L14, Mariko Shibata ‘04, Grandmother, 1923,Yokohama: Kanagawa–ku, Niigata
On November 9, 2002, I interviewed my grandmother, who was born in 1923. She is 79 years old now.
Q: When the war started, was there a change in your daily life?
A: There was not a drastic change at first, because I could go to school regularly, there was plenty of food, clothing and housing, and many products were still sold in stores. However, after a year or so, when we started losing the Japan-China War (Nitchū Sensō), things started to change drastically. There was a shortage of food and clothing, and many houses were burned down. Luckily my house was not burned down and we had just enough food and clothing to survive.
Q: What was the effect of the Pearl Harbor attack on Japan?
A: When I was 18 years old in 1941, Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, on December 8. The Japanese Navy had made a plan to sink the American ships. The Japanese planes and submarines attacked American ships and sank them. This incident was big news throughout Japan! It was on the media everywhere, on the radio, and in magazines and the newspaper. This made the soldiers in Japan excited, making them want to go to war. The Japanese soldiers thought they would win the war against the United States, but many people disagreed, because they thought there was no point in fighting against the United States. Some people described Japan fighting against the United States as “a baby trying to fight against an adult.” However, the soldiers were too excited about the bombing, so that no one could have stopped them.
Q: What was your daily life like during the war?
A: It was terrible! I was always alert for the sound of airplanes in the sky, especially at night, because that was when American airplanes flew over the city and dropped bombs that were as bright as daylight and powerful enough to burn people in a second. I remember the noise of the bombs when I was in the shelter. They sounded something like “hyū-bon!” No one knew where the bombs dropped at the time when we first heard the sound clearly, but thankfully it was not in my city.
My house did not suffer any damage, but one area of the city was burned. Two-thirds of my town, Shirahata in Kanagawa-ku, Yokohama, was burned. When I saw where the bombs fell, I was devastated. The bomb formed a huge hole, the size of an entire lake! Shirahata was burned, but since it was a suburb, everything did not burn down, because most of the land was farms. Shirahata was one of the lucky towns, because I remember hearing on the radio that Tōkyō was burned down completely.
Q: Did you have enough to eat during the bombing period?
A: Yes, my family and I did. However, most of the people in my town were starving. Everyone thought they would starve to death. No one cleaned their houses any more, because all they cared about was to get food. They were so desperate that they even picked up satsuma-imo (sweet potato) twigs and boiled them to eat. Many people were so hungry all the time that they learned that human beings can survive without consuming food. There was no place to eat, sleep, or drink. Thousands of people died because of malnutrition, without enough vitamins, calcium, and protein.
Q: What did the people in your town look like during the war?
A: People walking in the streets had eyes like a dead person. They looked like they didn’t know why they were still alive. I was terrified when I saw these people at first, because they really did look like walking zombies. People were suffering from the burns on their skin, all over their body. My family was lucky. No one got burned, and we could eat cooked rice, boiled with water from the well. But we had to eat in secret, because we did not have enough to share with other people and if we did,there would not be enough for us to eat. There were no okazu (main dishes) with the rice, just plain rice, but that was enough to fill our stomachs, and we were lucky enough even to have rice from the beginning. While other people did not have access to rice at all, my sister worked in a rice factory in Niigata. So I got a train ticket to Niigata to get the rice. Niigata was also our evacuation place to run away if our town was endangered. I loved going to Niigata to get rice, because I was born there in the town of Kameda.
Q: What was it like on the train to Niigata?
A: It was awkward. There were many burned and starving people. I saw one sick, hungry woman on the train once; she looked like a skeleton with bony cheeks and burnt skin. I had a big onigiri (rice ball) on my lap for lunch, and the old woman was staring at it. I was only seventeen at that time, so if it were now, I would have shared it, but I did not, and that memory of that starving woman still stays inside my head. I regret not giving the onigiri to the old woman: instead I ate it. But I remember that for some weird reason it did not taste good at all. It was probably because I had that feeling of regret and guilt of not giving it to the old woman who really needed it.
I also remember meeting a professional tennis player called Shimizu Zensō. The first time I met him was on my second trip to Niigata. When the train went into a tunnel, the man sitting next to me opened a can filled with raw crab and started eating it with a fork. I thought it was very awkward for a person to do this, and while I was slightly staring at him from the corner of my eye, he noticed and said “hi.” As I talked to him, I realized that he was a gentleman, and he even gave me a name card (meishi). He was a famous man who even played tennis matches in the United States.
Q: What was the end of the war like?
A: After the terrible bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the Emperor (Tennō Heika) told the people of Japan that the war ended, on August 15, 1945. I remember everyone gathering to listen to the radio. They all cried when the Tennō Heika announced that the war against the United States had finally ended. I felt a total relief. I thought “Finally, the war has ended: no more turning off the lights at night, no more feelings of uncertainty, sadness and darkness. While the war was going on, I had no hopes, dreams, or faith in my life. I always thought “When will this war end? I hate war, I hate war, I hate war…” But all of these thoughts flew out of my head when I heard that the war had finally ended.
I have learned that humans are amazing because they are resilient living beings, and they can overcome complex terrible experiences.