Vox Populi, Vox Dei is a daily column that runs on Page 1 of The Asahi Shimbun.
November 22, 2022 at 15:56 JST
I saw a play titled “The Long Way Home” by Daniel Keene eight years ago in Sydney.
The play is about physically or emotionally traumatized Australian veterans of the Afghan and Iraq wars struggling to readjust to everyday life.
Of the cast of 17, 13 were real-life former soldiers.
The production was made possible by the Australian Defense Force’s program to help veterans heal by releasing their raw feelings through acting. The script was based on their personal experiences.
The protagonist suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Unable to sleep at night, he would start cleaning his entire home in the early morning hours. His wife helplessly watches him as he wrestles with his hallucinations.
I was completely absorbed by the cast’s all-too-believable acting. But watching their tear-streaked faces as they took a curtain call, as if they’d just overcome something, I was struck by the awareness that what I’d seen was not a “play” but a realistic re-enactment of what the veterans had lived through.
Earlier this month, more than a dozen people died in a nightclub fire in central Russia. A man shot a flare gun and then the blaze spread throughout the building, according to local reports.
The suspect, arrested for alleged manslaughter, is reportedly a 23-year-old veteran who was injured in Ukraine. Further details have yet to be released, but I wonder if this case has something to do with PTSD.
In “Boys in Zinc,” Belarusian investigative journalist Svetlana Alexievich, who interviewed former Soviet veterans of the Afghan war, cites a vet who mocks himself as he watches the TV news. He says to the effect, “Nobody needs any of us. Life goes on in our country as usual.” His is a cry of loneliness.
It has been almost nine months since the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. War destroys all hearts. No matter how far we are from the battlefield, we must make it stop, no matter how difficult that may be.
--The Asahi Shimbun, Nov. 22
* * *
Vox Populi, Vox Dei is a popular daily column that takes up a wide range of topics, including culture, arts and social trends and developments. Written by veteran Asahi Shimbun writers, the column provides useful perspectives on and insights into contemporary Japan and its culture.
Lawmakers from Ukraine visiting Japan ask for help with the war
October 18, 2022
Subway stations listed as missile shelters after war in Ukraine
September 20, 2022
VOX POPULI: War in Ukraine echoes Soviet 1968 invasion of Czechoslovakia
August 26, 2022
EDITORIAL: Russian pullout from Ukraine only way to end this insane war
August 24, 2022
War in Ukraine elevates defense issue in run-up to Upper House poll
July 7, 2022
The men who have become trapped by the war in Ukraine
June 28, 2022
Stories about memories of cherry blossoms solicited from readers
Cooking experts, chefs and others involved in the field of food introduce their special recipes intertwined with their paths in life.
A series based on diplomatic documents declassified by Japan’s Foreign Ministry
A series on the death of a Japanese woman that sparked a debate about criminal justice policy in the United States
A series about Japanese-Americans and their memories of World War II
Here is a collection of first-hand accounts by “hibakusha” atomic bomb survivors.
The cover of the book “Boys in Zinc” by Svetlana Alexievich translated in Japanese (Asahi Shimbun file photo)
