When Fukushima Prefecture sixth-grader Terumi Sekine wrote her poem "Arigato" (Thank you) in 2007, little did she know that her words would take on a poignant meaning four years later following the March 11 Great East Japan Earthquake.
When Fukushima Prefecture sixth-grader Terumi Sekine wrote her poem "Arigato" (Thank you) in 2007, little did she know her words would take on a poignant meaning four years later following the March 11 Great East Japan Earthquake.
Terumi wrote, "Kyo Ichinichi/ Nanimo okinakatta koto ni/ Kansha shitai" (I want to appreciate that nothing in particular happened today), showing her gratitude for a normal and undisturbed life.
Today, the recited poems of Terumi and other schoolchildren are touching hearts on a popular free application on Apple Inc.'s iPhone and iPad.
Some 200,000 downloads of the free app have been recorded since it became available in August, which offers listeners a reminder of how an uneventful life can, in fact, be a blessing.
The poems, read by professional narrators and announcers, are titled "Bokura no Kotono ha, Fukushima no Kodomotachi yori" (Our words, from children in Fukushima).
The youngsters' words, which provide often overlooked snapshots of everyday life, even appear to give hints as to how to live in the post-disaster era.
Aoi Mado (Blue Window), a children's poetry magazine published in Koriyama, Fukushima Prefecture, from which the poems have been collected, has carried more than 10,000 poems in its 536 issues since it was first published in 1958.
The application posts 18 of these poems--17 by elementary school children written from 1987 and one composed after the Great East Japan Earthquake.
"None of the poems refer to the earthquake," said Yoko Hashimoto, 38, a member of the secretariat of the Aoi Mado no Kai, which oversees the magazine. "But they grab the hearts of the readers and listeners because children have insight into the nature of things. The poems provide hints to solve the problems that emerged after the earthquake using simple words."
The app was created by Primal Switch Co., a Tokyo-based electronic book planning and producing company.
Primal Switch representative Akihiro Takahashi, who is from Koriyama, Fukushima Prefecture, remembered the Aoi Mado magazine, after learning that children in Fukushima were having a hard time. Many were among the mass evacuees following the March 11 disaster, which resulted in the crippling of the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant.
"I want to transmit children's poems to the world so children can cherish their own hometowns," Takahashi said.
The poems on the app were read by six women who have young children, including TV newscasters Ayako Kisa and Junko Kubo, who agreed to do the reading for free.
The only poem written after the March 11 quake was by Rintaro Yamada, a second-grader at Kiyose Daisan Elementary School in Kiyose, Tokyo.
In his poem "Hitotsu ni Naro" (Let's come together as one) he wrote, "Let us help each other/ for everyone has strength to live."
To download the poems, visit (http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/id453653279?1=ja&1s=1&mt=8)