"The Martyr and the Red Kimono”
ABE Naoko / Journalist and Non-fiction Writer
May 17, 2024
My new English-language book, ‘The Martyr and the Red Kimono’, was published by Penguin Random House on April 18th, 2024, in London. It covers a variety of themes, the main one of which is “War and Peace”.
The book highlights the links between three protagonists: Father Maximilian Kolbe, a Franciscan friar who was murdered in the Auschwitz concentration camp in 1941; Tōmei Ozaki, who survived the atomic bomb blast in Nagasaki in 1945 and became a friar, and Masatoshi Asari, now 93 years old, who is a leading Japanese “sakuramori” (a protector of cherry trees) and lives in Hokkaido.
Father Kolbe established the world’s largest Catholic friary in Poland before World War II. An enormously influential figure, he spread his faith by using the media, including newspapers and magazines. He lived in Nagasaki for six years after 1930 and founded the Knights of the Immaculate friary there. After his return to Poland in 1936, his publications printed numerous anti-Hitler articles. Following the Nazi invasion of Poland, he opened the friary to refugees and took care of them. Father Kolbe preached human love and patriotism while incarcerated in Auschwitz and was murdered after he volunteered to take the place of another prisoner. In 1982, he was canonized as a Catholic saint.
Mr. Ozaki and Mr. Asari were born in 1928 and 1931 respectively and belonged to the last generation with living memories of Japan’s wars. Mr. Ozaki’s mother died in the Nagasaki atomic bombing (his father had died earlier) when he was 17 years old and became an orphan. He survived the bomb because he was making torpedoes in an underground factory at the time. Mr. Ozaki lost the will to live as he saw the horror of the devastation wreaked by the atomic bomb in addition to the loss of his loved one, but after he knocked on the door of the friary built by Father Kolbe, he decided to become a friar. After he learnt about Father Kolbe, he researched his past and visited Poland 10 times. As an atomic bomb storyteller in Nagasaki, Mr. Ozaki strove to pass on the imperative of peace. Mr. Ozaki provided me with many materials, including his diaries dating back to the time of the atomic bombing. He passed away in 2021.
Mr. Asari was 14 years old when the war ended. He became an elementary school teacher after the war. Facing squarely up to the history of Japan’s wars of aggression, he investigated the plight of Korean and Chinese workers who had been brought to Hokkaido during the war. He also researched the dire straits of British soldiers who had been subjected to harsh conditions in prisoners-of-war camp in Hakodate. Mr. Asari loved cherry blossoms and created 116 new varieties of cherry trees, which are collectively called Matsumae cherries. He sent hundreds of cherry trees to foreign countries, especially those to which Japan had caused damage and suffering during the war, as a way to atone for Japan’s aggression and colonisation. In the late 1980s, when NHK (Japan Broadcasting Corporation) aired a programme about Mr. Asari’s activities, a Catholic admirer of Father Kolbe suggested that he send cherry trees to Poland to honour Father Kolbe. She also sent a book about Father Kolbe written by Mr. Ozaki to Mr. Asari.
These activities prompted Mr. Asari to send more than 400 trees to Father Kolbe’s friary and a convent in Poland in the late 1980s.
Thirty-five years later, I decided to find out what had happened to these cherry trees in Poland. Remarkably, I found that three were still alive. I found them in the garden of a convent, which is located in a remote village near the Ukrainian border in southeast Poland. Alongside the cherry trees stands a statue of a black-haired Virgin Mary wearing a red kimono woven with patterns of cherry blossom petals.
Ever since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, this quiet area of Poland has become the focus of world attention. Many Ukrainian refugees have crossed the nearby border en route to other locales in Europe.
The three surviving cherry trees sent by Mr. Asari grow quietly in the convent grounds today, near the statue of the kimono-clad Virgin Mary. Father Kolbe lost his life during WWII, but the other two Japanese men survived the war. Deeply affected by the way in which Father Kolbe had lived and died, they kept sending out messages opposing war and appealing for peace. In my eyes, the three cherry trees and the Virgin Mary are trying with all their might to impress upon the world, where wars are still being fought, the messages of humanity and inspiration left by these three principled men.
Personally, it has been a painful and arduous task delving into such a heavy theme and trying to put into words the unimaginable horrors of Auschwitz and Nagasaki. As I wrote, however, it struck me that the messages sent by the three protagonists cast many rays of hope about the future of humankind. I felt strongly that it was my mission to convey to readers both the horrors and hopes of these events.
