{"id":3559,"date":"2025-07-11T07:43:54","date_gmt":"2025-07-11T14:43:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/musicalmakiko.com\/en\/?p=3559"},"modified":"2025-07-11T07:57:31","modified_gmt":"2025-07-11T14:57:31","slug":"on-the-80th-summer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/musicalmakiko.com\/en\/healing-power-of-music\/3559","title":{"rendered":"On the 80th Summer"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I was about seven years old, when I read the picture book, \u201cHiroshima no Pika<\/a>,\u201d by Maruki Toshi. The word pika<\/em> is a Japanese onomatopoeia for flashing light. It came to refer to how the Hibakushas experienced the atomic bombs. The book follows 7-year-old Mii, and her parents. The watercolor illustrations of the family experiences in the aftermath of Pika<\/em> shook my world. The book concluded with Mii\u2019s mother\u2019s words, and the authors\u2019 message to the children worldwide. Now a single parent, picking out pieces of glass still embedded in her daughter\u2019s scalp years later, she says \u201c\u30d4\u30ab\u306f\u3001\u3072\u3068\u304c\u304a\u3068\u3055\u306b\u3083\u3001\u304a\u3061\u3066\u3053\u3093\u3002Pikas only fall when men drop them.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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My grandfather was a Hibakusha<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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The father of the atomic bomb<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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\u201c\u307f\u305a\u3001\u307f\u305a\u2026Water, water\u2026\u201c<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In every depiction of the aftermaths of the atomic bombs, the dying people are begging for water. Water is symbolic. It is healing, life itself. It\u2019s what divides us, but also what connects us. This summer, as we commemorate the 80th<\/sup> anniversaries of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, I want to offer two pieces about water as a part of my prayer for world peace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first piece is \u201cTroubled Water<\/a>,\u201d a symphonically conceived piano piece by Margaret Bonds (1913-1972). It is based on an African-American spiritual \u201cWade in the Water,\u201d believed to be one of the Songs of the Underground Railroad that conveyed coded information to help the escaping enslaved people. The reasons why Bonds titled the piece \u201cTroubled Water\u201d at the height of the civil rights movement, in 1967, reminds us how the road to social justice is never linear, or over. Peace, like justice, is not to be taken for granted, but always to insist on, and work towards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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