exhibition of sixty pictures the sixty artists of the children’s books painted each for peace.

   February 11th is a holiday in Japan because it is a memorial day the first emperor was crowned about 2700 years ago. History textbooks tell us the people on Japanese islands in those days lived in pit dwellings and made primitive earthenware, gathered nuts and berries. The story about the first Emperor is just a myth. But since Meiji era till 1945 emperors were considered Gods, and the day was one of the most important days.

   After the defeat in the World War ll, the emperor admitted he was not God but a human, and Japan became a nation with republican system. We stopped celebrating the day.  But the ghost that was hiding after the war is slowly appearing again and trying to turn the history back. So, the national anthem is the same one as before, which is wishing the Emperor’s reign may last forever. They want to make Mikado a head of the nation.(I don’t think he wants it.) They are frantically militarizing Japan buying  expensive weapons from the U.S. and trying hard to abolish article 9 of Japan’s constitution, which declares that we will never go to wars and so we will never have armies. And they made February 11^th a national holiday again        

   So, we have decided to do something about peace on the holiday. This year we are preparing an exhibition of sixty pictures the sixty artists of the children’s books painted each for peace. Imagine the wall filled with sixty colorful, cute pictures for children! Some newspapers are writing about the exhibition. And, oh, I ‘m going to speak on the local TV next week.