The ten year-old girl came stalking over to
me and pointed. Her eyes were hot with
anger. “Your country did this to
us!” Her voice was shaking with
emotion. She waited for me to accept the
blame and apologise.
We were at the Maruki Gallery in Saitama,
where you can see the collected works of Iri Maruki, who was born in Hiroshima
and survived the atomic bombing. He
painted many works about the suffering of the victims, as well as other
paintings depicting the victims of the Japanese invasion of Asia and the
victims of war in many countries around the world.
The children were on a school excursion,
and I had been invited to accompany them.
The gallery was divided into two floors, with the paintings about
Hiroshima on one floor, and the paintings about other victims on the other
floor. I was just an assistant language
teacher and so did not have any specific responsibility for looking after a
group of children. I was able to walk
around freely and I saw both parts of the gallery.
I got the impression that the artist had a
strong sense of the horrible suffering caused by war and his view that in war
all countries were capable of committing acts of evil. He wanted people to understand the suffering
of the victims of the atomic bombing not because they were Japanese, but
because they were people.
The children did not have the chance to
walk around freely, and they were only shown the paintings about
Hiroshima. They then sat and listened to
a lecture about the sufferings of the Japanese.
Without seeing the other floor and only seeing victims and stories from
one country, the children came away with the impression that the only, or main,
victims of the war were Japanese. And at
least one girl was made so angry that she confronted me about it and expected
me to apologise.
I told her that I wasn’t American, that I
wasn’t born during the war, that my father wasn’t even born during the war,
that Japanese soldiers had killed people too, and that maybe she had missed the
point of the art exhibition. But I
didn’t say any more in case the school got angry at me for interfering with
their educational policy.
I’d like to think that the girl is now old
enough to have a wider view of both war and life. Or perhaps she spends her evenings posting
angry messages on Twitter. In any case,
I read a book about victims of another war in another country and remembered
going to the gallery. It is well worth
visiting if you have the chance. The
pictures will stay in the back of your mind for many years afterwards.
Vocabulary:
to stalk – to walk forcefully in a proud,
stiff or angry manner
to depict – to represent by a drawing,
painting or other art form
an excursion – a short trip or tour,
especially one for leisure
to interfere with - to get involved without invitation or
necessity
No comments:
Post a Comment