the college I teach here in Japan, I sometimes bring up Nanjin Massacre just to be honest with them, and when I do, I immediately notice their strong feeling about this tragedy. A few years ago I became acquainted with this Filipino Jazz pianist whose grandfather is Elpido Quirino, a president at the end of WWII. He was so generous to pardon so many high ranking Japanese officers after the war.
So many things we do not know. The war has so many different faces.This tells us only one thing..
Wising for peace by bringing up only the war victims will never work. It might even create another enemy.
In war, everyone is a victim and at the same time, a perpetuator. Unless every country admits this 100%, a peace wish will be only a formality.
August for Japanese people is the month of Atomic Bomb memorial and also the memorial for the end of WWII.
BTW, coming back to my colleague, Junko Ochi, one night I called her and told her I don’t want to play that tune anymore, because of seemingly untruthful statement of the war. I hesitated a bit because I knew she really liked that duo we were doing, but I could not help telling her that.
Surprisingly, she accepted and we never played that song again. When audience requested that tune, she used to say, jokingly, “Oh, that tune? It is on vacation”.
What a beautiful person and a great artist!
She passed away more than 10 years ago, but her voice still remains.
I wish you could take sometime to listen to her!