WHAT IS WAR?

by Kurihara Sadako

Gordon W. Prange Collection, University of Maryland Libraries

Site Ed. note: Kurihara wrote this poem in October 1942 but did not attempt to publish it in wartime Japan. She resurrected the poem for a new postwar anthology, Kuroi Tamago (Black Eggs), but American censors suppressed the entire poem in July 1946.

I do not accept war’s cruelty.
In every war, no matter how beautifully dressed up,
I detect ugly, demonic intent.
And I abhor those blackhearted people
who, not involved directly themselves, constantly glorify war and fan its flames.
What is it that takes place
When people say “holy war,” “just war”?
Murder. Arson. Rape. Theft.
The women who can’t flee take off their skirts
before the enemy troops
and beg for mercy—do they not”
In fields where the grain rustles in the breeze,
sex-starved soldiers chase the women,
like demons on the loose.
At home they are good fathers, good brothers, good sons,
But in the hell of battle,
They lose all humanity
And rampage like wild beasts.

.........................

Reference

Kurihara Sadako. Black Eggs: Poems. Trans. Richard H. Minear. Ann Arbor, Michigan: University of Michigan, Center for Japanese Studies, 1994, 53.