『へいわとせんそう』(絵本)をおすすめします。

谷川は、戦時中に空襲に遭い焼死体をたくさん見た実体験を持つが、この絵本では残酷な体験を語ったり抽象的に平和を説いたりはしない。最初の見開きは「へいわのボク」「せんそうのボク」、次は「へいわのワタシ」「せんそうのワタシ」というふうに、短い言葉で平和時と戦争時の状況を対比させていく。絵はモノクロの線画で、どの場面もシンプルでわかりやすく幼児にも伝わるものがある。最後の見開きの「みかたのあかちゃん」「てきのあかちゃん」ではどちらもまったく同じ絵になっている。

3歳から/平和 戦争

 

Peace and War

As a teenager, the author was forced to flee from fire bombs during World War II, at which time he saw countless corpses. In this book, however, he neither shares those painful experiences nor talks about peace in abstract terms. Instead, he takes familiar things and actions that we take for granted and juxtaposes what they look like during a time of peace and a time of war. The book begins with a child (me at peace, me at war) and progresses through a father, a mother, a family, a tool of peace (a pencil) and a tool of war (a gun), as well as such things as a queue, a tree, the sea, a town, night, and a cloud. Except for the mushroom cloud rising from the atomic bomb, which is a photo, the pages are illustrated with simple black-and-white drawings. In the last spread, “a baby on our side” and “an enemy baby,” the pictures are identical. (Sakuma)

  • Text: Tanikawa, Shuntaro | Illus. Noritake
  • Bronze Publishing
  • 2019
  • 32 pages
  • 19×19
  • ISBN 9784893096579
  • Age 3 +

Peace, War

(JBBY「おすすめ!日本の子どもの本2020」より)