F03, Mai Kawasaki ‘97, Itoko Kawauchi, Grandmother, 1929
I interviewed my maternal grandmother over the phone on December 3, 1995. She was born on May 5, 1929, and she is 66 years old now.
Q: Where were you during World War II?
A: I was evacuated with a lot of other people, along with my mother and my brother, since my father had gone to war.
Q: What were you thinking of during the war?
A: All that I could think of was about my father, and I also wanted the people I cared about to be safe.
Q: Did you think that you would survive the war?
A: At many times, I wished that I could die. I was too scared to even think about everything going on around me. I don’t actually remember them clearly, because I was too scared, and I was also just in my teens.
Q: Did you lose anyone whom you knew?
A: Yes, some of my friends who went to the same school. I also lost both of my grandparents. This was a heavy shock which took a long time to heal.
Q: How do you feel about the war now?
A: It’s hard for me to remember the actual events that took place, the shock and the pain still remain in my memory clearly.
The result of war is to break people’s everyday lives. There are many ways to prevent war, which we should also have in mind, so that the same mistakes will never be repeated. I wanted to ask my grandmother more specific questions, but she was not feeling very well. I tried to make the questions short and simple for her to answer. I learned that it is not easy even now to cope with the tragic events of the past.