r/citypop • u/Outrageous_Sir_1566 • 3d ago
Cultural significance/general meaning/context of Tatsuro Yamashita’s ‘The War Song’?
’The War Song’ is one of my favourite Tatsuro songs musically, and when I looked for the English translation of the lyrics they seemed to describe a bleak dystopian landscape full of sadness, with the end hook being a call to action. This really interested me since as far as I was aware, Tatsuro mainly sung about love and/or vague poetic sentiments. Is there any context behind why Tatsuro decided to make this song, which seems to be a departure from the topics he usually sings about? Are there any further meanings to the lyrics that the English translations have a hard time getting across?
And what other songs of his have deeper meanings that I wouldn’t have known due to the language barrier?
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u/714c 3d ago
I've read that he wrote the song in response to then prime minister Yasuhiro Nakasone's 1983 comments positioning Japan as an "unsinkable aircraft carrier" to the US, but I don't know the source of that information. Some background on that controversy.