After publication, The Times wrote that my book is ‘a moving account of the war atrocities endured by three very different men’. I hope that the messages sent by Father Kolbe, Mr. Ozaki and Mr. Asari will be heeded throughout the world in this era of conflicts. A Japanese version of the book is expected to be published as early as next year.
Abe Naoko is a London-based journalist and non-fiction writer.
The book highlights the links between three protagonists: Father Maximilian Kolbe, a Franciscan friar who was murdered in the Auschwitz concentration camp in 1941; Tōmei Ozaki, who survived the atomic bomb blast in Nagasaki in 1945 and became a friar, and Masatoshi Asari, now 93 years old, who is a leading Japanese “sakuramori” (a protector of cherry trees) and lives in Hokkaido.
Father Kolbe established the world’s largest Catholic friary in Poland before World War II. An enormously influential figure, he spread his faith by using the media, including newspapers and magazines. He lived in Nagasaki for six years after 1930 and founded the Knights of the Immaculate friary there. After his return to Poland in 1936, his publications printed numerous anti-Hitler articles. Following the Nazi invasion of Poland, he opened the friary to refugees and took care of them. Father Kolbe preached human love and patriotism while incarcerated in Auschwitz and was murdered after he volunteered to take the place of another prisoner. In 1982, he was canonized as a Catholic saint.
Mr. Ozaki and Mr. Asari were born in 1928 and 1931 respectively and belonged to the last generation with living memories of Japan’s wars. Mr. Ozaki’s mother died in the Nagasaki atomic bombing (his father had died earlier) when he was 17 years old and became an orphan. He survived the bomb because he was making torpedoes in an underground factory at the time. Mr. Ozaki lost the will to live as he saw the horror of the devastation wreaked by the atomic bomb in addition to the loss of his loved one, but after he knocked on the door of the friary built by Father Kolbe, he decided to become a friar. After he learnt about Father Kolbe, he researched his past and visited Poland 10 times. As an atomic bomb storyteller in Nagasaki, Mr. Ozaki strove to pass on the imperative of peace. Mr. Ozaki provided me with many materials, including his diaries dating back to the time of the atomic bombing. He passed away in 2021.
Mr. Asari was 14 years old when the war ended. He became an elementary school teacher after the war. Facing squarely up to the history of Japan’s wars of aggression, he investigated the plight of Korean and Chinese workers who had been brought to Hokkaido during the war. He also researched the dire straits of British soldiers who had been subjected to harsh conditions in prisoners-of-war camp in Hakodate. Mr. Asari loved cherry blossoms and created 116 new varieties of cherry trees, which are collectively called Matsumae cherries. He sent hundreds of cherry trees to foreign countries, especially those to which Japan had caused damage and suffering during the war, as a way to atone for Japan’s aggression and colonisation. In the late 1980s, when NHK (Japan Broadcasting Corporation) aired a programme about Mr. Asari’s activities, a Catholic admirer of Father Kolbe suggested that he send cherry trees to Poland to honour Father Kolbe. She also sent a book about Father Kolbe written by Mr. Ozaki to Mr. Asari.
These activities prompted Mr. Asari to send more than 400 trees to Father Kolbe’s friary and a convent in Poland in the late 1980s.
Thirty-five years later, I decided to find out what had happened to these cherry trees in Poland. Remarkably, I found that three were still alive. I found them in the garden of a convent, which is located in a remote village near the Ukrainian border in southeast Poland. Alongside the cherry trees stands a statue of a black-haired Virgin Mary wearing a red kimono woven with patterns of cherry blossom petals.
Ever since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, this quiet area of Poland has become the focus of world attention. Many Ukrainian refugees have crossed the nearby border en route to other locales in Europe.
The three surviving cherry trees sent by Mr. Asari grow quietly in the convent grounds today, near the statue of the kimono-clad Virgin Mary. Father Kolbe lost his life during WWII, but the other two Japanese men survived the war. Deeply affected by the way in which Father Kolbe had lived and died, they kept sending out messages opposing war and appealing for peace. In my eyes, the three cherry trees and the Virgin Mary are trying with all their might to impress upon the world, where wars are still being fought, the messages of humanity and inspiration left by these three principled men.
Personally, it has been a painful and arduous task delving into such a heavy theme and trying to put into words the unimaginable horrors of Auschwitz and Nagasaki. As I wrote, however, it struck me that the messages sent by the three protagonists cast many rays of hope about the future of humankind. I felt strongly that it was my mission to convey to readers both the horrors and hopes of these events.
