Voices of Nostalgia - Noboru Kirishima and "Somebody Must Think of Home" 1930s-1960s

Voices of Nostalgia - Noboru Kirishima and "Somebody Must Think of Home" 1930s-1960s

Noboru Kirishima, born in 1913, was a singer whose voice resonated close to the hearts of the Japanese people before and during World War II. He studied voice at the Tokyo Music School and eventually distinguished himself by singing works by composer Yuji Koseki. Daremo Hometown wo Mochi wo Soukouzaru" ("Someone Must Think of Home"), released in 1940, was widely popular as a lyric song that brought tears to the hearts of soldiers sent to the Chinese front and their families left behind in their hometowns during the war-torn era.

At the time, Japan was plunged into the Sino-Japanese War and then the Pacific War, and the lives of the Japanese people were under strict control. Songs of military and patriotic songs became the mainstream, and Noboru Kirishima sang "Dawn Prayer" and "Song of the Young Eagle" to raise the spirits of the warriors. However, his songs were not merely inspirational, but also represented the "feelings of hometown" held by soldiers and ordinary people, and were unique in that they provided comfort and nostalgia.

His masterpiece "Daremo Hometown wo Mochi wo Soumu Zaru" was unique for a wartime song. Rather than inspiring the will to fight, the song sang of lost days and feelings of hometown in an unaffected way that resonated strongly with both the soldiers in the war zone and their families left behind. In an era when popular songs became tools for state control, this song occupied a special position as a lyric that reflected universal human emotions.

After the war, Japanese society was recovering from the ruins of the war, and a new trend of songs arose along with radio and movies. In this context, Kirishima's singing style was considered somewhat old-fashioned, and he gave up his leading role to postwar singers such as Ichiro Fujiyama and Haruo Oka. However, Kirishima's warm voice was an unforgettable sound for the generation during the war, and he will long be remembered as the man who carved his feelings for his hometown and family into his songs.

While his contemporary Ichiro Fujiyama sang of youth and hope symbolized by "Blue Mountains" with his clear tenor voice, and Haruo Oka supported postwar reconstruction with his folksy cheerfulness, Noboru Kirishima's voice was distinctive in its imprint of the shadows and nostalgia of the war years. His career is a symbol of "wartime and nostalgia" in the history of Japanese song. The fact that his famous songs, which were born under the wartime regime, continued to sustain people's hearts in the chaotic postwar period shows that his voice had the power to evoke universal feelings that transcended time.