Thinking of all friends in Japan today (August 6th) a very difficult seventy fifth anniversary day. I wrote this poem in 2017 after we had visited the Peace Park and Museum in Hiroshima with our dear friend Yuka Nakai.
What they left behind
A lunchbox
A watch
An artificial eye
An anonymous vase
A personal seal
A national flag
A train pass
A bank book
A child’s dress
A wooden sandal
A belt buckle
A pair of trousers
Her uniform
His tricycle
Her daughter’s hair
Noburu Sunada’s canteen
Futoshi Tanimoto’s mess kit
His mess kit cover
Sentaro Akinobu’s binoculars
for viewing cherry blossoms
on Hijiyama Hill
Sue Dymoke (from the collection: What They Left Behind, Shoestring Press, 2018).
Yesterday I read a very moving piece about hibakusha (survivors) of the atomic bombs which struck Hiroshima and Nagasaki on 6th and 9th August 1945:
Sue Dymoke Poetry 