As some of you may be aware, this week (August 6-9, 2020) is a very heavy time- the 75th anniversary of the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan.
DIR EN GREY has released a new single on August 3rd. Though we’re not completely sure of its full scope, for lack of the availability official lyrics so far, one thing is for certain: the PV contains intense WW2 imagery.
It’s easy to jam to the song and move on in our lives, but why don’t we take the opportunity to expand what we know of what really happened back then? You’ll come to a greater understanding of the true nature of the undercurrents of tensions we experience from people on all sides as foreign fans, particularly as fans from nations that were the “Allies”: USA, Great Britain, France, Russia, and China. (With the glaringly obvious exception of Germany, doesn’t that list sound like a typical J Rock world tour?) There’s a lot of history that’s been candy coated in schools and erased, that we need to know to move forward as more compassionate human beings with a focus on equality.
I highly recommend heading to Netflix and checking out episode 3 of “Oliver Stone’s Untold History of the United States”, which is dedicated to “The Bomb”- attitudes and events leading up to the bombings, and afterwards. Be forewarned: the level of anti-Japanese, anti-Far Easterner racism that was rampant in that era is shocking horrendous, and he pulls no punches with showing graphic footage of the slaughter.
You’ll never see things the same way again.
☮️❤️🇯🇵

