Waiting for Episode2 in the city of Ground Zero >> Japanese

This is a report of the visit to Ground Zero with New Yorker Star Wars fan just two days before the SW Episode2 opening. Click photographs to see them in the large size. (May, 2002)

10:00 a.m. on May 14, New York, 38 hours up to the opening of STAR WARS Episode2. In the middle of Manhattan, in front of Ziegfeld Theater, about ten fans were hanging about, unable to wait still at home for the sequel of the saga. But probably, most fans are just storing up their energy at home and each place of work gently until tomorrow night, for the advance tickets are already out in the box office since ten days ago, and the place of the seat to get is the only problem remains. The tents now look bored in the way side, after devoting to the fans every night for one month or more.
Though not spent 1 month in line, I am also one of them waiting for the saga for three years. Arriving at this city two days ago, I was killing my time with sightseeing, but too much sympathy to avoid calling on them this morning.
After exchanging greetings for a while, I was taking pictures to put on the Website when I heard the voice;
"If you take pictures and show them to your friends in Japan, it's good to take them here too, but first of all, visit Ground Zero."

The tents and the chairs in front of Ziegfeld.	The fans waiting last 38 hours.
The good way to kill time -- SW chess.	Head tent complete view.

They call it "Ground Zero", the place of World Trade Center twin towers that collapsed by that terrorist attack on September 11 last year, because it is a mere empty now.
He was Greg, a local civil servant and a weekend volunteer staff in that site. The plastic card of the qualification certificate is hung over his breast, and the message cards from the children and the badges of gratitude from many states are located in a line on the strap.
"If you are free now, I will take you there. Shall we?"

20 minutes ride on the subway.
Stepping up the stairs of Chambers Street station, I felt the atmosphere of the "site" already overflowing.
Nothing vivid, no ash, no debris. However, the atmosphere. It was not a pathetic feeling. Although there was some of it, the stream of many other feelings wrapped it in and was changing it into another form.

	Various languages from all over the world were filling up the walls. T-shirts containing the name of teams, schools etc. were hanging down from the walls to tell where the writers of the messages came from.

"Don't be down" "Hung on" "Don't lose" "Don't stop",
"I am sad" "I hate this" "I just want to be friendly",
"Why it was at the United States?" "He was a good fellow" "I miss you",
"I want peace" "Thank you Mr. fireman" ...
Expressions of simple feelings overflow there.
The children and adults in the United States and all over the world write sentences, draw pictures, and fold paper cranes of the prayers.
There is no logistic reason for them. The simple feeling without reason is always right. So, no need of hesitation to express them.

They are easy to be misunderstood. The United States does not lose --- this feeling is easy to be treated as the present power and the reason of the war. Probably, the government is actually treating it so.
However, in my sight, I could find no will to attack something, though there were so many messages, all were in different forms and sent from various places. There were some messages supporting President Bush. However, the messages were not directly linked with the retaliatory strike. They simply praise the positive power of their leader who made decision to move on, and nothing more complicated. The messages here are not yet on the stage to consider and imagine the result of the action. They are on an elementary and pure stage just after being born as the feeling.
Nevertheless, the battlefields are still there, beyond the horizon. The war is going on.

	The messages fill the handrail of the balcony prepared for the people coming to see the site. In the other side, another balcony is prepared for the bereaved families.

St. Paul's Chapel. This church is the base for whom working in the site 1 block beyond, to rest their heart and body. Though the qualification card is required to get into it, thanks to Greg's help the volunteer staff here, I was allowed to enter as a special case.
The message from all over the world was overflowing also here. They were stuck on all the places vacant on the walls, the pillars, and the chairs. On the second floor, stuffed animals with the message cards from children were put on the every vacant pillow of the temporary beds.
In a corner of the floor, a group of musicians were playing quiet music, and left, and another group appeared naturally, without pause. The cooks offering cooking. The firemen and workers walking in, talking, and resting or sleeping, and walking out.
Greg said, "I have also slept here once. I had the most beautiful morning in my life."

"Write back to children" A bunch of thank-you-cards were in the basket. This is a photograph printed on them. Taking pictures was prohibited in the church to protect the firemen and workers who comes back to rest.

Greg told me that there is a big white tent still near Ground Zero. That is, same as St. Paul's Chapel, the sanctuary for the people working at Ground Zero. They call it "Taj Mahal." Because even a tent is felt like a royal palace if you return from that site, said Greg.
Although he negotiated for me to get in there with him, his friend standing on the entrance did not show any tolerance. They were protecting earnestly those who are actually devoting themselves working on the site, from tourists and mass communications.
"This is the thing about nationalism. No tolerance, even for a friend."
"Nationalism." The nuance in the word spoken by them is a little bit different from the impression that the Japanese word "nationalism" gives us.
"I grew up here." "This is my city."
Greg, the helping staff at the church, and the government official in the uniform, who has just come back from the site, said the same thing to me. They both were proud of it. People in the church were working with smile, as long as their body allows. They smiled to, and shook hands with, me, the tourist who has nothing to do here, be of no use here, with the words "I am glad having you here."

	The names of the victims are located in lines. "To show respect to them, please write nothing here". Other places are so full of people's writings.

The cross, made by chance with the iron frames of the building. Someone had made the offering to it. Gradually, those who work on the site decorated it. It became the place to pray. Now, although moved to the corner, it is still working as the place for the prayers.

Since when I had arrived in this city till yesterday, I have been feeling some incongruity with the words like "I love New York" "United We Stand" found anywhere around the city. I thought carrying out such a pause was considered like duty. But today, I think I was misunderstanding them. This city was a battlefield on that day -- they are actually feeling so.
Still, busy New Yorkers' do not spend their daily time in expressing it to language or attitudes. Once after making their feelings into the forms such as writings, drawings, and other artistic objects, they return to their daily life. The Good and evil of their life style is what has already been discussed about for a long time, and is another problem, which should not be carried out to the conclusion now and here. Not to stop their living, not to stop having fun, not to stop being free, is their way to fight, and it is only "what should be done now" which both the educated and not educated can be sure of.
From Tokyo city, almost all the trash baskets on the road disappeared after the terrorist attack in the subways. On the other hand, they are casually located on the road from Ground Zero to Chambers Street station. Greg drank up his Cola he got at the church, and threw the can into it.

In the middle of the city again.
"Well, tomorrow is a big day."
Greg returns to the tent in front of the theater, and. I, a tourist, return to the hotel room. The STAR WARS Episode2 opening night is coming tomorrow. To sleep a deep and long sleep with braveness not awaken by the worry for the future, to gain the enough power for the night we were waiting for all these 3 years, and for as me, to write down a short memorandum before going to bed, in order to tell people what I saw today. They are "what should be done now" we can be sure of.
Though -- the battlefield has left this city only for a while, and it is still there, beyond the horizon -- this is the night like this and we know it. (May, 2002)

	The sculpture moved to the Battely Park in the south of the town from the front garden of World Trade Center, reminds me of A-bomb memorial dome in Hiroshima. This park is the main passage to the Statue of Liberty. "This is surprise that this remained so much of its shape." from American sightseers' conversations.
	Writings and photographs: JediKYOKO