Haikus for Healing: Japan I

This is the forty-first bilingual haiku collection originally written by this author and introduces haikus featuring Japanese suffering and healing. Throughout history, the Japanese have suffered from many tragedies. Specifically, Japanese civilians went through a series of unprecedented hardships during the Asia-Pacific War, such as the Atomic Bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the internment of the Japanese on the West Coast of the United States.
The Japanese acts of aggression during the Asia-Pacific War were brutal beyond description (a haiku collection about sufferings in Asia will be published later). A less known fact is that Japanese citizens at large, in addition to Asians and Americans, were also the victims of Japanese military propaganda. They had no say in the matter of the war and were forced to cooperate with wartime policy. Those who did not were arrested and tortured.
Other cases of hardships Japanese endured in the 20th century concern the large-scale Japanese emigration to North and South America, including Hawaii, California, Brazil, and Peru. This systematic emigration was promoted by the Japanese government as a means to reduce the number of poverty-stricken farmers at home.
The sufferings and wounds of those who were involved in these tragedies deeply resonate in the hearts of the Japanese today. These experiences should not be buried in the vault of history. Reconciliation and healing from these wounds begin with acknowledgement of the truth. Upon recognition of the true facts, one can learn lessons so as not to repeat the same tragedies and go forward.
The essence of haiku is to elevate one's feelings to a more objective and larger perspective. This mental engagement can serve as a healing process. With this in mind, this haiku collection examines diasporas, wars, and other sufferings that the Japanese have gone through in contemporary history and expresses them in a form of concise poetry, with annotations. Specifically, this haiku anthology presents 86 haikus with season words of the four seasons, plus the 'new year, ' which counts as a sub-season in the Japanese calendar.