ベトナムの空 (Vietnam Sky)

Annotation — Japanese Songs

Anti-war song "ベトナムの空" ("Vietnam Sky") (Philips # SFL-1051), composed by songwriter 日高義 (Yoshi Hidaka), and here performed by Mike Maki, born on 27 April 1944 in Tokyo, Japan. The song also featured on his 1966 album Folk Album No. 2. Also note the more well-known version of this song, released in 1969 by 高石ともや [Tomoya Takaishi] on the single ホー・チ・ミンのバラード / ベトナムの空 (discussed below). The song focused on capturing the sounds and images of combat, from helicopters to burning villages and water buffalos, all familiar perceptions associated with the Vietnam War: "helicopter flew away... water buffalo echoed in the Mekong River... burnt-out village... blood everywhere".

Annotation by Justin A. Brummer

Lyrics

Japanese: ベトナムの空をただ見上げてる 傷ついた兵隊が 一人いた 空はどこまでも血の様に赤い

Notes

Philips SFL-1051, Hi-Fi Stereo 45, side 2 (JWM-5003), manufactured by Victor Company of Japan, Yokohama; "ベトナムの空" (words and music 日高義 [Yoshi Hidaka]), 2:49, sung with guitar by マイク真木; A-side "波と木彫りのクマ" (words and music マイク真木). The picture sleeve (¥370, released by 日本ビクター) bills it as "心を打つ感動の歌 日本のモダン・フォーク!" and shows the young singer in a striped shirt looking upward. The back sleeve prints both lyrics and notes: for "ベトナムの空" the singer writes that great sacrifice may be needed to win freedom and peace but he hates killing, and that he sings praying that the senseless war now going on in a corner of Asia will end soon; a profile gives his birth as 27 April 1944 (Showa 19), a student in the Nihon University art department, founder of the Modern Folk Quartet, invited by MRA to a folk festival on Mackinac Island, a month in Ceylon in January 1966, the Philips album "バラが咲いた /…

About the artist

born on 27 April 1944 in Osaka, Japan

Themes

Anti-War · Mekong Delta · Helicopter · K.I.A. · Saigon · Hanoi · Japan

In collections

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