This was the first song I heard Fumon perform in July 1995. At the time, I couldn't understand Japanese, so I could only experience it as a musical performance. You can read about my impressions at the time here.
Nearly 30 years have passed since then, and I've come to understand Satsumabiwa a lot more. Some of the texts of the songs have challenged me a lot. You can read the background to the Himeyuri story and the challenges I faced here.
The Himeyuri Corps - A Tragedy
Written by Nagahama Nanjo 長浜南城
(Nagahama Haruji 長浜治二）
3-11-1900 - 27-4-1969
It is 1945, way south in Okinawa. The May rains fall incessantly. The march is endless, bogged down in knee-deep mud.
How the fortunes of war have turned! In field hospitals, young soldiers die one by one continuously, each leaving the world behind crying for his mother.
Two hundred and fifty Okinawan high school girls stand for their graduation ceremony in the school yard. They sing "Hotaru no hikari mado no yuki" together, but gnawing at their hearts is the fate of the young soldiers, little older than themselves.
The occasion for celebration is now gone!
Before they can grasp what is happening, they are marching in file to the front. Still in their school uniforms, their countenances, now under white hachimaki**, are severe, a corps of iron helmets in parade
They are silent, simply lost for words. What could anyone have said or done, it was an army order.
In the end, they find themselves driven onto Cape Kyan.
Friends collapse injured one moment, a corpse the next. How the girls longed to mourn them, but there was no way they could in this situation....
The fortresses on the island of Okinawa now suffer a mighty barrage. Warships rain shells in like hail. Enemy planes scream overhead and bombs fall from on high. There is nowhere to flee to, except the caves. Desperate to know how the battle goes, they look out to find the enemy troops have landed.
Outside the cave, they hear a voice, calling over and over through a mike in fluent Japanese for everyone to surrender. The students' exhaustion and all the fatigue of war breaks forth.
Clasping at their friends they burst into tears, wailing. Ah, the shortness of the flower of their youth lost in such pain and bitterness. All their hearts sundered at the senselessness of all around them. They are like nestlings separated from their mother, crying out in vain.
This is the limit of their hope. Some girls gripping their graduation certificates, join members of the Ushijima corps and in a final embrace, steeled nerves with steel blades, pierce each the other's heart through.†
The cave, dyed red, is still....
Leaning on their friends' shoulders they stumble through smoke from the bombs. Bleeding profusely, uniforms crimson, they cry unceasingly.
So filled with a desire to give all to their land in its need, they now watch over this cave,
Pure hearted, they end their seventeen years in Okinawa.
Destined to live in a time of ruthless war, these girls never saw the lives that awaited them. Even though the Himeyuri*** fell in Okinawa, their innocent and sweet fragrance remains forever.
*
a song written in Japanese to the melody of Auld Lang Syne sung traditionally at graduation ceremonies.
**
a white cloth headband usually with Chinese characters written onto it.
***
a pun on Himeyuri, the name of a kind of lily but also the name of the corps.
†
In my correspondence with the Himeyuri Peace Museum in Okinawa, I learned that the girls mutually taking each others' lives is not found in the testimony of the survivors. It appears to be either artistic license on the part of Nagahama or a corrupted source.
The Himeyuri Peace Museum was founded by survivors and presents their story before, during and after the battle, with witness testimony. It is dedicated to communicating the story of the Himeyuri and the necessity for peace to future generations.
A visit to the museum website is very worthwhile. In particular, I found the photograph of the students on the museum leaflet very moving. A copy of the leaflet can be found at this page.
終戦五十周年に当たり
謹しみて姫百合の塔に捧ぐ
哀史 姫百合部隊
作詞 長浜南城
節付 普門義則
時維昭和二十年 茲南端の沖縄は 降りつづきたる五月雨に ぬかるの道果てしなく 行軍意の如くならず 膝を没する如くなり
戦況われに利あらず 野戦病院のベッドには 若き兵士が次々に 母を呼びつつ倒れゆく いとも悲しき情報に 年頃同じ生徒等の 心を強くゆさぶりぬ 蛍の光窓の雪 沖縄高女の校庭に 総員二百五十名 卒業式は催され その喜びも束の間に 早や出陣の命くだり 白き鉢巻凛々しくも セイラー服に身を固め 隊伍堂々前線に 向いて進む鉄兜 只粛々と言葉なく 軍命なれば是非もなし されど部隊は南海の キャン岬に追いつめられ 傷つき倒る学友の 今は声なき死かばねを 弔ういとまあらばこそ 沖縄島の堅塁は 陸に海にはた空に 総攻撃の砲火を浴び 艦砲射撃雨あられ 敵機の群れは轟々と 爆音高く攻め来る 所詮逃れむ道はなし 防空壕に身をひそめ 戦機を伺う折しも折 敵兵遂に上陸し 壕の外より日本の 言葉巧み呼びかけて 降服せよ降服せよと繰り返し マイクを通し呼ぶ声に 張りつめし一気も打くだけ 友と抱きてさめざめと 声を限りと泣く様は 実に可憐なる乙女子の 花の命の短かきを 恨む如く悲しむが如く 親にはぐれしひな鳥が 母恋ひ慕う如くにて 無情をかこつ計りなり 今は是迄と意を決し まだ新しき一片の 卒業証書を抱きしめ 牛島部隊と諸共に 親しき友と刺しちがえ※ 防空壕を紅に 染めて空しくなりけり
友の肩にすがりて進む硝煙の道 血潮は制服をそめて紅涙繁し
報国の丹心孤塁を守る 純情十七年の生涯沖縄に散る
さだめ悲しき戦いの 時の流れ流されて 春をも待たで戦乱の さいはての島沖縄に 儚なく散りし姫百合の 香りは高く匂うらむ 香りは永く消えざらむ
※「意を決して友と刺し違えた」という表現がありますが、ひめゆり学徒隊の証言にはそのような事実はないと、ひめゆり平和祈念資料館の方に教えていただきました。
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