Center for Mennonite Writing

CMW Journal

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  Staring Down the Muzzle from Yamoto to Baghdad

  by Wilbur Birky

  Birky's essay, "Staring Down the Muzzle," relates Yaguchi's life and experience, during World War II and since, to his poems and his activism for peace in Japan. The original version of Birky's essay was presented at the "Mennonite/s Writing: Beyond Borders" conference on Mennonite literature at ...

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  The Movement for Non-Defended Localities in Sapporo, Japan

  by Yorifumi Yaguchi

  In his essay, "The Movement for Non-Defended Localities," Yaguchi favors us with an account of the way he used two of his poems in a public, official meeting to try to persuade local authorities in his home district to make Sapporo a "non-defended" location. The incident is a fascinating illustration ...

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  Five Poems

  by Yorifumi Yaguchi

  Yaguchi has also contributed five of his peace-oriented poems for this issue. Published earlier in Japan, they appear here with permission of the author.

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  Poems for Peace in China

  by Wilbur Birky

  In May 2008 Birky was invited to visit China with Yaguchi on behalf of Mennonite Partners in China. Yaguchi was to read his poems and Birky was to comment on them, as well as make presentations on American literature and the English language. It was hoped that Yaguchi's presence ...

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  Wing-Beaten Air

  by John J. Fisher

  Yaguchi's new memoir, The Wing-Beaten Air, is reviewed by John Fisher.