Hiroshima-Nagasaki Haiku

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1. Japanese Fisherman Nuclear Winter

Aikichi
Kuboyama,
forty years of age
on May 9, 1954.
Chief radio operator
on the Lucky Dragon.
When the nuclear fallout
from the nuclear war test
contaminated
your humble ship
you were not so lucky.
Neither your parents, wife,
and your seven wonderful children
survivors of Hiroshima 9 years before
harshly convicted to life-long suffering
without the possibility of parole.
You were the first Japanese victim
to radioactively burn – and die
by virtue of imported H-Bomb tests
made in America, America First.
Our Father, Who art in heaven
hallowed be Thy Name;
Thy Kingdom come,
Thy will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven –
You prayed to be the last victim,
but it was not
to be,
Aikichi
Kuboyama,
brother friend

日本の漁師核冬

久保山
40

1954
59
フラジオオペレ

2. Hiroshima Boy Wins American Marathon

146, 000 people burnt down
in Hiroshima and 80, 000 in
Nagasaki during World War II

roughly half of the municipal BBQs
occurred on the first day, one inferno
was clearly not enough, to make the point

everything was flat, roughty toughty Tanaka
told the 'Boston Globe' newspaper
the day after he won the marathon

I saw roasted Japanese bodies floating in the water
and in the rubble still. Dirty water was gushing out
of broken pipes everywhere

some Hiroshima steakhouses had been roped off
by the police. In the big buildings, inside,
they were all gone with the wind

Some of the walls still stood, but they were cracked
and useless – like World Trade Center 9/11
everything had to be torn down

14-year-old Tanaka had witnessed
from a nearby village as an atomic bomb crippled
grandparent's city of Hiroshima on August 6, 1945

On April 19, 1951 Tanaka nicknamed the
'Atomic Boy' won the American Marathon
in Boston, Massachusetts

a Pyrrhic victory? Perhaps so
yet quite significant
as a landslide moral triumph

– Love trumps Hate

広島日

火災によって裁判

多く涙

Hiroshima-bi

Kasai ni yotte saiban

Ōku namida

3. Hiroshima day

Trial by fire

Many tears


長崎日

の空からの火

苦しむの

Nagasaki-bi

No sora kara no hi

Kurushimu no

4. Nagasaki day

Fire from the sky

Are you suffering?


5. The Poet's Calling

の心臓聞く

詩人が書くとき

同情をもって

動物が歌う

人生を尊重する

No shinzō kiku

Shijin ga kaku toki

Dōjō o motte

Dōbutsu ga utau

Jinsei o sonchō suru

Listen to your heart

When the poet writes

With sympathy

Animals sing

Respect life


6. Audacious Schoolgirls Of Hiroshima


You

who weep although you have no ducts for tears

who cry although you have no lips for words

who wish to clasp

although you have no skin to touch

You

limbs twitching, oozing blood and foul secretions

eyes all puffed-up slits of white

tatters of fearless underwear

your only clothing now

yet with no thought of shame

ah! How fresh and lovely you all were

a flash of time ago

when you were school girls, a flash ago

who could believe it now?

You

schoolgirls with courageous hope

do not be timid-silent, speak up

to fight against the adults all over the world

who are trying to bring about more nuclear war

spring out shouting with loud clear voices

hey you there!

hey how are you doing?

we could go see a War and Peace movie

your dare-devil round eyes shining

and open your death-or-glory arms

free to hug everyone, even air force pilots

give a reckless embrace that will bring back

tears of good to everyone's heart

then spring at them all over the world

shouting, We are the intrepid schoolgirls,

the heroic children of Hiroshima!

Footnote – Blending and quoting two classic poems from Sankichi Toge (1917–1953): An Atomic Survivor, (i) The Children Of Hiroshima and (ii) At The First Aid Station, July 15, 2017.


7. Human Dignity After Hiroshima


the survivors of Hiroshima

were erected by Kenzaburō Ōe

as a figure of human dignity

whether they choose suicide

or

perhaps more difficult

and more heroic

in the eyes of the author,

who raised a child

with mental disorder,

they have chosen

not to commit suicide

Footnote – Kenzaburō Ōe (1935–) is a Japanese writer and a major figure in contemporary Japanese literature. His novels deal with political, social and philosophical issues, including nuclear weapons, non-conformism, and existentialism. Ōe was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1994, July 15, 2017.

Michael Spangle – Michael Spangenthal – Violette Beaujant

– Ensemble Matsu Bashô Haiku –

Chicago – San Francisco – Carcassonne


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