Poem read at the Green Acre conference for the Japanese Orphan Relief Fund

 

      The Children of Japan

      From beyond the Yalu river

      And the islands faraway

      Comes the booming of the cannons,

      And the world is sad today.

     

      Sad alas! for suffering thousands,

      And the thousands who have gone

      To the lands beyond the Sun Rise

      To await the final dawn.

     

      But the children of the soldiers?

      Ah the little children’s cries

      Are re-echoed by the night winds

      Till the sea is sad with sighs.

     

      Yes, across the weary waters,

      Leagues and countless leagues away

      There are orphans by the thousands

      And the women weep today.

     

      Oh! my brothers they are dying        

      Famishing, for want of bread,      

      For their guardians’ the Reservists

      Are all at the Front --or dead!          

     

      Would you leave them in their anguish? 

      No! –the Brotherhood of Man        

      Call aloud for aid and succor      

      For the Children of Japan.               

     

      We have preached and prayed for ages

      On the little lines of creeds;

      But now my Christian brothers

      ‘Tis the time for kindly deeds.

     

      Till Fuji’s lofty mountain—

      And the Yalu River free

      He echo Christ great precept

      “Ye have done it unto me.”

                                  Larry Chittenden, San Antonio TX