After publication, The Times wrote that my book is ‘a moving account of the war atrocities endured by three very different men’. I hope that the messages sent by Father Kolbe, Mr. Ozaki and Mr. Asari will be heeded throughout the world in this era of conflicts. A Japanese version of the book is expected to be published as early as next year.
Abe Naoko is a London-based journalist and non-fiction writer.
The English-Speaking Union of Japan
新著 ‘The Martyr and the Red Kimono’紹介
阿部 菜穂子 / ジャーナリスト・ノンフィクション作家
2024年 5月 17日
新著 ‘The Martyr and the Red Kimono’ （英語版)が4月18日、英国・ロンドンで、ペンギン社から出版された。この本にはいろいろなテーマが含まれているが、主題は「戦争と平和」である。
主人公は第二次世界大戦時にアウシュビッツで殺害されたポーランド人神父のマキシミリアン・コルベ氏と長崎の原爆生存者で修道士だった小崎登明さん、そして日本を代表する北海道在住の桜守、浅利政俊さん（93）の3人。
コルベ神父は戦前、ポーランドで世界最大のカトリック修道院を創設。雑誌や新聞などのメディアを通じて布教するという新手法で成功し、絶大な影響力を持っていた。1930年から長崎に6年間住み、「聖母の騎士修道院」を設立。ポーランド帰国後は反ヒットラーの記事を掲載し続け、ナチスの侵略後は修道院を避難民に開放して世話した。アウシュビッツでは人間愛と愛国心を説き、他人の身代りとなって死亡。1982年にカトリックの聖人に認定された。
小崎さんと浅利さんは昭和ひと桁生まれで、戦争を体験した最後の世代。小崎さんは17歳の時長崎で原爆に遭って母親を失い（父親は早く亡くなっていた）、孤児となる。原爆を生き残ったのは三菱重工業の地下工場で魚雷製作にあたっていたからだ。凄惨な原爆の荒野を見、肉親を失って生きる意欲を喪失するが、聖母の騎士修道院の門をたたき、修道士になることを決意する。コルベ神父の存在を知り、ポーランドを10回訪ね、神父の研究を続けた。また、原爆の語り部として平和の尊さを訴え続けた。小崎さんは2021年に逝去されたが、原爆当時の日記を含め、多数の資料を提供してくれた。
浅利さんは終戦時14歳で、敗戦に大きなショックを受けた。戦後は小学校の教師となるが、日本の侵略戦争の歴史を重く受け止め、戦時中に北海道へ連れてこられた朝鮮人・中国人労働者の実態や、日本軍捕虜として函館の収容所で過酷な労働に従事した主に英国人兵士らの境遇を掘り起こし、明らかにした。また、桜を愛し、116種もの新しい品種（総称して「松前桜」と呼ばれる）を創作。桜を海外、とくに日本が被害を及ぼした国々に贈る平和活動を続けた。1980年代後半にNHKが浅利さんの活動を全国報道した際、番組を見たカトリック信者でコルベ神父の信奉者の女性が、桜を神父の鎮魂のためにポーランドに贈ることを提案。浅利さんに小崎登明さんの書いたコルベ神父の本を送った。
これがきっかけで１９８０年代後半に400本を超す浅利さんの桜が海を渡ってポーランドのコルベ神父の修道院と一つの修道女会に届いた。
それから35年後、筆者が桜の行方を追跡調査したところ、3本がまだ生きていたことがわかった。そこはポーランド南東部、ウクライナとの国境に近い人里離れた村にひっそりと建つ、修道女会の建物の庭だった。桜のそばには、桜の花びらをあしらった赤い着物姿の黒髪のマリア像が立っていた。
静かな村は、2022年のロシアのウクライナ侵攻以来、世界の注目を集める場所となった。ウクライナからの多数の避難民は、国境を越えてこの村の近くを通り、各地へ散っていった。
生き残った浅利さんの3本の桜と赤い着物のマリア像は、今も静かに現地にたたずむ。コルベ神父は大戦中に命を落としたが、他の二人は生き抜いて神父の生きざま、死にざまに大きな影響を受け、反戦と平和へのメッセージを発信した。私には、3本の桜と赤いマリア像は、今も戦争をやめない人間たちに、彼らの残した渾身のメッセージを送っているように思える。
