Natural History of Destruction
破壊の博物誌
2015年12月20日日曜日
File#011: Paper Lantern
File#010: Kamakura Bridge
File#009: Utility Pole
2015年11月18日水曜日
File#008: Air-Raid Shelter II
File#007: Air-Raid Shelter I
台東区谷中の玉林寺にひっそりと残っている防空壕。墓石で作られ、 自らの死の恐怖から逃れるために避難した者が、 『私たちは沈黙の国民になった。 This is an air raid shelter that survived WWII in the Gyokurinji Buddhist Zen Temple at Taito Ward, Tokyo. It is well kept and miraculously intact because it is made of gravestones and was a little off-center from ground zero (Koto Ward, Sumida Ward) of the Tokyo Air Raid. It's located at the private graveyard of the temple, not open to the public right now. The shelter had been buried in the ground since the war ended, but Toshio Kosaka (66), a grave keeper at the temple, dug it up 19 years ago and has been maintaining it with a sense of pride since then. In a way, he is one of war history's memory keepers.
It is distressing to imagine that evacuees who wanted to escape from the fear of death were simultaneously surrounded and protected by the dead. But there was no other way, it was a matter of life and death. I wonder what people felt and whispered to each other in the cold, damp darkness during the raids. (Taito Ward, Tokyo. 2015.08.17)
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2015年10月18日日曜日
File#006: Sumida River
1945年3月10日の東京大空襲の日、
『人間の記憶は空気のながれや川底の沈殿物のなかに記号となって書きこまれる。積もって丘となった灰は、すくいあげられて生命が再構築されるのを待っている。』ーアン・マイクルズ著 黒原敏行訳『儚い光』から
The bank of Sumida River, on which many sought refuge from the March 10 Tokyo Air Raid firebombing. But the fire spread to the middle of the river and many were drowned, their bodies filling the river like floating firewood. It took many months to clear the river because the corpses had drifted downstream with the ebbing tide and then floated back up when the tide came in. Early last summer I met an elderly woman who had experienced and survived the Tokyo Air Raid on that river bank. She said that she always prayed to the dead whenever she crossed the river, even today. (Sumida Ward, Tokyo. 2014.02.15)
"Human memory is encoded in air currents and river sediment. Eskers of ash wait to be scooped up, lives reconstituted." - from "Fugitive Pieces" by Anne Michaels |
2015年10月17日土曜日
File#005: Kototoi Bridge
黒く焼け焦げた言問橋の基礎部分。1945年3月10日の東京大空襲から逃れるために多くの民間人
A burnt stone foundation of the Kototoi Bridge. On March 10, 1945, masses of civilians ran onto the Kototoi Bridge over the Sumida River from both shores in a panic to escape from the intense firebombing by B29s and heat wave. An estimated 7,000 people perished while stranded there and only about 40 people survived on the bridge. The bridge, soaked with ashes and body fluid, was so stained and blackened that this is still visible at its foundation today. (Sumida Ward, Tokyo. 2014.02.24)
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2015年10月15日木曜日
File#004: Chitose Bridge
川井満(82)さんは70年前の1945年3月10日未明、12歳の時、東京大空襲に被災。近くの千歳橋へ両親、兄弟姉妹と共に熱風と火の粉のなか避難した。父親は知り合いを探しに、その場を離れた。それから父親は行方不明になり、帰ってこなかった。橋の上には40~50人くらいの人がいたが、朝になると、ほとんどが焼死していた。生き残ったのは、川井さんと残りの家族を含め、わずかだった。 川井さんが家族と共に避難し父親と生き別れた、現在の千歳橋。下の竪川の幅は当時から変わっていないが、上には首都高速7号小松川線が戦後、建てられた。東京大空襲では約10万人の民間人が亡くなったとされるが、
『『“戦争犯罪”なんてものはない』彼は言った。『戦争自体が罪なんだ』』 − ブルース・チャトウィン著 北田絵里子訳 『ソングライン』から
In
the late evening of March 10th, 1945, Mitsuru Kawai (82) went through
bombardment by B-29s in the firebombing raids on Tokyo. He was 12 years
old and lived in Sumida Ward, Tokyo. He was evacuated to nearby Chitose
Bridge with his parents, sisters and brothers amid the intense heat wave. His
father didn't stay there because he decided to search for his friends. He never
returned, and has been missing ever since. On that bridge alone, there were
about 40-50 people seeking refuge. When Mitsuru woke up in the morning, most of
them were burnt to death except for a few, including his remaining family.
