This is the second part of a series on anti-war songs that have shaped a cultural phenomenon throughout history. Read the first part here.Across the history of wars waged by the United States in different parts of the world since the 1960s, there has been a consistent narrative that has been woven to justify the attacks: of the ‘spectre of communism and left-wing ideology’ needing to be erased, of countries ruled by tyrants that need liberation by the US and of ‘terrorists’ posing dangers to the US and the West in general. The international peace movement came out of the need to not repeat the horrors of Nazism, as well as the devastating effects of the atom bomb being dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki at the end of World War II. It created an ethos and a global cultural movement that pointed out the futility of war and unthinking violence, even as the unequal politics of war was recognised. The peace movement and the cultural movement associated with it waned in its global reach as geopolitics and global alliances changed, but an anti-war ethic has continued to be articulated through the work of poets, musicians and artists across the world. In 1992, a Japanese band called The Boom released a song called Shima Uta, or the ‘Island Song’, written and sung by its lead singer, Kazufumi Miyazawa. It was based on Miyazawa’s visit to Okinawa and his meeting with survivors of the US invasion of Okinawa during the Second World War. The people of the province hid in caves to escape from the US army and thousands were found dead underground after weeks of moving from cave to cave. The song captures themes of pain, loss, longing and remembrance.Then there was Sólo Le Pido A Dios, a song that talks about the senselessness of war and which has become anthem-like in Latin America. Written by the Argentinian musician León Gieco in 1978, in the midst of Argentina’s Dirty War – the seven-year military dictatorship during which as many as thirty thousand left-leaning political dissidents were kidnapped, tortured and forcibly disappeared by state-sponsored death squads – the song has also been performed extensively across the world in anti-war gatherings. The first verse: “Sólo le pido a Dios / Que el dolor no me sea indiferente / Que la reseca muerte no me encuentre / Vacía y sola sin haber hecho lo suficiente”, translates to “All I ask of God / is that I not be indifferent to sorrow / That arid death not find me / empty and alone without having done enough”. The two Gulf wars against Iraq – especially Operation Iraqi Freedom – produced a lot of musical responses from artists aligned with the anti-war movement. In 2003-2004, a compilation of songs and poetry, Peace Not War, featured various artists, aimed at raising funds for peace groups and opposing the war in Iraq. The first pressings of the album included artwork by the famous street mural artist Banksy.Ani DiFranco’s Self-Evident is a spoken-word piece in the album that starts with references to 9/11: “A perfectly blue sky on a morning beatific / on the day that America fell to its knees / after strutting around for a century / without saying thank you or please” It goes on to big oil, American interventions into El Salvador, the first Gulf War, the CIA and the FBI, weaving together various facets of the US foreign and domestic policy over the second half of the 20th century. British band Chumbawamba’s song Jacob’s Ladder is one of the songs in the album. Written originally as a song opposing Winston Churchill and his decision during World War II to allow 1500 sailors to drown near Norway, it was rewritten in the context of the Iraq war.Saul Williams’ Not in Our Name is a powerful spoken word compilation that called for resistance to American militarism after 9/11. A piece called the Pledge of Resistance went as follows: “Not in our name will you wage endless war / There can be no more deaths / no more transfusion of blood for oil / Not in our name will you invade countries, bomb civilians, kill more children / letting history takes its course over the graves of the nameless / Not in our name will you erode the very freedoms that you have claimed to fight for”In the current instance of the war on Iran by US-Israel, as anti-war mobilisations are beginning to take place, like with the No Kings Protests in the US, large demonstrations in Lebanon, Turkey, Iraq and many other countries. The sentiments expressed in the music and poetry mentioned above are surely going to get amplified. Poetry and music that have come down from the traditions of the anti-war movements since the Second World War will continue to resonate across different contexts and hopefully give rise to more songs and poems that speak of the present. Sumangala Damodaran is with the International Development Economics Associates (IDEAs).