Some years ago, when I was very new to Daily Kos, I wrote a Top Comments diary that remains one of the ones I feel best about. brillig’s terrific diary last night brought it to mind again, so I thought it time to resuscitate it.
I am writing in response to the fine Mother’s Day Proclamation brillig cited in last night’s diary. The Proclamation was originally written by Julia Ward Howe, in 1870. I am not providing the text of the Proclamation, nor links to Julia Ward Howe’s bio or further info on the Proclamation, itself. They are linked in brillig’s diary. Please refer to those links!
I will summarize, however. In short, the Proclamation is a call to (anything-but) arms for women and mothers to unite and call for world peace. I think with great dismay of the millions of human beings who have been killed in the many years since then.
Peace is one of the strongest themes and motivations in my life. It is addressed in my permanent sig line on Daily Kos (soon to be eliminated, I realize), with Jonathan Larson’s great quotation and its insights into peace. So in that spirit, here is what I wrote for Top Comments back in 2006. With light edits, with the original author’s consent (since that was me).
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When I was young my parents gave me a complete Sherlock Holmes anthology. All Holmes stories in a single enormous volume. Oh the delighted hours I spent in the pages of that book! I don’t often think of it much anymore since it seems to have so little to do with most of my modern day “issues.” But there is an exchange between Holmes and Dr. Watson that I wanted to mention. (This comes from “The Adventure of the Cardboard Box,” though there is an almost identical incident in another Holmes story.)
Finding that Holmes was too absorbed for conversation I had tossed aside the barren paper, and leaning back in my chair I fell into a brown study.
Suddenly my companion's voice broke in upon my thoughts:
"You are right, Watson," said he. "It does seem a most preposterous way of settling a dispute."
"Most preposterous!" I exclaimed, and then suddenly realizing how he had echoed the inmost thought of my soul, I sat up in my chair and stared at him in blank amazement.
Holmes had used his intimate knowledge of his friend to analyze a seemingly imperceptible thought process in which Watson relived the futility of war, and faithfully expressed those thoughts in his facial expressions, mannerisms and in the energy he projected during the episode.
This diary serves as my public engagement with a song written and performed by Small Potatoes, about love, war and remembering. To me the song is simultaneously personal and political, intensely so.
For background, my siblings and I had been attending a series of folk music concerts. I cherished the experiences I had listening to that music. I found it exciting because it was my broadest exposure to fresh new music since I went to college. In many ways, this music is fresher than that was, because there is nothing mass-market about it. In a very real sense it is music “grown locally,” even if where it was grown is not immediately next door. One artist (I think it was Cosy Sheridan, best I can recall) one night thanked us for coming out, saying she realized that marketing companies had spent hundreds of millions of dollars to keep us languishing in front of our television sets. Listening to and enjoying this folk music has been one of the most soul-nourishing things I have done in those years, right up there with blogging!
The song is called 1000 Candles, 1000 Cranes. It was linked through a RealMedia version posted on Small Potatoes website in the original diary, but tonight it may be viewed to greater effect in this (and several other available videos there) YouTube video.
It will take about five minutes to play (5:31), but I think you will be well rewarded for the time. And I hope with all my heart you will take that time. I cried when I first heard it performed live.
Here are the lyrics, so feel free to read along as you listen! (I transcribed these, since I could not find them published online at that time. They do belong to and were composed by Rich Prezioso of Small Potatoes.)
My grandmother had three sons.
She dreamed about her children's children.
But then came 1941,
Only one son would see the war end.
Joseph died marching in Bataan,
Frank on the sands of Iwo Jima.
The day the bomb destroyed Japan,
She thanked God and Harry Truman.
She blamed the godless Japanese
For having crushed her sweetest dreams.
One thousand candles for my sons,
Every day I will remember.
In Illinois far from her past,
Ms. Nakamura still remembers.
She was six when she saw the flash
That turned the world to smoke and ashes.
Her mother taught her daughter well.
Run from the fire to the river.
There she found a living hell,
But not a mother or a father.
Though she survived with just a scrape,
Her family vanished into space.
One thousand suns, a thousand cranes,
Every day I will remember.
My grandmother had three sons,
She never dreamed she'd have a daughter.
But at the age of 81,
She met a nurse named Nakamura.
And it was a question only meant
To make some talk and pass the hours,
About a picture by the bed,
A photograph of two young soldiers.
They triggered anger stored for years,
Slowly melted into tears
One thousand candles, a thousand cranes,
Every day I will remember.
I've a picture in my mind
Of two women slowly walking.
August 6, 1985,
Walking to church to light a candle.
And they once asked me to explain
Why grown men play such foolish games.
One thousand candles, a thousand cranes,
Every day I will remember.
Let’s dig in!
I have never communicated with Rich Prezioso (the lead guitarist, composer and singer in this wonderful two piece band, with Jacquie Manning) about this song, but it screams to me as a song directly from his life. I think the grandmother is in fact his grandmother, and the nameless son who survived the war his father. The song juxtaposes, for me, in a remarkable way, the war experiences of two female non-combatants in different countries.
