Singer's Experience of Island Songs

This craze first came to Okinawa on 1990, and its first Okinawa-style song "ひゃくまんつぶの" was included in the third album "JAPANESKA". Since then, Kazufumi Miyazawa has visited Okinawa many times. Kazufumi Miyazawa was deeply moved by the beautiful local scenery, the bomb shelter beside the sugarcane fields, the beautiful folk songs in Okinawa and the painful historical memory of the war, and what he saw and heard became the original source of island songs.

At the end of World War II, the militarists saw that they could not escape the fate of failure, and instructed the Okinawa defenders to take their lives as a bargaining chip, trying to slow down the attack speed of the US military and win valuable time for Japan. This is the famous battle of Okinawa.

To fully understand this war, the best place to go is the "Okinawa Peace Memorial Park" located at the southern tip of Okinawa Island. This park was built in the 1970s. There is a memorial tower and an ever-burning lamp in the park, but what attracts me most is the graves of the victims of the Okinawa campaign. Tombstones are made of black marble and arranged in a fan shape, with the names of all the people who died in that war engraved on them, totaling as many as 240 thousand. In addition to the Japanese, the park also opened up a special area for the fallen soldiers in the United States, North Korea and China. Not far from here, there is a Kiyamu point, which is located at the junction of the East China Sea and the Pacific Ocean. At that time, many Japanese soldiers and Okinawa people committed suicide by jumping into the sea here. Since then, this scenic beach rock wall has become a nightmare for Okinawa people.

If you want to really understand the cruelty of this war, you must visit the Lily Pagoda.

The so-called "Ji Baihe" is the nickname of female students in Okinawa Women's Normal School and the First Women's College. But they were used by patriotism and anti-American sentiment and indirectly participated in the Okinawa War. They are also called "military girls". If they surrender to the United States at first, Okinawa will be invaded by the United States, but they can save their lives. Judging from the photos on display in the archives, before the war, they were a group of lovely little girls with beautiful long hair and love to learn English. However, during World War II, they were forced to cut off their long hair and go out of the classroom to help farmers farm and replenish their rations. English was also banned from learning. At that time, there was a slogan circulating all over Japan, called "100 million hearts". The Japanese army called on Okinawa soldiers and civilians to "come to a bad end", meaning to die gracefully to protect national honor and never surrender.

On March 22nd,1945,222 female students and 18 teachers were requisitioned by the Okinawa Garrison to form the "Jibaihe Nurses Team" to participate in field rescue. Most of these students are 15 ~ 18 years old, and they are real girls. At first, they didn't seem to take it too seriously. Many people bring combs, stationery and textbooks to report, ready to study while working. What they didn't expect was that the strength contrast between the two sides of the war was too wide, and the battle of Okinawa became a "war of attrition", only to gain more time for Japan. Therefore, the war was extremely fierce and the Japanese army suffered heavy casualties.

Female students work as nurses in Okinawa Army Hospital in Haiyuan, helping doctors take care of the wounded. Less than a month after the war, the Japanese army had to retreat to the southern mountainous area of Okinawa for guerrilla warfare, and the military hospital was hidden in a cave. There is a hole in front of the Jibaihe Pagoda, which is only 2-3 meters in diameter, but the bottom is very wide and as deep as 10 meters, so the cave looks black. Female students not only have to endure the humid working environment in the cave, but also are forced to undertake the task of transporting food and transmitting information. Nine of them were killed by gunfire when they went out to perform their duties.

In the archives, there are videos of survivors recalling the scene at that time. According to their memories, the medical conditions in the cave were extremely poor at that time, and sometimes doctors forced female students to give cyanide-containing milk to the wounded. The wounded were in great pain after drinking. Knowing that he had been poisoned, he swore at the students: "Are you still human?" All these physical and mental tortures did not bring victory. /kloc-as the war continued in June of 0/8, the Japanese army suddenly announced the dissolution of the nursing team, leaving the female students "to fend for themselves". These girls don't know how to deal with the fierce gunfire outside the cave. More than 65,438+000 people died in the first two days after disintegration. Quite a few of them committed suicide. It must be admitted that the Japanese soldiers did not escape at that time, and the commander of Okinawa, Ershima Man, also committed suicide. Before he died, he asked the soldiers never to surrender and fought to the last minute to defend the emperor. It is precisely for this reason that the US military is not soft at all when searching for mountains, and it will be hard when encountering resistance.

The worst scene happened in the second surgical trench of the army. At that time, there were nearly 100 people in the trenches, including 45 members of the "Ji Lily Nurse Team" and 5 teachers. The American army did not respond to its surrender request, so it blocked the hole with a flame thrower, causing 80 people to suffocate and die on the spot. Only 1 teacher and 7 students escaped, and two other students were shot dead on the spot after coming out of the hole. There is a physical model of1:1in the file. It is really creepy for tourists to experience the scene at that time.

Lily is not the only example. At that time, the male students in Okinawa also formed the "Iron Blood Diligent Imperial Army" and directly participated in the battle. According to statistics, the battle of Okinawa lasted for three months, and 1489 boys and 4 14 girls were killed. The Japanese people paid a heavy price for militarism.

