– tetsu-san, you play survival games, right? (1)
[Yup. When I play those games, I think “This is so scary.” At first, I got this kind of imprudent feeling from playing, you know?]
– Ah, yes. It’s a sign of the times.
[Of course, it’s all model guns, just holding guns and playing war, you know? So grown-up. It felt a little imprudent, but playing also made me think about how much war sucks, and how we really shouldn’t do it. Playing these games isn’t supporting war in any way, and I don’t think it’s something war lovers play, either. Well, maybe war lovers play too, sometimes (laughs).]
– Then, playing survival games actually served to develop your anti-war sentiments?
[Yes, I think it did. War absolutely sucks. When you get hit in a survival game, you go “Ow!” and that’s it, but if it were a real war, that one hit would kill you. In the end, war is just wrong.]
– What with the military intervention in Iraq, we’re living in a period of war nervousness, plus there have been several wars even within your own life time, tetsu-san. The Falkland Island dispute (2) for instance, even without directly experiencing it, there were moments where it felt like a realtime war. What kind of views do you have on war?
[Love and peace. No, I don’t have any real views to speak of. Well, I think anyone can see that war is bad, but wars still happen despite that.]
– For example, there’s the current situation with Iraq, where even though the U.N. was opposed to it, ultimately America wouldn’t give up and ended up starting a war. The U.N. resolutions were originally meant to create a universal world, but in the end they were useless.
[That’s the kind of country America is. They’re the type to do whatever they feel is in their national interest, you know?]
– Japan followed them too, in the end we sent out the self-defence forces (3). Well, it’s for the sake of undertaking the reconstruction of Iraq.
[I don’t think there was any point in going, but I guess it can’t be helped. There was pressure on the country, so we couldn’t not go, you know? But, I don’t like the way some members of the self-defence force are opposed to it. It would be kind of like if firefighters said fires were too dangerous, so they won’t go. They’re supposed to be the first people to rush into this kind of emergency, aren’t they? That’s the kind of work these military people chose to do. But I have to wonder what kind of person would sign up without actually intending to go if anything like this comes up.]
– Now, what do you think about war and music? It’s always been connected to love and peace, which means that the topics can’t be separated, in my opinion.
[I’ve never written an antiwar song or any antiwar lyrics. I have no intention of ever writing any, either. I don’t like message songs. Even leaving the antiwar theme behind, I’ve never written any message songs. That’s not what music is about, to me.]
– So, you go out of your way to not write any?
[That’s right. I don’t like things that make a strong statement in my world. For example, because they’re our fans, there are a lot of people who’ll take our opinion on anything we bring up at face value and believe it to be true. Unconditionally. Because they’re fans. Because they like us. So that means that even if we’re wrong, they’ll go “Yeah, yeah” and believe it anyway. Even if we were wrong or prejudiced. That just seems a little too much like brainwashing. So, message songs and stuff like that really aren’t fair. I want my fans to have their own opinions and their own ideas.]
– How about songs that don’t have a direct message, but rather are vaguely themed about global love instead of singing that message? How do you feel about those?
[That kind of song, yeah, I have some. Up until now? I’ve made some. SCARECROW was that kind of song. That song wasn’t about feeling love, though. What the heck was it? It wasn’t love. It was “anti#%&@”. I didn’t name the #%&@ part, though. But, I think that when people listen to the song, they won’t understand its true meaning. It was written up to look like a love song. I think most people interpret it that way.]
– I have no idea what you might mean, but this does make it seem like the song has a certain spice hidden within it.
[Yeah, inconspicuously. Antiwar or love and peace, those are so easy to write about that anybody can do it. It’s like, of course, completely obvious. However, there are other things to society, to the world. Disputes never end, anyway. Because everyone involved in the fight is convinced they’re right. They each have their own idea of what’s fair and just, you know? They say a world without war would be peaceful. But if you look at history, people have always been fighting, haven’t they? There’s no such thing as a war-free era. I mean, even if there isn’t a massive war on, there are still individual massacres. Incidents like that. So yeah, peace is just so… difficult…… Argh, it’s so hard!]
