[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index ][Thread Index ]

Daw Suu's Letter from Burma #23



Mainichi Daily News, Monday, April 29, 1996

KEEPING INNOCENT SONGS FROM BECOMING WAR CHANTS

"Old Songs"

Letter from Burma (No. 23) by Aung San Suu Kyi

	Some days ago two young Japanese women studying Burmese at Osaka University
of Foreign Studies came to see me at a very opportune time.  U Kyi Maung and
I wanted help in translating a couple of Japanese songs.  A few weeks ago U
Kyi Maung had spoken at one of our weekend public meetings about these songs
which he had learnt as a young soldier.  Many of the songs of the armed
forces of Burma date back to the days of World War II and have Burmese
lyrics put to Japanese tunes.  Thus visitors from Japan who watch Burmese
television today hear sounds associated with the days of militarist fascism
and tend to ask with surprise and/or derision: "Why do you play these old
fascist songs in your country?"
	U Kyi Maung explained that there was nothing intrinsically fascist about
the original Japanese words of some of the songs and mentioned two which are
well known in their Burmese versions.  As I expressed an interest in
learning more about such songs, he acquired from an old friend of his
military academy days a couple of sheets of paper on which were printed, in
prewar-style Japanese, a number of the songs he had been taught as a young
solider.
	With the help of the two young Japanese women we translated hesitatingly,
the words of a song entitled /Hohei no uta/ [Infantry's tune]:
	"The color on my neckband is that of the blossom of the many-branched sakura
	As the flowers of Yoshino drop in the wind,
	Those born as sons of Yamato
	Fall courageously on the frontline like flowers.
	The gun that measures one /shaku/ is no weapon.
	A remnant of sword can achieve nothing.
	It is the spirit of Yamato, instilled repeatedly
	Beyond the realms of memory
	Since over two thousand years ago,
	That keeps two hundred thousand soldiers
	In seventy stations,
	Defending their flag,
	Never surrendering their position,
	Not even in their dreams."
	In another song, /Aiba Shingun Ka/ [March for My Lovely Horse]:
	"How long ago is it since I left my country
	Prepared to die together with this horse?
	Old horse, are you feeling sleepy?
	The reins I hold are as a vein that
	Links your blood to mine."

	What, U Kyi Maung queried, is there about such words that is fascist or
even particularly militaristic?  An evocation of tender cherry blossoms, an
emphasis on the spirit rather than on weapons, a sentimental ditty about an
old horse.  But because these songs were sung repeatedly as the Japanese
army marched across Asia in obedience to the commands a fascist military
government, leaving devastation in its wake, the very tunes have come to be
regarded as inauspicious sounds reverberating with the army; his discipline,
self-sacrifice and love of nature, were wiped out by the deeds he was made
to perform at the behest of leaders who had swept aside liberal values and
chosen the way of military aggression to gain their ends, indifferent to the
suffering of others.
	March 27, 1945 was the day when the people of Burma rose up in resistance
against fascism.  The National League for Democracy (NLD) commemorated
Fascist Resistance Day this year with a lecture at which several people
spoke of their personal experiences during the resistance movement.  The
first speaker was Bohmu Aung, a hale octogenarian who had been one the
Thirty Comrades, a group of young men led by my father who received military
training from the Japanese army on Hainan Island in 1941.  Then U Tin U and
U Maung Maung Gyi, another member of the NLD, spoke of events during the
early months of 1945 from the point of view of those who were at the time
merely junior officers in the Burmese armed forces.  The last two speakers
were a widely respected literary couple, U Khin Maung Latt and Daw Khin Myo
Chit.  Their modest and witty recollections of the part they as civilians
had played in the resistance movement were particularly valuable.  It
reminded us of the crucial contribution made by the ordinary citizens of
Burma toward the success of the struggle to free our country from both
fascist domination and colonial rule.  There are some things that we should
not forget.
	It is the love of ordinary people, in Burma, in Japan or anywhere else in
the world, for justice and peace and freedom that is our surest defense
against the forces of unreason and extremism that turn innocent songs into
threatening chants of war.

* * *

This article is one of yearlong series of letters, the Japanese translation
of which appears in the Mainichi Shimbun the same day, or the previous day
in some areas.