This is the current Chitose Bridge on Tatekawa River where
Mitsuru Kawai and his remaining family found refuge and survived from the
Tokyo Air Raid. The width of the river hasn't been changed, but Metropolitan
Expressway was constructed above the bridge after the war. In the Great Tokyo Air Raid alone, there were about
100,000 civilians killed, with about 20,000 still unidentified. (Sumida
Ward, Tokyo. 2015 5.16)
" 'There is no such thing as a war crime,' he said. 'War is the crime.' " - from "The Songlines" by Bruce Chatwin
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2015年10月6日火曜日
File#003: Guardian Lion-Dog
2015年9月29日火曜日
File#002: Brick Wall
1945年3月4日の谷中空襲の爪痕が残る旧谷中国民学校(
『労働が要請され、顔のない新たな現実が創造されるなかで、過去をふり返ることは当初から禁じられていた。再建は国民をそろって未来に向かせ、かってわが身に出来したできごとに沈黙を強いたのである。』 −W・G・ゼーバルト著 鈴木仁子訳『空襲と文学』から
Brick Wall of Yanaka primary school (Volksschule), burnt by the air raid on March 4,1945. On that day of the raid, estimated about 500 civilians perished in the area of Yanaka and Sendagi. (Taito Ward, Tokyo. 2014. 6.14)
"It (prohibiting any backward view) did so through the sheer amount of labour required and the creation of a new, faceless reality, pointing the population exclusively towards the future and enjoining on it silence about the past." - from "On the Natural History of Destruction, Air War and Literature" by W.G. Sebald (trans. from the German by Anthea Bell) |
2015年8月30日日曜日
File#001: Dictionary
岡崎吉作(82)
幸運にも家族は全員無事だった。
『多くの場合、本当の戦争の話というのは信じてもらえっこない。
The day of the Tokyo Air Raid, March 10, 1945, Yoshinari Okazaki (82) was a patriotic 12-year-old boy in the 6th grade of primary school (Volksschule), waiting for graduation in Asakusa, Tokyo. He, his elder brother, sister, and his parents were evacuated to a nearby primary school auditorium, but the auditorium caught on fire, and the evacuees started asphyxiating and burning. So his father made a quick decision to have his family jump into the school swimming pool to escape from the oven-like auditorium. His family possessions were nothing but an ancestral Buddhist tablet, a family album, and a small Japanese dictionary belonging to his sister, a precious item during wartime, all bundled up and wrapped in cloth by his sister. The bundle soaked in the swimming pool with them. They huddled together with a futon above their heads in the swimming pool for about an hour and a half.
Luckily all his family survived, but he lost his home, half of his classmates and some of his neighbors. His family spent two nights at the school surrounded by charred dead bodies. Later he found that people evacuated to the school air shelter had suffocated to death and those who had escaped to a swimming pool in another school nearby were mostly dead. It was a close call.
Okazaki became a junior high school Japanese teacher after the war, but he never talked about his wartime experiences to his students. He started talking about his war experiences to the public about six years ago, after his retirement. In 1996, he organized a graduation ceremony for the class of ‘45. About 50 alumni showed up and finally received their diplomas. He keeps the fragmented dictionary as a personal memento, so as not to forget his war experiences. At the end of my interview with him in his home at Asakusa, Tokyo, I casually asked him about the famous summer fireworks along the Sumida river. He said with a sigh, “You see, even today, I can’t stand fireworks because they remind me of the firebombing and the war. So I never go to see them.“ I realized that I know nothing about real war. (Taito Ward, Tokyo. 2014.11.06)
"In many cases a true war story cannot be believed. If you believe it, be skeptical. It's a question of credibility. Often the crazy stuff is true and the normal stuff isn't, because the normal stuff is necessary to make you believe the true incredible craziness. In other cases you can't even tell a true war story. Sometimes it's just beyond telling." - from " How to Tell a True War Story" by Tim O'Brien
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