Pete Seeger On Hiroshima, Nagasaki
AMY GOODMAN: Can we end with "Where Have All the Flowers Gone?" for the children?
PETE SEEGER: No. You sing it.
AMY GOODMAN: I wanted to end on a lovely note.
PETE SEEGER: No. I’ve sung lots of songs. And the other day, a group of Japanese Americans remembered Hiroshima, and I sang four short verses.
[singing] We come and stand at every door
But none can hear my silent tread
I knock and yet remain unseen
For I am dead, for I am dead.
I’m only seven, although I died
In Hiroshima long ago.
I’m seven now, as I was then.
When children die, they do not grow.
My hair was scorched by swirling flame;
My eyes grew dim, my eyes grew blind.
Death came and turned my bones to dust,
And that was scattered by the wind.
I need no fruit, I need no rice.
I need no sweets, not even bread;
I ask for nothing for myself,
For I am dead, for I am dead.
All that I ask is that for peace
You fight today, you fight today.
So that the children of this world
May live and grow and laugh and play!
AMY GOODMAN: Pete, thank you so much, and especially on this day, August 9th, the anniversary of the bombing of Nagasaki 68 years ago, three days after the bombing of Hiroshima 68 years ago.
PETE SEEGER: Yeah.
AMY GOODMAN: And now you head to greet the rowers coming down the Hudson.
PETE SEEGER: Mm-hmm, yeah.
AMY GOODMAN: And I thank you so much for being with us. Peter Seeger, Oren Lyons, Andy Mager, thanks for giving us a gift today.
ANDY MAGER: Thank you, Amy.
OREN LYONS: Thank you, Amy.
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