Poems of Protest & Solidarity
Despite the book’s title, Tōge included several poems about solidarity with the Korean labor movement in Japan. As war ravaged the Korean peninsula, Koreans in Japan—many of whom had been conscripted as forced laborers during the Japanese Empire—also took advantage of the new democracy to march for their rights in the workplace. Our Poems Circle supported their cause, and Tōge composed “Song of Rage” with the struggles of Korean and other workers during the Japan Steel labor dispute in June, 1949, in mind. This labor action, lead by Japan Communist Party members, resulted directly from the Occupation “Dodge Line” directives to Japanese industry that, among other things, aimed at breaking labor unions and in particular Communist-dominated ones. In his diary, Tōge described with conviction about the day “Song of Rage” was read out loud to the strikers:
“workers listened with tears flowing . . . Today’s ‘Song of Rage’ is the first poem of mine that actually has been received with joy by the hearts of the people . . . I can accomplish something!”.
Tōge and his fellow Circle members sought collaboration with Koreans in Hiroshima, not primarily because they were opposed to the use of nuclear weapons, but because they were fellow leftists, labor activists, and socially engaged people who were searching for a common ground, despite the recent past of Korea’s colonization by the Japanese empire.