Murakami plays antiwar songs on radio to protest Ukraine war

By MARI YAMAGUCHI
Associated Press

TOKYO (AP) — Playing James Taylor’s “Never Die Young” and going back to songs that marked the antiwar movement in the 1960s, Japanese author Haruki Murakami added his voice to protests against the war in Ukraine with a special edition of his Tokyo radio show. For Friday’s 55-minute program called “Music to put an end to war,” Murakami chose 10 tracks from his collections of records and CDs at home. The 1960s antiwar songs included Peter, Paul & Mary’s “Cruel War” and “Unknown Soldier” by the Doors, which he remembered always playing on the radio in his college days. With his youth years overlapping with the antiwar movement, his words and choice of songs gave a deeper meaning and relevance to the conflict in Ukraine.