Gilly's story has been written into several books and made into a movie. Japanese rock band Boom wrote this famous island song after visiting the Gili Tower. This song is a household name in Japan and almost becomes a symbol of Okinawa culture. On June+10, 5438, the fourth album "Puberty" was released, which included island songs sung in Okinawa dialect.

In September, the album "THE BOOM" was released and included "Island Songs".

65438+February 65438+February 65438+February 65438+February 65438+February 65438+February 65438+February 65438+February 65438+February 65438+February 65438+February 65438+February 65438. In April, Emil Wakin Chau released String Gathering and included Island Song as the cover of Tianya Haijiao.

In July, Jamaican singer Yami Boluo released Unite Island White. In June 5438+10, Alfredo Carcero and SHIMAUTA released the album Casarius.

In April, Gong Ze and Carcero held a live performance of Song of the Island at the Japanese Garden in Buenos Aires. The performance was warmly welcomed by about 5000 spectators present at that time, and the local media also paid great attention to it. Carcero's popular album Casarius has been sold in Brazil, Mexico, Spain, Paraguay, Uruguay and even Japan.

In May, five versions of BOOM and CASERO's single Shima Uta were also released in Japan.

In June, BOOM published the album OKINAWA~ワタシノシマ~ ~, which included new records of Song of the Island (2002) and Shima-Uta (acoustic feat). izzy)。 Carcero came to Japan. At the World Cup, Gong Ze performed with him at the National Stadium and sang "Song of the Island" with 50,000 Argentine supporters. After that, he performed in Gu Ye Concert Hall in Hibi, and Carcero and Gong Ze began to travel together, visiting the hometown of Shimako-southern Okinawa and Zhufu Island. Later, on Japanese New Year's Eve, he participated in NHK's "Battle of Red and White Songs" and sang "Island Songs" in the name of Alfredo Carcero +THE BOOM.

In September, the album Shimauta-Grandes &；; EacuteXitos- including Shima Uta.

In February 65438, Xia Chuan released the album てぃだぬぃぃ ~. In 65438 10, Kazufumi Miyazawa released a special album "Gong Ze Sick", which included the lyrics of Cancion de la Isla(Shima Uta) sung in Spanish. Zephyr released Singles+ α again after the last album Singles+,including the original and Okinawa versions.

In the summer, Gong Ze went to Lisbon (Portuguese), Warsaw (Polish) and Tubingen (German) in Europe to record his solo album "Gong Ze Sick". This trip is very interesting. Poles welcomed Gong Ze and his party in the form of chorus "Island Song" at Warsaw Airport. Some local people in Poland went to learn Japanese because they liked "Island Song". The live performance was held on the radio, which was very popular and ended with the chorus "Island Song". This live broadcast was broadcast by local radio stations all over the country.

In June165438+1October, Malaysian singer Fish Leong from Taiwan Province Province covered "Island Song" with the Chinese song title "I don't want to sleep". In March, a feature-length TV series "Metamorphosis" of Brazil's REDE RECORD TV station filmed two episodes of the TV series "Island Song" and "Shell-ぬけがら-"as", and released an original album of the same name in April. The album "Gong Ze-Sick" containing these two songs was also released in Brazil, Argentina and Britain in different forms in the same year.

In July, Mexican band HIKURI covered four versions of island songs, including Spanish and Japanese, which is a coincidence. A Japanese Indian band, Orquesta de la Luz, also released its album! Banzai The Spanish version is included in.

In August, Kazufumi Miyazawa held live performances in Buenos Aires and Sao Paulo. From 10 to February 65438, Kazufumi Miyazawa began his "Gong Ze's Disease 05" tour, covering six countries: France, Bulgaria, Poland, Russia, Britain and Japan. Singer Cachia, who performed with Gong Ze in French, sang in Portuguese, and re-edited "Island Song" in the way of Bosanova. In Bulgaria, local high school students sang "Song of the Island" to welcome Kazufumi Miyazawa who just arrived at the airport. Gong Ze participated in a national television program in Bulgaria and sang "Song of the Island" in Bulgarian with the band of the program. In Poland, she sang with the singer Tomek markowitz in Polish. During my trip to Russia, I performed in Russian with local singer Deanna Albenina (Night Sniper), and released a single record in February, which was played on the local music charts for six weeks in a row. The live story of this trip was recorded in DVD "Europe and Asia ~ Gong Ze-Sick Europe Tour '05 ~".

In June, FC Barcelona, the champion of Spanish league in 2004/05 season, came to Japan to visit the game (Yokohama). At the request of Barcelona Club, Gong Ze was invited to sing "Song of the Island" at Nissan Stadium.

Since September, Kazufumi Miyazawa's "Island -UTA" has been played in iTunes Music Store, which is the first time that Japanese musicians have played it all over the world at the same time. This version of "Island -UTA" was re-produced in Tokyo in April based on the recording of "Gong Ze-Sick" after Gong Ze's trip to Europe. It is also the latest version that has never been included in the CD.

In June+10, 5438, Gong Ze began six tours in five countries in Central and South America: Brazil, Honduras, Nicaragua, Mexico and Cuba. On this trip to Central and South America, sarsaparilla band Macolla played in Nicaragua. Cuba is a popular rock band, Moneda Dura, and its island songs have been rearranged. In July 2004, HIKURI performed four versions of island songs in Guanajuato Concert Hall in Mexico.