Natsuki Ikezawa, is a Japanese novelist, poet, essayist, translator of modern Greek poetry. Majored physics in Saitama University. Born on July the 7th of 1945 (Hokkaido Japan) he is regarded as one of the best serious writers in Japan. As part of a series of articles on archeological sites around the world, he decided he wanted to visit Iraq, once called Mesopitamia, the cradle of civilization.
Ikezawa wrote a beautiful and moving book about his visit. It is very short and easy to read. I urge all of you to take a few minutes and read it. You can download it here.
“From the Autumn of 2001, the New York Times ran a column detailing the lives of each and every victim of the attack on the World Trade Center. Whether by terrorism or by war, each person who dies is an individual with family and friends. Which is why the stance of seeing terrorism from the perspective of the victim, from the viewpoint of everyone killed is so important. Yet the same newspaper only reported the war in Afghanistan in abstract figures. However far the striking range of American missiles, the eyes of the media never reached the battlefield. And if there is no view from the ground where the bombs hit, if they don’t even go there to see, if media merely stresses the misfortunes that befall ones own side, then how can those media be trusted?”
“Which is why I thought to go to Iraq to see for myself. In Baghdad, in Mosul, in small towns whose names I didn’t even catch, I saw how the people lived. I ate their food. I talked with them, I watched as they cuddled their babies. I saw kids running around shouting. And I couldn’t think of a single reason why those children should be killed by American bombs.”