His grandmother’s sons went off to war, two of the three died. She reacted with thankfulness when Hiroshima and Nagasaki were bombed, thanking both God and Harry Truman for the act. Of course, I am sure she had no sense of the magnitude of the horror and devastation those bombs caused (who could?!); little sense of the suffering wrought by them. She was deeply consumed in her tunnel of grief and pain. Even human animals may lash out when they are in terrific pain.
(Photo from U.S. National Archives, Still Pictures Branch, Subject Files, "Atomic Bomb")
Marching in Bataan suggests Joseph was captured and died in or about 1942 while marching in captivity. The fighting on Iwo Jima was in Feb./March of 1945, short months before the bombing of Hiroshima.
To me the idea of the “godless Japanese” is important because of the human propensity to demonize those we perceive as enemies. Do we not all do this to some extent?
(Picture from Wickedsunshine.com, photographer/photoshopper not cited.)
Within the context of the song there is no mention of similar animosity or venom on the part of Ms. Nakamura. Additional details of her experiences are not provided, but it is very possible that, prior to her relocation to the United States, whenever that happened, she would have belonged to the ranks of the hibakusha, a term used to describe victims of the bombings. They were often stigmatized and shunned because of fear of the consequences of the bombing.
The United States bombed her home and killed her family, yet she moved here for some reason, and apparently nurtured no hatred or lust for revenge. Remarkable.
Late in life Ms. Nakamura and Rich’s grandmother came together, and a picture of his grandmom’s long lost but never forgotten sons led to a final release of the hatred and residual anger held for those 40 years. On the 40th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima the two women walk together to a church to light a candle. The song does not say Ms. Nakamura was in Hiroshima, but they did light a candle on the anniversary of the Hiroshima bombing. (Rivers pass both cities, so the river mention in the song provides no insight.)
Perhaps the closest parallel to the hibakusha in this country are AIDs victims. (If you would like to read more about hikabusha, this site seems a good place to read.)
In our society, candles are one of the clearest expressions of peace and of the will to peace.
In Japan origami cranes fulfill a similar role.
Cranes (or tsuru, in Japanese) are possibly one of the oldest birds on earth and they have a long history in Japanese traditions and legends. The crane is among the most majestic of all cranes. Pure white with a magnificent red-crest.
Legend holds that the crane lives for a thousand years. In Japanese, Chinese and Korean tradition, cranes stand for peace and long life. Folded white paper origami cranes are often placed at memorial parks to symbolize peace. Folded paper cranes are also given to ill people to wish them a quick recovery. It is said that 1000 folded paper origami cranes make a wish come true.
I particularly like the cranes because of the time (and soul) investment they represent. Even Japanese origami experts cannot make 1,000 cranes very fast. Of course, it could take some time to light 1,000 candles, too!
One of the most fascinating things in the song, to me, is the subtle transposition which is described in the last stanza of the song:
And they once asked me to explain
Why grown men play such foolish games.
Originally, in his grandmother's view, the war was the fault of the "godless Japanese." Then it became the fault of “men” playing such foolish games. It is a certainty that men play such foolish games, but men aren't solely to blame. All of human society is, to the degree it supports and sanctions war as legitimate human "expression." Rich's grandmom was very quick to thank God and Harry Truman for bombing Japan. Does anyone reading this diary really believe God wanted to see Ms. Nakamura's family vaporized? If she had a sense of what it involved, I doubt even Rich’s grandma would have.
Perhaps it is merely another preposterous dispute, as Holmes might say. (The word just isn’t strong enough, is it?!)
But, what if war itself were to be designated as the true adversary? After all, both sides in a war (or however many sides there are) seem to agree that war (or violence or extremely passionate antipathy) is the way to resolve it. In a sense they are both agreed, on the same exact side in ratifying the call to violence and distruction. And they respond almost identically to the stimuli. To expressing hatred and anger and lust for revenge through violent means. Even women not actively participating in the combat often do, as Rich’s grandmom did, in her applause for God and Harry Truman for the bombs. To me it seems clear that such energy and such endorsements throughout the society is why “men” play such foolish games. Because they feel it is a reasonable and legitimate path.
There was a fascinating original Star Trek episode on this subject. Episode 66: Day of the Dove. The Star Trek crew and an identical number of Klingons are isolated on the Enterprise. All hand phasers and modern weapons disappear, leaving the two groups to fight with swords and spears and hatchets. The injured are hauled away to sick bay, only to regrow arms or legs or whatever body parts were lopped off; the dead resuscitate and come back to fight more angry and more motivated than before. Eventually it occurs to Spock and Kirk that the battle is becoming more than a little bit artificial and contrived. They look around and discover an alien that feeds on powerful, violent emotion. Spock and Kirk realize that if the conflict continues much longer, the power of the hatred and blood-lust will grow so strong, they'll never be able to resist it. So they powwow with the Klingon commander and hostilities draw to a close.
