VJ Day* in Rhode Island for today Pearl Harbor Day

VJ Day* in Rhode Island
(*THE STATE OF RHODE ISLAND AND PROVIDENCE PLANTATIONS
is one of the few states which still declare August 14 a holiday to honor Victory—over—Japan day. No such holiday still exists in any state to commemorate the United States victory in Europe during WWII.)

This August Day, still a cause for celebration
in a small “Ocean State” of pride.
Spavined old men and women, sit rigidly upstairs
in quaint Cape Cod style houses. Simple structures
of narrow windows thwarting an intrusive view.
Where these veterans will never surrender
like loyal samurai hiding out in caves
on Iwo or Guadalcanal. Valuing death,
before supposed dishonor. A testament to themselves, enduring
attics of confinement ongoing in their minds.
Steadfastly resisting, a modern moneyed invasion;
they could never halt or understand. Memories filled
with Bataan tales. Atrocities that still truly march on,
with pistols and ceremonial swords of hate,
snared in cobwebbed, musty images of Pearl Harbor
that somehow justify the mushroomings of Hiroshima/Nagasaki.

While at Newport’s “Blackships Festival”,
Spectacular fireworks burst vermillion and green.
The color of ancient Shinto Shrines.
Foreign fireworks to set aglow those famous mansion tops.
All carefully arranged as forests of origami,
Which burn with a divine wind that once graced
The paper cities of Tokyo/Nagoya/Yokohama.
Where civilians clothes even now reek and smolder
From B-29 bombings that incite thought…
Far away from a week long observance
Of kite flying at a festival
To honor Perry and his Western fleet…
This Nipponese paid contribution
Of laughing cumquats explodes in a sky garden
That drips on those below, the lush fruit
And satisfaction of oriental revenge.