Sino-Japanese War
1937–1945
This poem was set to music by my daughter, Karuna. We visited Nanjing in September 2012 and Karuna sang this song to some audience members at the Anti-Japanese War Museum in Nanjing where some of my paintings on the Sino-Japanese War were exhibited.
A very, very dark path we took
invading the ancestral land of our civilization.
My eternal regret.
A very, very wrong action we took
attacking the friends in our civilization.
My eternal sorrow.
A very, very horrifying action we took
slaughtering millions of people in our civilization.
My eternal guilt.
A very, very devastating action we took
raping thousands and thousands of women in our civilization.
My eternal shame.
A child in Japan of age four to eleven
in the period of unprecedented atrocities—
How can I face it?
How can I atone?
How can I make it up?