Interviewer : Kikuchi Keisuke
Translated by Natalie Arnold
[Yup. When I play those games, I think “This is so scary.” At first, I got this kind of imprudent feeling from playing, you know?]
– Ah, yes. It’s a sign of the times.
[Of course, it’s all model guns, just holding guns and playing war, you know? So grown-up. It felt a little imprudent, but playing also made me think about how much war sucks, and how we really shouldn’t do it. Playing these games isn’t supporting war in any way, and I don’t think it’s something war lovers play, either. Well, maybe war lovers play too, sometimes (laughs).]
– Then, playing survival games actually served to develop your anti-war sentiments?
[Yes, I think it did. War absolutely sucks. When you get hit in a survival game, you go “Ow!” and that’s it, but if it were a real war, that one hit would kill you. In the end, war is just wrong.]
– What with the military intervention in Iraq, we’re living in a period of war nervousness, plus there have been several wars even within your own life time, tetsu-san. The Falkland Island dispute (2) for instance, even without directly experiencing it, there were moments where it felt like a realtime war. What kind of views do you have on war?
[Love and peace. No, I don’t have any real views to speak of. Well, I think anyone can see that war is bad, but wars still happen despite that.]
– For example, there’s the current situation with Iraq, where even though the U.N. was opposed to it, ultimately America wouldn’t give up and ended up starting a war. The U.N. resolutions were originally meant to create a universal world, but in the end they were useless.
[That’s the kind of country America is. They’re the type to do whatever they feel is in their national interest, you know?]
– Japan followed them too, in the end we sent out the self-defence forces (3). Well, it’s for the sake of undertaking the reconstruction of Iraq.
[I don’t think there was any point in going, but I guess it can’t be helped. There was pressure on the country, so we couldn’t not go, you know? But, I don’t like the way some members of the self-defence force are opposed to it. It would be kind of like if firefighters said fires were too dangerous, so they won’t go. They’re supposed to be the first people to rush into this kind of emergency, aren’t they? That’s the kind of work these military people chose to do. But I have to wonder what kind of person would sign up without actually intending to go if anything like this comes up.]
– Now, what do you think about war and music? It’s always been connected to love and peace, which means that the topics can’t be separated, in my opinion.
[I’ve never written an antiwar song or any antiwar lyrics. I have no intention of ever writing any, either. I don’t like message songs. Even leaving the antiwar theme behind, I’ve never written any message songs. That’s not what music is about, to me.]
– So, you go out of your way to not write any?
[That’s right. I don’t like things that make a strong statement in my world. For example, because they’re our fans, there are a lot of people who’ll take our opinion on anything we bring up at face value and believe it to be true. Unconditionally. Because they’re fans. Because they like us. So that means that even if we’re wrong, they’ll go “Yeah, yeah” and believe it anyway. Even if we were wrong or prejudiced. That just seems a little too much like brainwashing. So, message songs and stuff like that really aren’t fair. I want my fans to have their own opinions and their own ideas.]
– How about songs that don’t have a direct message, but rather are vaguely themed about global love instead of singing that message? How do you feel about those?
[That kind of song, yeah, I have some. Up until now? I’ve made some. SCARECROW was that kind of song. That song wasn’t about feeling love, though. What the heck was it? It wasn’t love. It was “anti#%&@”. I didn’t name the #%&@ part, though. But, I think that when people listen to the song, they won’t understand its true meaning. It was written up to look like a love song. I think most people interpret it that way.]
– I have no idea what you might mean, but this does make it seem like the song has a certain spice hidden within it.
[Yeah, inconspicuously. Antiwar or love and peace, those are so easy to write about that anybody can do it. It’s like, of course, completely obvious. However, there are other things to society, to the world. Disputes never end, anyway. Because everyone involved in the fight is convinced they’re right. They each have their own idea of what’s fair and just, you know? They say a world without war would be peaceful. But if you look at history, people have always been fighting, haven’t they? There’s no such thing as a war-free era. I mean, even if there isn’t a massive war on, there are still individual massacres. Incidents like that. So yeah, peace is just so… difficult…… Argh, it’s so hard!]
Interviewer : Kikuchi Keisuke
Translated by Natalie Arnold
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