#talacowa

The song begins with an indigenous style of call and response singing, imitating a soldier calling out and receiving a collective response from his companions as they enter the forest. To create contrast with its historical setting, she chose a distorted electric guitar for the Showa-style melody that plays through the chorus.

The snare drum evokes the rigid rhythm of a military march, while other percussion instruments mimick the frog, insect, and bird calls they would have heard during their journey. As the narrative of the long and difficult trek structures itself around day and night imagery, the trumpet becomes the rising sun and the guitar strings become the stars that populate the night sky. Hunter says he hopes that the song’s vivid melody can illuminate the long journey once taken by Natsuko’s grandfather.

“The Amis people are very good at stargazing—the contents of the sky are very important.” In the song’s lyrics, the eight-pointed star guides the Amis youth towards their destination. In addition to symbolizing the protection of the ancestors, it also references the way they would have used the stars as a navigation tool. “My father always stressed to me that the Amis people are excellent survivors,” Natsuko says with a smile.

She shares that in all honesty, although she knew immediately upon hearing the story that she wanted to write the song, she began to question herself several times over the course of its composition. After all, her grandfather passed away before she was born, so what connection did she really have to the song?

Unexpectedly, she not only climbed through the Central Mountains as her grandfather once had, but also began to flip through the pages of her own lost history. “To write the lyrics, I did a lot of reading on the Takasago volunteer soldiers. I realized I was doing something I hadn’t done in my first [Amis language] song—that is to say, I hadn’t integrated my culture into the lyrics of my first song.”

Not everyone joined the Japanese to fight overseas out of submission or deception. She saw that at that time, many indigenous coming of age rituals had been banned. From the perspective of the “civilized” Japanese, rituals such as leaving children alone in forests or tasking them with hunting monkeys were deemed too barbaric. But once indigenous boys were robbed of the opportunity to become men in the eyes of their traditional tribal social structures, they felt it was necessary to prove their courage on the battlefield, instead.

“Why would the colonized wish to fight for their colonizers? In fact, it’s not as simple as everyone may think.”

There is one part of the song that I particularly like:

awaay ma’araw ako ko soda i ca’ang no kilang. awaay ma’araw iso ko taneng niyam. latek cowa kafana’ kako to kararoman no miso. kaorira i, caay ka patadoen ako kiso a malalo’od. we may be strangers to snow-covered branches but you are strangers to our wisdom perhaps i am simply unable to understand your struggles but i will not fight your battles

awaay ma’araw ako ko soda i ca’ang no kilang. we may be strangers to snow-covered branches awaay ma’araw iso ko taneng niyam. but you are strangers to our wisdom latek cowa kafana’ kako to kararoman no miso. perhaps i am simply unable to understand your struggles kaorira i, caay ka patadoen ako kiso a malalo’od. but i will not fight your battles

tatalacowa kita? micelemayto ko cidal. where are we going? the sun has already set minokay to kita! we’re going home! あぁ　東に向かって　山を越えて a~a higashi ni mukatte yama o koete to the east, past the mountains

耳元で囁いていた八芒星 mimimoto de sasayaite ita hachibōsei the eight-pointed star whispers in my ear and guides my way

戊夜の霧に抱かれた　蒼くぬれ boya no kiri ni daka reta aoku nure the fog of night surrounds us and slowly dyes the world blue

「そなたは何と呼ばれる？」 “sonata wa nanto yoba reru?” “what is your name?”

教えて oshiete please tell me

あぁ　旭日がいらないや　銃を棄てて a~a kyokujitsu ga iranai ya jū o sutete abandon the rising sun, lay down your guns

平原に沈んでいた八芒星 hirahara ni shizunde ita hachibōsei as the eight-pointed star sinks beneath the plains

暁が開けて来た　赤くぬれ akatsuki ga akete kita akaku nure day breaks and slowly dyes the sky red

誰にも覗き込まれない行く末 darenimo nozoki koma renai yukusue and we reach the end of our journey, safe from prying eyes

¹reference to an important amis/pangcah cultural symbol, visible in the cover art in the center of the soldier's hat. i could not find the actual word for it in amis and, interestingly, it only appears in the japanese sections of the song. will edit the post if i find it T-T

this song is the story lead singer (and lyricist on this song) Natsuko once heard from her father about her grandfather's experience as an amis volunteer soldier during the final days of WWII. full translation of the portion of the interview that talks about this particular song in very great depth here. brief excerpt for basic context: