Tanka poems against the war

The weather forecast

It will be cloudy today

With a bomb or two

But kids will still find sunlight

And shower town with light drops

曇りのち時々爆弾降る町に

児らは光をすくって遊ぶ

Kumori nochi Tokidoki bakudan Furu machi ni

Ko-ra wa hikari wo Sukkutte asobu

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In a town full of

Debris left after an air raid

A cat is crouching

Alone with his whiskers cut

Looking up to the full moon

髭切られうずくまりいる猫独り

瓦礫の街の月を見ている

Hige kirare Uzukumari iru Neko hitori

Gareki no machi no Tsuki wo mite iru

These poems were written 20 years ago thinking about Iraq and Afghanistan, but still same things have been happening here and there in the world. So sad.

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Yesterday, I watched on TV a friend journalist, Fumikazu Nishitani, reporting about landmines in Ukraine. He visited there in May, and I saw some tulips blooming in the battle fields.

I wrote the tanka poems below 20 years ago, thinking about Afghanistan. Why do the same things happen again and again on this tiny planet?

Red, white, pink, yellow

Millions of tulips have

Covered fields in spring

As landmines've become bulbs and

Burst into beautiful bloom

春の野に対人地雷の球根が

チューリップの花とりどり咲かす

Haru no no ni Taijin-jirai no Kyukonga

Churippu no hana Toridori sakasu

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True? or just a hoax?

In floods of information

Flushed by the media

A dog is chasing his tail

Going round and round and round

ほんとう？でたらめ？

メディアの流す情報に

犬もぐるぐるしっぽを追うよ

Honto? Detarame?

Media no nagasu Joho ni

Inu mo guruguru Shippo wo ou yo

Since the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster in 2011, I have been working in order to protect people, especially children, from radioactive exposure. Last week, the Special Rapporteur of the UN presented her final report for the fifty-third session of the UN Human Rights Council. I found the truth was finally told in the report after numerous hoaxes made by the Government of Japan and international organizations to enhance nuclear business.

I really appreciate her efforts for the truth.

You can read the report at: Visit to Japan Report of the Special Rapporteur on the human rights of internally displaced persons, Cecilia Jimenez-Damary

https://documents-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/G23/096/75/PDF/G2309675.pdf?OpenElement

Cecilia Jimenez-Damary at the press conference in 2022 on her visit to Japan

The tanka poems and drawings from "Flowers and Bombs: Stop the Violence of the War Now!" by Kaoru Kobashi

https://hanabaku.blogspot.com/