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【英訳】 VOX PIPULI, VOX DEI Lessons of war are memories to be treasured.
There is a song that became immortalized by not being sung when it was meant to be sung. Titled “Wakare no Uta” (Song of farewell), it was composed in spring 1945 in preparation for graduation ceremony for the Okinawa Shihan Gakko Joshibu (Okinawa teachers’ school for women) and the Okinawa Kenritsu Dai-ichi Kojo (No.1 Okinawa prefectural senior girls’ high school).
The lyrics went: “The joy of leaving the nest upon completing our studies/ Is also tinged with deep sorrow/ Good-bye, dearest friends/ until we meet again some day.”
Just before the graduation, about 30 percent of the students were shipped out to the front as nursing aides. At the ceremony held in the barracks at night, the song that was sung was not “Wakare no Ut” that the girls had practiced, but “Umi Yukaba” (Going out to sea), the military song that was often sung when sending soldiers off to the front.
Three days later, 180,000
U.S.
troops began landing on the main
island
of
Okinawa
.
In total, 222 girls known as “Himeyuri gakuto” (Star lily students) were mobilized. They were aged between 15 and 19. of that number, 123 were killed in battle or died by their own hands because they refused to be taken prisoner.
“Himeyuri”, a film composed of survivors’ testimonies, will open shortly in
Tokyo
. Director Shohei Shibata spent 13 yars recording the testimonies of 22 survivors.
I attended a preview. Against the backdrop of sun-drenched semi-tropical scenery, the women recount their harrowing experiences one after another, sometimes in an even and almost matter-of-cact tone, often struggling to get their words out. Deep sighs rose from the darkness of the preview room.
In one scene, Masako Arasaki stands facing the photos of her deceased classmates at the
Himeyuri
Peace
Museum
.
“Whenever I come here, all my smiling classmates are still 16 years old,” she says. “That’s my grandchild’s age. When it’s time for me to join them in the next world, I want to bring them lads of presents – stories of peace-time they didn’t live to hear,”
Three of the survivors who appear in Shibata’s film died before the film was completed.
I imagine some of the women must have wanted to forget the past and destroy their memories. But they had the courage to pur the pieces of memory together before the movie camera. I want to hold on to these precious pieces and make sure they get to the next generation.
- The Asahi Shimbun, May 10
⇒ドキュメンタリー映画「ひめゆり」のトップページはこちらから
⇒映画の作品概要はこちらから
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