{"id":1730,"date":"2024-02-28T17:11:48","date_gmt":"2024-02-28T08:11:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chihiro.jp\/en\/?page_id=1730"},"modified":"2024-02-28T17:29:00","modified_gmt":"2024-02-28T08:29:00","slug":"ka-san-wa-orusu","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/chihiro.jp\/en\/forpeace\/#ka-san-wa-orusu","title":{"rendered":"The Picture Book <em>Kaasan wa Orusu<\/em> (Mother is not at Home)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/chihiro.jp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/KV_peace-06.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"840\" height=\"473\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-1210\" \/><\/p>\n<p>During the Vietnam War, which lasted from 1965 to 1975, more than 1 million Vietnamese people died, and it is said that about half of them were children.<\/p>\n<p>The picture book <em>Kaasan wa Orusu<\/em> (Mother is not at Home) was published in 1972, during the Vietnam War, when the U.S. military was repeatedly and indiscriminately bombing throughout Vietnam.<\/p>\n<p>The story, written by Vietnamese author Nguyen Thi, focuses on the lives of five sisters and brothers, who live resolutely while awaiting their mother, who goes to the battlefield every day to defend their homeland.<\/p>\n<p>Chihiro said, \u201cEven the children on the battlefield, when I look at photos of Vietnam, I can\u2019t begin to describe how adorable they are.\u201d Believing that \u201call children are the future,\u201d she vividly depicted these adorable children, living their lives guilelessly and to the fullest while hoping for a better tomorrow amid the worsening war situation.<\/p>\n<p>In January 1973, while working on her next picture book, <em>Senka no naka no Kodomotachi<\/em> (Children in the Flames of War), Chihiro published the following poem in a local newspaper distributed by Kyodo News.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\nAlways I see in my mind<br \/>\nChildren whose mother<br \/>\nGoes out to the battlefield<\/p>\n<p>Even if their mother<br \/>\nComes home today<br \/>\nNobody knows whether<br \/>\nShe will return tomorrow<br \/>\nAnd even if she does come home tomorrow<\/p>\n<p>Nobody is sure that bombs<br \/>\nWill not rain down upon the faces of the children<br \/>\nBefore she returns<\/p>\n<p>Who sends bombers to Vietnam<br \/>\nThe country south of Japan?<\/p>\n<p>Mothers of Japan<br \/>\nGentle-hearted mothers of the world<br \/>\nPlease protect these children<br \/>\nWhile their mother is away<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<div id=\"attachment_1211\" style=\"width: 850px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1211\" src=\"https:\/\/chihiro.jp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/KV_peace-07.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"840\" height=\"473\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1211\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-1211\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Mother Holding Her Little Sons, from <em>Kaasan wa Orusu <\/em>(Mother is not Home), 1972<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>During the Vietnam War, which lasted from 1965 to 1975, more than 1 million Vietnamese people died, and it is said that about half of them were children. The picture book Kaasan wa Orusu (Mother is not at Home) was published in 1972, during the Vietnam War, when the U.S. military was repeatedly and indiscriminately bombing throughout Vietnam. The story, written by Vietnamese author Nguyen Thi, focuses on the lives of five sisters and brothers, who live resolutely while awaiting their mother, who goes to the battlefield every day to defend their homeland. Chihiro said, \u201cEven the children on the battlefield, when I look at photos of Vietnam, I can\u2019t [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":1544,"menu_order":5,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-1730","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chihiro.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1730"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chihiro.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chihiro.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chihiro.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chihiro.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1730"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/chihiro.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1730\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1732,"href":"https:\/\/chihiro.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1730\/revisions\/1732"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chihiro.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1544"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chihiro.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1730"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}