WAR CLOSE UPby Kurihara Sadako—On hearing over the radio a simulation of the sounds of battle
Gordon W. Prange Collection, University of Maryland Libraries Site Ed. note: Kurihara engaged in self-censorship of the following poem in 1946. As she explained in her unexpurgated 1983 edition of Kuroi tamago (Black Eggs): "Prepublication censorship deleted the first eleven lines. Because that action cut off the opening of the poem, I did not include it in the 1946 edition." Incidentally, according to proof submitted to SCAP censors, the poem was written in May and not August of 1942. Translator Richard Minear further notes that the last line of Kurihara's poem, "Let me die by the side of my Sovereign," was derived from the end of a famous poem in Japan's first anthology, the Man'yōshū (Myriad of Leaves), 760 A.D. It had reappeared in a song frequently broadcast on wartime radio, "Umi yukaba" (If I Go Away to Sea).
Stirring bugles! Rousing martial music! Announcers reporting victory as if possessed, fanning, fanning the passions of battle! Masters of state magic appearing one after the other, adroitly spreading poisoned words to block all recourse to reason! artistic expression turned wholly into state magic! Our army advances, advances, advances toward the enemy: boots, rifles, bombs, cannon. The rumble of tanks moving forward. The sudden sinking of enemy ships. A radio broadcast simulating the sounds of battle. A hymn to war booming to Heaven, sung by pious men and women who worship this cruel idol called war. Ah, so mysterious that a puff addles even completely independent spirits— the narcotic of patriotism!! the sophistry of race!! On the beautiful islands and vast continents that lie scattered over the globe, great landholders soon appear and draw boundaries: from here to here—my country. They fight and increase their holdings or lose them. Driven by boundless greed, they make war again and again. They instill hatred in the people born there and drive them into battle. On high-sounding pretexts tailored to each occasion, they raise high the banners: Our case is just; Our war is holy. Justice becomes the password of thieves. They square their shoulders: “Annihilate The evil enemy And secure world peace.” They howl out: “Fight to the last man, the last woman even if it takes ten years, a hundred years.” Then the martial music of the magicians sound still louder, and fanatic bull-headed patriots roar and revel; completely bewitched, the people sing as one: “Let me die by the side of my sovereign!” --August 1942 ......................... ReferenceKurihara Sadako. Black Eggs: Poems. Trans. Richard H. Minear. Ann Arbor, Michigan: University of Michigan, Center for Japanese Studies, 1994, 49-50.
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