Today I remember the birthday of my late father. And although I wasn’t yet two years of age when it occurred, I bow my head in remembrance of Hiroshima Day today.
Once, on Dad’s birthday, I asked him how it felt to have his birthday fall on the same date as the bombing of Hiroshima (he was a soldier in the Second World War) and he took a long time to say anything. Eventually he sighed and said, “It was the war, dear.”
Oh, the sorrow in that little sentence!
Rather than a ‘detail’, today I’m posting a work called triptych 06.08.45. It was made in 1988; I have no high resolution file for it, and I apologize for the poor quality of the image.
dip-dyeing, painting, stitching, wrapping, binding, assemblage
silk Dupion, silk thread, card, direct dyes
1500 x 800, private collection, Nelson, Aotearoa New Zealand
miriam louisa simons 
Yes, a lot of sadness in those few words … my Dad fought in Java towards the end of the war, and he mostly only talked about the humourous experiences. Love the artwork! =D
Rita – that must mean we’re peers? Thanks for commenting. It was a sad sentence for sure. I felt he thought he just didn’t have any way of making me understand, and no energy to try. He would fall back on the humorous side of things too – probably that was the only strategy for sanity in those dark days.
Yes, I guess we must be from about the same era! I suppose those returning from active service these days have the same difficulty in expressing what it was really like … you can’t blame them for wanting to put it behind them and just get on with their lives … =D
it’s beautiful….
Leigh – thank you. A poignant piece. It lives happily with dear friends in New Zealand who are also Japanophiles… ♥