As people all around the world are aware, twenty years ago on March 11, 2011, an earthquake struck off the coast of Japan, triggering a tsunami that claimed the lives of tens of thousands of residents of the Tohoku region in the northeastern part of the country, which in turn caused a partial meltdown of one of the reactors of the Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant in Fukushima Prefecture. The devastation and tragedy were well documented, as were the resiliency and gaman (perseverance) of the communities most impacted by the triple disaster (known as 3.11 in Japan, based on the date.)
Voices from Japan: Perspectives on Disaster and Hope was an exhibition of poetry and photographs stemming from 3.11 that was held first in New York City and then at Colorado College in Colorado Springs. Tanka poems (which total 31 syllables across five lines in a 5-7-5-7-7 pattern) have traditionally been a form of emotional and artistic expression in Japanese culture, since before the time of the Man’yoshu, a poetry anthology compiled in the mid-eighth century. To this day, newspapers across Japan feature a weekly poetry column, and following the disaster, these columns in various newspapers served as a way to process, memorialize, and move through the trauma experienced by so many Japanese people near and far. Readers submitted thousands of poems reflecting on their experiences and emotions following the disaster and professional poets selected which poems would run in the newspapers. Isao Tsujimoto, the project director for Voices from Japan, along with his collaborator Kyoko Tsujimoto and three scholars of Japanese literature, Laurel Rasplica Rodd (professor emeritus of Japanese at CU Boulder and former director of the Center for Asian Studies), Joan Ericson (professor of Japanese at Colorado College), and Amy V. Heinrich (former director of the C. V. Starr East Asian Library at Columbia University) selected and translated 100 tanka for the project. Subsequently, Kawaranai Sora: Nakinagara Warainagara (The Sky Unchanged: Tears and Smiles) was published by Kodansha Publishing in Tokyo.
The following tanka are a small sampling of the voices presented in the project and represent some responses to the disaster that provide signs of hope and healing through the pain. As the world’s attention turns once again to Japan during the postponed Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, we encourage you to consider these expressions of sorrow, grief, healing, and growth. The people of Tohoku are still working to overcome the 3.11 disaster, but we can all share in bearing witness to the trauma and join in remembering and memorializing those who were lost and harmed as Japan and the people of the region look toward recovery and healing. And hopefully these poems will serve as inspiration and solace as we all move through our own personal traumas, including the global COVID-19 pandemic and the uptick in racist anti-Asian sentiments in the U.S. over the past several months.
May we all process trauma and heartache with as much grace as these poets.
the sky I gaze at
from near my window
is the Fukushima sky
that is unchanged
from how it looked last week
Rieko Hatakeyama, Fukushima, March 2011
praying that my
friend's name is not there,
I search the names
in the newspaper column
listing the victims
Satoshi Ito, Niigata, April 2011
to the mother who
birthed her baby
in the midst of the earthquake
I want to deliver
some nice hot stew
Wako Matsuda, Toyama, April 2011
one who is able
to respond calmly
to a rude query
is a person whose father and mother
have been washed away by the waves
Kimiko Kawano, Gunma, April 2011
because I have to
go on living
even on the day
of the atomic explosion
I am polishing rice
Toko Mihara, Fukushima, April 2011
still, after all,
spring has come again—
dimly shrouded
blossoms of Fukushima:
plum, peach, cherry
Toko Mihara, Fukushima, May 2011
somehow or other
everyone has become
kindhearted
on the crowded streets
as the aftershocks continue
Mikio Fukuhara, Miyagi, May 2011
wiping away the mud
of the sea with a soft brush
to keep from ruining
the smiling faces
in the photograph
Atsuko Kobayashi, Saitama, September 2011
the full moon
climbs up
over the mountain of rubble
like a silent
requiem
Saburo Shinohara, Shizuoka, October 2011
you know, it’s true…but
the Fukushima rice,
peaches, apples,
pears, persimmons, vegetables,
and people
are still around
Toko Mihara, Fukushima, January 2012
the first time
for me to receive
so many guests
at my temporary dwelling—
like family
Nobuko Kato, Iwate, December 2012
I take comfort in the flowers
of the eggplants
and the cucumbers I raise
here in my refuge from
the nuclear disaster
Keiko Hangui, Fukushima, September 2013