H13, Kyōsuke Kikuchi ‘00, Kaichirō Yamada, Great-uncle, 1909, Kanagawa: Fujisawa-shi
On November 8, 1998, I interviewed my great-uncle, Yamada Kaiichirō. He was born on May 5, 1909, so he lived through the Great Kantō Earthquake of 1923, as well as World War II. I asked him about the earthquake, and he described it to me in great detail; and then we talked about his wartime experiences.
He said “the war was the worst time in my life. I was unable to join the Army due to my health. So instead of being a soldier, I worked for Tōkyō Electronics. It was lucky for me that I could not join the Army, but I faced many problems because of that. My family and I were regarded as traitors by the neighbors.”
Food was the major problem during the war. “The government distributed sweet potatoes which tasted nothing like we have today. The injured and the babies were the only ones allowed to eat rice. Even the soldiers ate red rice, which tasted nothing like the rice that we ordinarily eat, but even red rice looked good during the war. We also ate the stems of pumpkins and the leaves of radishes. Sweet potatoes were the most valuable of all. At night we went into the air raid shelter to avoid bombing. Fujisawa was not damaged as much compared to cities with factories such as Hiratsuka.”
He concluded, “War should never happen again, never!”