Experienced “historical facts” about Ukraine in Estonia
One year has passed since the start of Russia's invasion of Ukraine. In Estonia, which borders Russia and has a historical background of independence from the Soviet Union, there's no day without seeing the shadow of Ukraine.
On the day we arrived in Estonia, we saw hate words and pictures on the walls of the Russian embassy in Tallinn. That was the first day to see around Estonia so I was quite shocked, but I was also impressed by the fact that no one seemed to be paying attention to them, either because they dared not look directly at them or because they had become routine that they did not even interest the situation.
After moving to Tartu on the second day of our trip, we felt not only the spiritual ties between Ukraine and Estonia, but also the diplomatic and educational ties. Of the two groups that split into two to conduct fieldwork, the education team observed a local elementary school which welcomed several Ukrainian students. Some of the team members said they felt uncomfortable seeing Ukrainian children, who may have language or mental disadvantages, sat in the back rows of the class. Even one year after the invasion, the situation in the field of education in Estonia is still confusing.
The connection with Ukraine that I felt on Independence Day is summarized in the report on that part. On the way back to the hotel from the concert, a candle-lighting event was held for two young people in a square near the hotel. I had no idea of their connection to Estonia or Ukraine, but it was very painful to see that young people of at least the same age as myself were involved in the war and losing their lives. The next day, several dozen people holding Ukrainian and Estonian flags gathered in the city's main square for a quiet demonstration. It was somewhat bizarre that none of them made a sound as they crossed the bridge and headed toward the riverfront.
I had a chance to meet two Ukrainian students who visited Japan Night, and we had a lot of conversations together. I still cannot forget the feeling I had when I realized that they were from an area I had heard about on the Japanese news, and the horrific damage I had seen on video suddenly hit me as if it had happened to me. Also, when I was translating into English the professor's Japanese explanation to the two students that there were few historical buildings left in Estonia in light of the churches that were bombarded during the war, I realized that they are still experiencing the same thing in their hometowns, and that they are experiencing the historical facts not through text but through their own experiences. At that time, I did not know what to do with them. There were so many questions I wanted to ask them, but I felt frustrated that I did not have the words to verbalize my questions.
Estonia was indeed a safe city. However, if one takes a bird's eye view of the city and the colors one sees, the wounds inflicted by the Soviet Union/Russia remain strong in the buildings and in the psyche of the people, and the blue and yellow items as symbols that reveal national love and solidarity through the national flag remain vivid in my memory.
