At the end of January and back in Japan, I looked over the newspaper clippings accumulated during the two months I was away. How many times did I see "The 20th Century was a century of war" In spite pages crowded with references to conflicts ad nauseam, there was not a single account of the world's longest civil war, the Karen's "war of resistance"

Their history of struggle remained completely unacknowledged. For this very reason I must go there; there are voices largely unheard which I am able to record. Entering the ninth year of this realization, I reaffirmed the essential motivation guiding my work.I don't want to fight. But I have no other choice but to fight. Such words must not pass the lips of the head of an army.