L02U, Lisa Ferrie ‘04, Kisaburō Matsuda, Neighbor, 1925, Tōkyō, Gifu, Kanagawa: Yokosuka-shi
I interviewed Kisaburō Matsuda, who was born in 1925 and is 77 years old. He is my neighbor and a friend of my mother.
Q: How old were you when the war started?
A: I was sixteen years old when it started, but nothing happened to me until I was eighteen. I was a high school student studying in Shinjuku, Tōkyō.
Q: What happened to you at age eighteen? Did you have to fight in the war?
A: No, we didn’t have to fight in the war. Our school was a boys’ school, and so all the students were rounded up and sent off to a shipyard at the Yokosuka Naval Base (which was a Japanese base at that time). We lived in a dormitory and had to walk to the factory, where we spent ten hours, plus a (very short) lunch break, building battleships for the Imperial Navy. We were always tired and hungry.
Q: Did you have to wear a certain uniform at the Navy base?
A: No, actually we had to wear our school uniform. Back then, uniforms in all Japanese schools were basically the same, except for the emblem embedded on our school hats. Each school had its own emblem. By looking at our hats, the adults could tell that we are students, and which school and dormitory we came from.
Q: If the boys went to work for the Navy, then where did the girls go?
A: It was more complicated for the girls. Each school had a different teaching system, and according to what their studies were centred on, they were sent to different factories. For example, classes studying aviation were sent to the factories where planes were made, those who studied sewing were sent to factories producing parachutes, and so on. If they asked about what they were making, the adults told them that it was a secret. Some girls had no idea what they were doing at that time.
Q: Whenever I hear a story about World War II, I hear about evacuating from your city, but you say you went to a factory. Then which age group had to evacuate from the city?
A: Evacuation was necessary for children aged eight through twelve. Children went to school at the age of six, but this was considered too young for evacuation, so they stayed with their mothers. Those who were evacuated were sent to places where there was lodging and food, and without a possibility of being bombed. Some of the places where the elementary students went were in Tochigi, Gunma, Ibaraki, and so on. They stayed in houses, temples, or in schools which were willing to help them.
Q: Did some schools continue to have regular classes during the war?
A: Yes, but very few. The adults were concerned more about winning the war than education for children, so the vast majority were sent to factories to help make products for the soldiers in war.
Q: Did you see any American planes in the skies overhead while you were at the Yokosuka Naval Base?
A: No, we didn’t. It would be rather stupid if the enemy attacked Yokosuka, where all the battleships are made. Imagine trying to bomb a city while there were a hundred or so cannons pointed at you. Do you see what I mean?
Q: When were you allowed to go back to Tōkyō?
A: We were allowed to go home when I was still eighteen, and about to turn nineteen.
Q: Was your house still there when you returned?
A: Actually, before we were moved to the factory dormitories, we had to burn down all the wooden housing to prevent fires and to make a wider road. We had done this to our house in Gifu. We built a new house, but it was destroyed by the American warplanes, so I had to move to my parents house in northern Gifu, where I spent the remaining years of the warthere. When I went past Tōkyō, I saw that all the buildings were wiped out, except for a few concrete ones, like our school.
Q: After the war ended, when were you able to go to school again?
A: We were able to go back to school in April of 1946, but it took time to revive the classes like before the war because some teachers and students hadn’t come back yet.
Q: Did anyone close to you die during the war?
A: We were very lucky, and none of my family members, friends, or teacher died during the war. All of my friends and teachers came back to our school. I am very thankful about it.
Q: This may sound very ironic, but what were the things you thought were positive about the war?
A: I believe that because of the war, it was a peaceful time in terms of robbery, murders, and the like. It was so “safe” at that time that we didn’t even need to lock doors or have keys!
Q: Approximately how long did it take to restore the food supply?
A: It took about five years to improve the supply of food, but it still wasn’t as much as what we used to eat before the war. I’m not too sure when it recovered completely.
Q: Did you have to help build buildings after the war?
A: No, the students didn’t have to help. It was the adults’ job to do all the building.
Q: Are there any other comments you would like to make?
A: I think that the war was a good opportunity for Japan to discover the world. From then on, we learned what really was happening outside your country, and about which countries were the major powers. Also, it was good to know that most of the European imperialists were driven out of Asia when Japan ruled the East Asian countries. We are Asians, and should only be ruled by fellow Asians. But I still think Japan is a strange country. It didn’t know its “personality” up until then. How do you get to know your own personality? By comparing yourself to other people!
My last comment is that I think that it was unfair for the Americans to drop atomic bombs on us, because Japan is such a tiny country compared to most other countries, and so it would have lost the war whether the bombs were dropped or not. But I believe that people should forgive each other for the sins they committed in the past, because everyone commits sins at some point of their lives!