A Catchy Melody

“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?