ベトナムの赤い月

Annotation — Japanese Songs

The anti-war / peace song "トナムの赤い月" ("The Red Moon of Vietnam") (Minoruphone Records # MA-1) by 三船和子 [Kazuko Mifune], which featured in the 1965 Japanese Vietnam War movie 動乱のベトナム [Vietnam in Turmoil]. Composed by 遠藤実 [Minoru Endo]. Lyrics by Masao Nakayama, which referenced Buddhist monks dying by self-immolation, the most well-known case being that of Thích Quảng Đức on 11 June 1963, one of the key images of the Vietnam War: "the monk earnest wish to save Vietnam and he prays that he should stop burning himself".

Annotation by Justin A. Brummer

Lyrics

Japanese: あゝ みておくれ ベトナムの ベトナムてらす お日さま黒い みんなの胸が まっくらだから

Notes

Featured in the 1965 Japanese Vietnam War movie 動乱のベトナム [Vietnam in Turmoil] Minoru Phone MA 001 (PS-0002), stereo, 33⅓ rpm, "聴いて楽しい・歌って楽しい・伴奏つきレコード" (a record with backing track, fun to hear and fun to sing), "Mfd. by Minoruphone Co., Ltd., Tokyo, Japan"; "ベトナムの赤い月" (The Red Moon of Vietnam), from the Shin Riken film 「動乱のベトナム」, words 中山正男 [Masao Nakayama], music 遠藤実 [Minoru Endo], sung by 三船和子 with the Minoruphone Chorus (ミノルフォン合唱団) and Minoruphone Orchestra. The picture sleeve (¥330) shows a young woman in an áo dài with a flower in her hair, hands clasped, under the English title "The Red Moon of Vietnam". The insert (太平グループ ミノルフォンレコード MA-001) prints four verses (the fourth not recorded), a melody line, playing times of 4:12 (vocal) and 4:10 (orchestra), a note that "ライツァライファ" is Vietnamese for "prayer", and a profile of the singer: born Ichinomiya, Aichi, 1 September 1947 (Showa…

About the artist

Kazuko Mifune (born Kazuko Ogata, 1 September 1947, in Ichinomiya, Aichi Prefecture, Japan) is a Japanese enka singer - the first artist signed to Minorphone Records at its 1965 founding by the composer Toshimi Endo, debuting with the anti-war single "Betonamu no Akai Tsuki" ("Vietnam's Red Moon") - this song. Her 1966 follow-up "Tanin Fune" sold over 100,000 copies; a 1968 taxi accident damaged her voice and forced a hiatus, but she returned in 1982 with the half-million-selling "Danna-sama", won the Matsuo Entertainment Award in 1992, and first sang on NHK's Kohaku Uta Gassen in 1995.…

Themes

Anti-War · Self-Immolation · Buddhism · Peace

In collections

Japanese Songs · Peace, Protest, & Anti-War Songs [War Years]