Photo/Illutration Sahel Rosa with her two new books in Tokyo’s Minato Ward on Nov. 27 (Sayuri Ide)

Iran-born actress Sahel Rosa recently published two books to raise awareness among Japanese of the realities facing child refugees around the world.

Sahel, 39, is in a unique position to do so as she became an orphan in her childhood due to the Iran-Iraq War in the 1980s and also through her celebrity status that allows her to travel from her base in Japan to meet with countless child refugees and become their “voice” to tell their stories to the world.

“I want readers to know it is a miracle to live in the world without experiencing war,” Sahel said. “Once war begins, there’s no turning back.”

Sahel came to Japan with her adopted mother at the age of 8. She got into showbiz while still in senior high school.

She has visited many countries on her own or with members of the nonprofit organizations Association for Aid and Relief, Japan (AAR) and the Japan Iraq Medical Network (JIM-NET) to support children.

She once served as a goodwill ambassador for a nongovernmental international human rights organization.

AS A VICTIM OF WAR HERSELF

One of the books, “Korekara Otonaninaru Anata ni Tsutaetai Junokoto” (10 things I’d like to tell you before you become an adult), was released by Doshinsha Publishing Co.

Sahel wrote about her background as a way to encourage young readers.

She met Rohingya refugees from Myanmar in Bangladesh and encountered Syrian refugees in Iraq and Jordan.

Those experiences reminded Sahel of her younger self as a child orphaned by war.

The cover of the book is a photo taken in 2023 when she visited an orphanage in Iran where she had stayed as a child.

When Sahel visited Slovakia in 2022, she met refugees from Ukraine, one of whom was a little girl separated from her family.

Seeing the brave child putting on a smile, Sahel told her it was OK to cry in front of her.

Through her tears, the girl told Sahel she was trying so hard to smile that she forgot how to cry.

“I want people to read books, watch documentaries or online videos and use other resources for 15 minutes a day and learn about the world,” Sahel said.

The other book, “Dear: Juroku-tori no Heiwaeno Chikai” (Dear: 16 pledges for peace) published by Imagination +/ Press Inc., introduces letters and drawings created by 16 children aged between 6 and 15 whom Sahel met in Iraq, Bangladesh and elsewhere.

The children were asked to express their feelings under the theme of “What I want to tell the world now.”

Two children talk about their fathers, with one saying he was catapulted into space after stepping on a landmine and another writing that he became a soldier and never came back.

Another child wishes for magical powers to restore the lives of siblings killed in a bombing raid.

Sahel said she has lost contact with at least one of the 16 children.

NOBEL CEREMONY

Sahel attended the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony held in Oslo on Dec. 10 to honor Nihon Hidankyo (Japan Confederation of A- and H-bomb Sufferers Organizations).

She said she was invited by a nongovernmental organization headed by Beatrice Fihn, former executive director of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), which was awarded the Peace Prize in 2017.

The actress became friends with Kazuzo Tagashira, a rose breeder in Hiroshima Prefecture and a hibakusha atomic bomb survivor himself, after she received a bunch of roses from him of a new variety named ICAN because of her name Rosa, which means rose.

“I learned from hibakusha how strong the voices are of those who suffered war and how important it is to deliver their messages,” Sahel said.

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