VSA9 General Meeting 2007- Activities for Children

The 2007 Annual General Meeting of the Vancouver Save Article 9, or VSA9 was held on February 17th in Burnaby, BC.


There a picture book called 'Yurushi no Hana', or in English, 'Flower of Forgiveness' was introduced by Sayuri Ishimoto, as shown in the photo. It is a book related to the Miracle of Fushun workshop facilitated by Tatsuo Kage last November - how 1,000 Japanese POWs at the Fushun war criminal camp were transformed from 'devils' to 'humans,' by the humane treatment that they received at the camp. They came to repent their war crimes and became peace activists upon returning to Japan. One of the POWs was given some seeds of morning glory by a prison guard, who told him to go back to Japan to have a happy family life, and never to return to China with weapons. The former soldier and his wife grew these flowers, and they are still blooming today, 50 years after he came back from Fushun.


This book was published by this group that was established to maintain the 'Miracle of Fushun,' or 'Uketsugu Kai.' The book is in Japanese and Chinese, and they are working on the English and Korean translation right now. To order a copy in Japan, contact the Kyushu chapter of 'Uketsugu Kai' (Phone 090-9494-3698 Mr. Yasuoka) . Mr. Kage is accepting orders in Canada - if you would like to order, phone Mr. Kage 604-432-9017 or email VSA9 info@vsa9.com


Also at this meeting, Dunc Shields, a professional storyteller and I presented a story called 'My Enemy'(right photo by Tatsuo Kage). It is a story about this big blue shark and this tiny little octopus. The tiny octopus was told by his mother that the shark was the enemy. Neither the shark nor the octopus knew what enemy was, so they decided to become enemies together and had the most enjoyable play time together. Dunc told the story in English and I in Japanese, and we also sang Pete Seeger's Where Have All the Flower's Gone? with a little variation.


Where have all the flowers gone? Long time passing
Where have all the flowers gone? Long time ago
Where have all the children gone? Gone to soldiering, everyone
When will we ever learn?
When will we ever learn?


In Japanese,


花はどこへ行った　時の彼方へ
花はどこへ行った　季節は過ぎて
子どもたちはどこだ　みんな戦場に行った
いつ　私たちは　目が覚めるのか
いつになったら　目が覚めるのか


Thanks Dunc for your kind guidance to an amateur like me. I truly enjoyed the experience!


Love and peace,


Satoko