7th main topic/ Words of 100,000 People 3.10
March 10th 1945, during the World War Two, East Tokyo turned devastated under the U.S. “Great Tokyo Air Raids.” The number of deaths totaled 100,000 people. However, the youth in Tokyo, who never had war experiences, rarely touched this fact. Kirara Kawachi, Ikko Suzuki and Tsuyoshi Yamaguchi, who have designed and held the event called “Words of 100,000 People 3.10,” (3.10) have produced performances to question the meaning of the “Great Tokyo Air Raids” with sound works and dances since 2005.
“3.10” is a performance made up of two factors. One is sound collages composed of voices and interviews that artist Kawachi made with those who survived under the U.S. air raids. The other is dance by Suzuki into which he put his eulogy. The performance, audiences can experience the air raids vicariously, has been held at “Gallery ef,” a repaired storehouse in Asakusa, which has existed some 140 years and underwent the air raids as well. Yamaguchi is in charge of publication of the gallery and also illumination in the performance.
Ahead of the first performance of “3.10” in 2005, three of them have considered the theme, “war,” from each point of view respectively. Kawachi produced works about the September 11th in the U.S. and presented in Hiroshima, Japan. After that, she moved into Sumida ward in Tokyo and found out the “Great Tokyo Air Raids.” She noted, “There are still bombs dropping on someone’s head somewhere in this world and you cannot ignore it as a same human being.” Suzuki grew up in Sumida ward where the damage of the air raids was horrible. He said, “I want to be a transparent pipe carrying down what happened here as it was.” While Yamaguchi was projecting an event that uses the “Gallery ef” as a symbol of which underwent through the air raids, Kawachi and Suzuki showed up and asked him if they could present a performance about the “Great Tokyo Air Raids.” This is how an artist, a dancer and a gallery shared the same theme of the “Great Tokyo Air Raids” and the birth of “3.10” with a lot of helps. According to their word, “It was meant to be.”
March 10th 2007, I went to the “Gallery ef.” After a few minutes from scheduled time, the lights went out and the voices of survivors under the air raids came to my ear. Firstly, it was the conversations about their memories of childhood. However, it changed to memories of the war gradually. Dancer Suzuki quietly showed up as if it were bombers sneaking up on dark sky of Tokyo. The voices tell you the night of burning Tokyo. When the lights began flashing, he started dancing with slow and sometimes quick and hard motions. I imagined the people suffered from fires, they were running around with no way out. Each motion of the dance was extremely intense and representing the will or desire of people to their lives. Suddenly, the dance quieted down and the voices already changed to talking about the morning of day after the air raids. According to the survivors, “there was nothing different between those who were killed and not killed, it was only a matter of luck.” When you face war, your own will or hope does not mean anything. It is obvious that either in our daily life or on the road you can smile because you are in peace. “3.10” gives me a precious time. After the event, you can rediscover the meaning and importance of being in peace. I want to yell at all people involved in “3.10.”
2007.09.29 Saturday
