A Catchy Melody

May 19, 2021

Published in Mainichi Shimbun
(Japan) on 9 May 2021
by (link to original link to original)

Translated from by Eric Stimson. Edited by Elizabeth Cosgriff.

“Tadpoles Are Baby Frogs” is a catchy melody. It is from “The Battle Hymn of the Republic,” a favorite song of the Union Army in the U.S. Civil War. Many people remember its lyrics, “Glory, glory, hallelujah.” The female poet who wrote it, Julia Ward Howe, was a pioneer in proposing Mother’s Day in America. After the war, she issued a “Mother’s Day Proclamation” that husbands and children must not be sent to the battlefields again. At around the same time, Ann Jarvis, a female social activist, worked to lower infant mortality and tend to the war wounded in a volunteer organization called the “Mother’s Day Work Club.” Her daughter Anna is considered the founder of Mother’s Day. She pressured the government in line with her mother’s final wish. In 1914, the second Sunday in May — close to her mother’s death day, May 9 — was made Mother’s Day.

Cindy Sheehan, the “Peace Mom” who lost her son in the Iraq War and demanded the American military’s withdrawal, was hailed for continuing the legacy of Mother’s Day by calling for peace through women’s activism, like Howe had. Raicho Hiratsuka, a trailblazer in the Japanese women’s movement who became involved in the peace movement after the war, also said “mothers are the force behind peace.” But suffering continues in conflict zones. Many children have become victims of the military crackdown after the military coup d’etat in Myanmar. In Afghanistan, a stage in the war on terror, one out of every 20 children loses their lives. In fact, this is 25 times the rate in Japan. After the war, Japan was blessed with peace. The COVID-19 Mother’s Day — why not make it an occasion to think again about the meaning of peace?

親しみやすいメロディーの「おたまじゃくしはカエルの子」。原曲は南北戦争の北軍愛唱歌「リパブリック賛歌」だ。「グローリー・グローリー・ハレルヤ」の歌詞に聞き覚えがある人も多いだろう。作詞した女性詩人、ジュリア・ウォード・ハウは米国で「母の日」を提唱した先駆者だ。戦争後、夫や子を二度と戦場に送らないと「母の日宣言」を発表した▲同時代に「母の日ワーククラブ」と名付けたボランティア組織で、乳児の死亡率低減や戦傷者救済に取り組んだ女性社会活動家がアン・ジャービスだ。その娘のアンナが「母の日」の創設者とされる。母の遺志を継いで政府を動かした。１９１４年にアンの命日（５月９日）に近い５月第２日曜が「母の日」と定められた▲イラク戦争で息子を亡くして米軍撤退を求め「反戦の母」と呼ばれたシンディ・シーハンさんは、平和を希求したハウ以来の女性の活動を「母の日の永続的な遺産」とたたえた▲日本の女性運動の草分けで、戦後は平和運動に取り組んだ平塚らいてうも「母こそ平和の力です」と訴えた。子を思う母の気持ちは世界共通だ▲だが、紛争地では今も受難が続く。軍事クーデターが起きたミャンマーでは多くの子どもが国軍の弾圧の犠牲になった。対テロ戦争の舞台となったアフガニスタンでは乳児が２０人に１人の割合で命を落としている。実に日本の２５倍だ▲日本は戦後、平和を享受してきた。コロナ禍の「母の日」。改めて平和の意義を考える機会にしてはどうだろう。

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