{"id":6702,"date":"2021-03-05T11:33:17","date_gmt":"2021-03-05T11:33:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stuartpoetry.art\/?p=6702"},"modified":"2021-03-05T11:33:17","modified_gmt":"2021-03-05T11:33:17","slug":"japan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/2021\/03\/05\/japan\/","title":{"rendered":"Japan"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I was in a toy shop buying presents when on a shelf I found a few boxes of soldiers<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">These were very much like the boxes of miniature soldiers<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">That I used to have when I was a child<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Out of curiosity I moved one of these boxes causing the others to fall to the floor<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As I picked them up one of the boxes split and shed hundreds of Japanese soldiers at my feet<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I looked at the box which stated that these were the brave Japanese soldiers who had invaded Australia in 1942<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This puzzled me as Australia had never been invaded by the Japanese<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It was as I was picking the miniature soldiers up that I noticed a woman sobbing quietly near the changing room<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">At first I ignored her but her distress seemed quite deep so I asked her what was wrong<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">She told me that she was upset because the shop that we were in was no longer a video shop as it had once been<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But her main cause of distress was that she had found out that a number of Presidents of the United States had lost their sons in unfortunate circumstances<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I told her that a number of American Presidents had sons who had survived their early years and were always to be found wearing tennis socks when playing the game<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This seemed to cheer the woman up<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I asked of her name<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">She told me that it was Second Theatre<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I asked her why there was a changing room in the toy shop<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">She told me that the owner secretly sold tee shirts with paparazzi images of various celebrities displayed<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It was then that I noticed that the woman was wearing a white tee shirt which showed an image of Princess Diana naked on a rock<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I was not aware that Princess Diana had been photographed nude<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The woman told me that she had taken the photograph when they holidayed together and had transferred the image on to a range of tee shirts with Diana\u2019s approval<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><em>If only she had worn a seat belt silly girl<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><em>\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><em>We had planned so many holidays together<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><em>\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The woman could could see that I too was troubled by the box of Japanese soldiers that I held in my hand<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><em>They did invade Australia you know but it was kept secret<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><em>\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><em>It was an awful war<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><em>\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><em>Millions died<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><em>\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><em>Darwin was devastated<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><em>\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><em>Adelaide annihilated<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><em>\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><em>Only Sydney survived<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><em>\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><em>Do you remember the spate of gay murders that took place in the city about thirty years ago<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><em>\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><em>Just about<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><em>\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><em>These were committed by the very soldiers that you hold in your hand<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><em>\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><em>I imprisoned them in the box that you split<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><em>\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><em>I do not have much time for homosexuals but I do cherish life<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><em>\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><em>That is why I did what I did<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><em>\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I closed my eyes and when I opened them again I was sitting on some steps leading down to the River Thames<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It was nearly dark but I could see that I was wearing a black tee shirt<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I studied the illustration which was of Clara Petacci hanging upside down from the roof of a petrol station in Milan<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">She had been shot to death and was hanging next to Mussolini<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Her skirt had fallen towards her waist exposing her pubic hair<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In the corner of the photograph a woman was moving towards her bloodied corpse<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">That was it apart from a short caption printed in red<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Which read<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><em>Anche nella morte la modestia di una donna e important per me<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I was in a toy shop buying presents when on a shelf I found a few boxes of soldiers These were very much like the boxes of miniature soldiers That I used to have when I was a child Out of curiosity I moved one of these boxes causing the others to fall to the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6702"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6702"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6702\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6702"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6702"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6702"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}