In the exhibition, I could see many original drawings and paintings in her books. Pippi Longstocking is the most famous characters created by Astrid Lindgren, who is the strongest girl in the world.
When I was in elementary school, the TV series of Pippi was very famous among children. I think almost all the books of Astrid Lindgren are translated into Japanese. Personally, I like Emil series and was glad to see some humorous illustrations of Björn Berg.
But the most interesting things for me were two films about Astrid Lindgren. One of them presented her life and background, including interviews with her family members and celebration of her 80th birthday. The other film was an extraction of her speech “No Violence!” made in Germany in 1978. She was opposed to corporal punishment to children, and I was very impressed by her words. She said something like this: Children should respect their parents, but parents should also respect their children. I completely agree with her.
In the next year, 1979, Sweden became the first country that banned corporal punishment to children. But in Japan, there are still many parents and teachers who think such punishment is necessary though it is already 2019. They consider children as immature people and just want to control them without hearing their opinions and feelings. Children under the control of such adults are required just to be obedient.
When the Swedish teenager Greta Thunberg started the school strike for climate last year, I thought her very courageous. But at the same time, I felt the maturity of the Swedish society in which children are also treated as individuals with their own will and allowed to speak out what they believe. I didn’t think that there were any Japanese teenagers who could do the same.
On May 24, the 2nd Global Climate Strike took place all over the world. I heard that a climate strike was held in more than 100 places in Sweden. In Japan, 300 people gathered in Tokyo, and 100 in Kyoto. The numbers of participants have increased compared with the 1st Global Climate Strike. And in “Friday for Future Kyoto” on Twitter, I saw a picture in which someone was holding a board with a message “Go Vegan” written in both English and Japanese! Since the relationship between climate change and meat consumption is not widely known in Japan, I hoped many people would notice this message.
It has been hot today. In Hamamatsu, it was around 30 degrees during the day. But in Hokkaido, the northernmost part of Japan, the temperature reached 39.5 degrees, which was the highest temperature ever recorded.
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