" Am I a butterfly? "

The Azalea here is in full bloom now. It reminds me of the sad story of  Michiko Ishida ( 82) who went  through the WW2 in Tokyo.

In April 1944 , she became a secondary school  student .Before the  entrance she was thrilled to wear a pleated skirt for her yearning, but she could not..Rather,all the students  had additional  farmwork in the golf course where  they had  teared the lawn  to plant potatoes .They returned  back home after  hearing the red alert of  the air raid which had  sounded..She felt  the danger so she did not want to be far way from her mother.In January 1945, the US air raids attacked more often. In March the down town of Tokyo was  heavily destroyed by the bombs..1 bomb was  dropped just 100 m away  from her house so she was sent to the Tohoku region to evacuate. At the new school she was able to study during these rainy days as they had to  work either at the apples farms or  mow grass at the farm where the farmers had been sent to the front..Sadly, her 9 months old little brother passed away  in a blackout as her mother could not  feed  him and he could not take enough  food made from rice flour,too.When the war ended in August , she was happy with the bright atmosphere as she did not have to cover the cloth over the light any more.A shortage of food from during the war did not change for the better even though it had already ended 9 months ago  so she was always hungry.

It was  in May 1946 , Azalea was in bloom . After school ,she and her friends  strolled in the lovely Japanese garden.She picked up one big flower and sucked its roots ..It was so sweet!They continued to  pick them up and chatted there ..They really enjoyed the sweetness which they all missed for long in warm  and peaceful spring sun shine....Finally, they found  all the Aselea flowers  dropped on the ground..and they only saw fresh green leaves !! She thought herself 'Am I a butterfly?'
She also mentioned about Butterfly Effect in her contribution about her experience in WW2 that even the smallest movement by a buttterfly might raise up a wave and  the wave might draw  a big wave to change a barometric  diagram.. and the world. Actually,she feels that  she was a bad butterfly 70 years ago just eating all the nectar ; selfishly,  but now she wants to be a good one among the troop of butterflies which may  protect this  beautiful planet. She wishes that the ninth article of the Constitution might be chosen by each and  every  country.

                                                                                 May 2  2013 in Kyoto

Late April in Kamakura 

 

 

                                                   ' Our life story which we would like to share with you'
                                                                ' (Kamakura and the War)
                                          This booklet was distrubuted to all the schools in Kamakura .

 Ms Michiko is having  activity to protect lovely nature of Kamakura.