Haiga 638 Yoshiko McFarland (JP-USA)

Haiku by Yoshiko McFarland (Japan-US). Artwork by myself.

Yoshiko san is a few year senior than I, born right after the WW2. She probably had seen the remain of the war somewhere, and wrote this haiku.

I had the same experience when I visited one of the Palau Islands, Peleliu Island where more than 10,000 Japanese solders died, and so did many US Marines. I was there with my father to find the remain of a small church building. Tropical weather and vegetation have taken their toll over many years, and what we found were only a few foundation stones of the church.

Here and there on the island were rusted cannons and tanks, and skeleton of concrete buildings, which were probably military facilities. The contrast between the remains and a newly built war memorial was quite striking. The sky was so bright, so pristine, looked as if saying "...and then, the life goes on..."