For me the episode was very powerful because it illuminated the similarities of the warring parties. They had much more in common than they had differences. Most importantly, they ALL believed in the power of war to solve a dispute. Though you could clearly see that it no sooner approached a resolution than hot water stops boiling when you keep it on the flame. War is ever gratified and fed by participation in war. Bush and Saddam, Bush and bin Laden ... they all believe we can kill our way to a safer world. But we cannot.
That safety may be found in the healing and the closure found by Ms. Nakamura and Rich's grandmom in walking to church to light a candle. It may be found in their hearts, and in the hearts of any who understand that the ground zero in the War on war, is and will always be within us. What could not be possible if war were taken to be our actual adversary? If violence was? What could we achieve if conscious and intentional steps were taken to stamp it out (through never indulging and feeding it), as we might an adversary like smallpox or cancer?
We play the foolish games any time we indulge our passions for the purpose of harming other human beings. That is hard, because it places the responsibility for stopping war squarely on us, but it simultaneously offers us something remarkable: choice within our direct and immediate influence. We just need to remember this in times of pain and anguish. We just need to remember that pain and anguish do not subside by causing still more pain and anguish.
We just need to remember the power of candles and love and 1,000 origami cranes.
And finally, I don’t know if you will ever have occasion to meet any hikabusha in your lifetime, but if you do, would you please give them a hug?
And please give the moms and women in your lives a hug, too.
On to tonight’s comments!
Brillig's ObDisclaimer: The decision to publish each nomination lies with the evening's Diarist and/or Comment Formatter. My evenings at the helm, I try reeeeallllyy hard to publish everything without regard to content. I really do, even when I disagree personally with any given nomination. "TopCommentness" lies in the eyes of the nominator and of you, the reader - I leave the decision to you. I do not publish self-nominations (ie your own comments) and if I ruled the world, we'd all build community, supporting and uplifting instead of tearing our fellow Kossacks down.
From ozsea1:
This comment by NBBooks is worth a thoughful read. From Tasini's POTUS, On TPP, Don't Be A Coward, Come Out & Debate Openly (Elizabeth Warren Fires Back)
From belinda ridgewood:
this one by MargaretPOA!
From aoeu:
Top Comment from the Help Desk.
Note: It's dated the right date, and... well... we don't specifically SAY no, so... :)
From BeninSC:
I am submitting this comment by badscience for pointing out the fallacy in the practice of blaming Democrats when EVERYTHING does not go as we would wish. In Puddytat's fine diary about Wis. state Supreme Court. It's a hideous, cowardly trend that happens too often if it ever happens. I see a great deal of it in this red state.
Flagged comments (although always best to send them in directly so we don't miss them):
I figure any comment that gets "glad this double posted so I can rec it twice" deserves to be in Top comments. Thanks to Eileen B for the flag of this one by weezilgirl.
Top Mojo for yesterday, May 10th, first comments and tip jars excluded. Thank you
mik for the mojo magic! For those of you interested in How Top Mojo Works, please see his diary
FAQing Top Mojo.
1) He doesn't care about his critics by Dallasdoc +128
2) Very astute Krugman quote by Lysis +95
2) Because the oligarchs own both parties by Dallasdoc +95
4) Probably a lot more by AnnetteK +85
5) Mr. Carter by thanatokephaloides +81
6) Why do we have Democratic Presidents by hnichols +73
7) It would be a very helpful narrative for Clinton by Dallasdoc +67
8) Exactly -- it's all about American Empire by Dallasdoc +66
9) All my shoes were made here. by brooklynbadboy +65
10) A #sekritarmy Mother's Day present by kerflooey +64
11) Without 'buying American' by Kingsmeg +63
11) I suppose turnabout is fair play ;-) by slksfca +63
13) It's the poverty, stupid. by blue jersey mom +61
13) The underlying problem with suburbs by CwV +61
15) Oh Hai Whoknu! LOL! Playing By Rules Is Uphill... by leonard145b +56
15) true that, as they say by samsoneyes +56
17) Oh Hai Kossacks! Have Veery Happy Mothers Day! by leonard145b +55
18) Nice an' dry out here. by Horsefeathers +54
19) There is a contest between the two parties by Dallasdoc +52
19) Kittens update by Green Mountain Flatlander +52
21) Obama makes little attempt to hide by randomfacts +51
21) Yu shud leave dat snow an' rain behind, by Horsefeathers +51
21) I cringe when I see how my party by glitterscale +51
24) Exactly by Dallasdoc +50
24) OH My.... by leonard145b +50
26) Google is your friend Grabber. by brooklynbadboy +49
26) The party didn't get behind McGovern... by Meteor Blades +49
28) #sekritarmy. Soon. by carolanne +48
29) I really don't get the "split the party" thing by Jay Elias +47
29) Puerto Rico's population is larger than 22 states. by Denise Oliver Velez +47
29) True Story: I made one of these maps once by Spider Stumbled +47
Top Pictures will return, we promise. Just not in time for tonite. By all means post your favorite images in the comments!