このような重いテーマを追いかけ、アウシュビッツや長崎原爆の想像を絶する惨状を文字にすることは、つらい作業だった。しかし、3人の全身全霊を捧げたメッセージは人類の未来に向けた一条の光であり、後世に残したいと強く思った。
出版後、英タイムズ紙が「境遇の違う3人を通じて、戦争の悲惨さを伝える感動的な本」と書評を書いてくれた。きな臭い世の中で彼らの伝言が多くの人に届くことを願っている。日本語版は来年以降に出版される予定。
筆者は在英ジャーナリスト・ノンフィクション作家
主人公は第二次世界大戦時にアウシュビッツで殺害されたポーランド人神父のマキシミリアン・コルベ氏と長崎の原爆生存者で修道士だった小崎登明さん、そして日本を代表する北海道在住の桜守、浅利政俊さん（93）の3人。
コルベ神父は戦前、ポーランドで世界最大のカトリック修道院を創設。雑誌や新聞などのメディアを通じて布教するという新手法で成功し、絶大な影響力を持っていた。1930年から長崎に6年間住み、「聖母の騎士修道院」を設立。ポーランド帰国後は反ヒットラーの記事を掲載し続け、ナチスの侵略後は修道院を避難民に開放して世話した。アウシュビッツでは人間愛と愛国心を説き、他人の身代りとなって死亡。1982年にカトリックの聖人に認定された。
小崎さんと浅利さんは昭和ひと桁生まれで、戦争を体験した最後の世代。小崎さんは17歳の時長崎で原爆に遭って母親を失い（父親は早く亡くなっていた）、孤児となる。原爆を生き残ったのは三菱重工業の地下工場で魚雷製作にあたっていたからだ。凄惨な原爆の荒野を見、肉親を失って生きる意欲を喪失するが、聖母の騎士修道院の門をたたき、修道士になることを決意する。コルベ神父の存在を知り、ポーランドを10回訪ね、神父の研究を続けた。また、原爆の語り部として平和の尊さを訴え続けた。小崎さんは2021年に逝去されたが、原爆当時の日記を含め、多数の資料を提供してくれた。
浅利さんは終戦時14歳で、敗戦に大きなショックを受けた。戦後は小学校の教師となるが、日本の侵略戦争の歴史を重く受け止め、戦時中に北海道へ連れてこられた朝鮮人・中国人労働者の実態や、日本軍捕虜として函館の収容所で過酷な労働に従事した主に英国人兵士らの境遇を掘り起こし、明らかにした。また、桜を愛し、116種もの新しい品種（総称して「松前桜」と呼ばれる）を創作。桜を海外、とくに日本が被害を及ぼした国々に贈る平和活動を続けた。1980年代後半にNHKが浅利さんの活動を全国報道した際、番組を見たカトリック信者でコルベ神父の信奉者の女性が、桜を神父の鎮魂のためにポーランドに贈ることを提案。浅利さんに小崎登明さんの書いたコルベ神父の本を送った。
これがきっかけで１９８０年代後半に400本を超す浅利さんの桜が海を渡ってポーランドのコルベ神父の修道院と一つの修道女会に届いた。
それから35年後、筆者が桜の行方を追跡調査したところ、3本がまだ生きていたことがわかった。そこはポーランド南東部、ウクライナとの国境に近い人里離れた村にひっそりと建つ、修道女会の建物の庭だった。桜のそばには、桜の花びらをあしらった赤い着物姿の黒髪のマリア像が立っていた。
静かな村は、2022年のロシアのウクライナ侵攻以来、世界の注目を集める場所となった。ウクライナからの多数の避難民は、国境を越えてこの村の近くを通り、各地へ散っていった。
生き残った浅利さんの3本の桜と赤い着物のマリア像は、今も静かに現地にたたずむ。コルベ神父は大戦中に命を落としたが、他の二人は生き抜いて神父の生きざま、死にざまに大きな影響を受け、反戦と平和へのメッセージを発信した。私には、3本の桜と赤いマリア像は、今も戦争をやめない人間たちに、彼らの残した渾身のメッセージを送っているように思える。
このような重いテーマを追いかけ、アウシュビッツや長崎原爆の想像を絶する惨状を文字にすることは、つらい作業だった。しかし、3人の全身全霊を捧げたメッセージは人類の未来に向けた一条の光であり、後世に残したいと強く思った。
出版後、英タイムズ紙が「境遇の違う3人を通じて、戦争の悲惨さを伝える感動的な本」と書評を書いてくれた。きな臭い世の中で彼らの伝言が多くの人に届くことを願っている。日本語版は来年以降に出版される予定。
筆者は在英ジャーナリスト・ノンフィクション作家
一般社団法人 日本英語交流連盟