“If There Were Love, There Would Be No War”: Akihiro Miwa—The Origins of “Love and Anti-War” in His Legendary Album *Shirajyu*

“Heavenly Beauty,” as described by Yukio Mishima

Akihiro Miwa, a singer-songwriter known for hits such as “Yoitomake no Uta” and an active singer and actor in films, theater, and television dramas, passed away on June 20 due to old age. He was 91.

According to the official website of his agency, which announced the news of his passing, he had been scaling back his work over the past year due to his advanced age and focusing on regaining his strength; however, after his health deteriorated about three months ago, he had been resting at home.

During his lifetime, Mr. Miwa entrusted the following handwritten message to agency officials:

“The only weapon to survive in a world like this is the language of love. The key to solving all the problems in this world is love. If there were love, wars would never happen.”

Her agency explained this message as follows:

“Miwa’s wish was to eliminate all discrimination and prejudice from this world and to realize a society of coexistence where everyone could live in peace, brightness, and joy. This message embodies that wish.” (Both from the official website)

Drawing on her experience of being exposed to the atomic bomb at the age of 10, Miwa conveyed her anti-war and pro-peace sentiments through her songs and continued to speak out on television programs and elsewhere. She also publicly came out as gay, spoke out against discrimination against the LGBTQ community, and continued to encourage those in vulnerable positions with messages of solidarity.

Born on May 15, 1935, in Nagasaki City, Miwa moved to Tokyo in 1951 after graduating from Kaisei Junior High School. In 1952, she dropped out of the preparatory school affiliated with the Kunitachi College of Music and, at the age of 17, signed an exclusive contract with Ginbari, a chanson café in Ginza, making her debut as a singer.

Under the stage name Akihiro Maruyama, he made his recording debut with Nippon Columbia in 1957. He scored a massive hit by performing the French chanson “Meké Meké” with Japanese lyrics he had written himself.Dressed in a purple gown with manicured nails—a “cross-dressing” look—and possessing a beauty that Yukio Mishima described as “heavenly,” he was hailed as “the most beautiful young man since the time of Emperor Jimmu” and took the nation by storm.

“Japan back then was a backwater, so cross-dressing was a huge deal. It felt like there was way too much fuss about it,”

—so said Miwa himself.

Later, as the pioneer of Japanese singer-songwriters, he wrote the lyrics and composed the music for “Yoitomake no Uta” (1965) and numerous other songs.

As a champion of love and anti-war causes

As the origin of Mr. Miwa’s lifelong advocacy for “love and anti-war,” we’d like to take another look at his legendary 1975 album *Byakuju*, released when he was 39 years old.

This was the first original album he produced himself, featuring 10 previously unreleased songs he had written and composed since his debut as a singer.

The first track on Side A of the album is “Homeland and Women (Song of the Military Comfort Women).” It features many socially conscious songs, such as “The Sun Will Rise Again,” which is based on a poem entrusted by a young man who survived the atomic bombing of Nagasaki to his lover before he died, and also includes his signature song, “The Song of Yoitomake.”

“Motherland and Women (The Song of the Military Comfort Women)” is a song inspired by a former military comfort woman who lived in his neighborhood when he was a child.

“She was kind and noble, yet she also possessed a woman’s defiance. She was conscripted for the sake of her country, and after the war ended, she was looked down upon by her neighbors—that’s probably why she felt she had to confide in a child like me. That memory stayed with me, and that’s why I wrote this song,”

Miwa explained at the time. It is a powerful anti-war song that depicts the harsh reality of military comfort women, who had to serve as many as 200 soldiers every day.

“Yoitomake no Uta” is also said to be a song recalling the mother of a friend from Miwa’s childhood in Nagasaki—a woman who worked herself to the bone as a day laborer leveling land for her family until she died. With “Shirajyu,” Miwa came into the spotlight as a socially conscious singer.At the age of 77, she made her debut appearance on the “63rd NHK Kōhaku Uta Gassen” (2012), where she sang the song in its full, approximately six-minute version, becoming a legend of the show; she also performed it on the “66th NHK Kōhaku Uta Gassen” (2015).

Regarding the album *Shirajyu*, Miwa said at the time:

“I want to dispel the dark, unpleasant forces enveloping the world today with a pure heart and white magic,”

and added,

“I feel I must become a storyteller who conveys these things (love and anti-war messages),”

—making a “storyteller’s declaration.”

The “handsome young man since the time of Emperor Jimmu” became a “storyteller who challenges society,” and he fulfilled that role throughout his life. Miwa’s message serves as a wake-up call to today’s world, where war continues to exist, and surely it is something that must be passed down for generations to come—I bow my hands in prayer.