P02, Akihiro Suzaki ‘08, Sister Fukuda, Former Teacher, 1924, Ehime
I interviewed Sister Fukuda, who is approximately 82 years old. Sister Fukuda used to teach me Japanese when I attended Santa Maria International School. She is very kind, and she is like a great aunt to me. The interview took place on October 7, 2006, at my house.
Q: How was life when the war began?
A: Life was the same as usual, just like any other day.
Q: How was life during the Pacific War in general?
A: There was enough food during the first year of the war, but gradually this changed, and by the end of the war food was very scarce. Consequently the government distributed a set amount of food. There was a shortage of everything in general, but especially rice, soy beans, sugar, and sweets. Fortunately I lived in Niihama city, which is located in Shikoku. There was more food available than in Tokyo, and we had less bombing too. The food provided to us was margarine and gaimai (foreign rice from Thailand and other countries). At our house we had some Japanese rice, so we used this foreign rice to make candies and sweets because they were scarce. On a very few occasions, we ate meat, but we lived near the sea and therefore we were able to eat some fish. In general, we could not buy anything because the market was empty and money was worthless.
Q: I heard there was a shortage of clothing and that they were hard to get. Is this true?
A: Yes, at the time it was very hard to find clothing, because there weren’t enough left. We had to make uniforms, blankets, and many other things for the soldiers, so there wasn’t enough material left to make our own clothing. The soldiers were considered the most important. Luckily I was about 20 years old when the war began, and I had enough clothes to wear. Rarely did the government distribute some clothing to the people. It was very hard for newborn babies and for growing children to get new clothes, because there wasn’t any material left.
Q: Did you work during the Pacific War?
A: Yes I did, I worked at a Christian kindergarten. Many parents were worried about their children, because the city of Niihama had a large factory built by the Sumitomo zaibatsu (industrial combine), and they feared that the Americans might bomb the city to destroy this factory complex. As a result, most parents sent their children to the countryside (sokai) to live with their grandparents, relatives, or school groups. Therefore we had few children in the kindergarten. There were several babies there as well, because the mother had to work, and they left their children in our care. When I taught and took care of the children, we used to sing militaristic songs, because we were instructed to do so by the government. This was a bizarre experience, especially when I look back at it now. As I mentioned before, everyday goods were scarce. For example we used to teach them how to make origami, but there wasn’t enough paper, especially color paper, so we used old newspapers instead. This created a poor sense of color to the children and showed how sad life was.
Q: Did anyone from your family go to the war?
A: Yes, you see I had two sisters and three brothers, and all of my three brothers were forced to join the Army. At first when Japan was winning, they recruited young men who were fit and strong to join the army, but by the end of the war, that did not really matter, and most of the young men were forced to join the Army. My brothers were called up, but they were not strong enough to join the Army, and they were sent to military training for two years. This happened to men who did not pass the checkup. Fortunately when the war ended, all three of them came back, and when my second oldest brother came back, he met his child for the first time. He did not know what to do, and he cried. My other brother suffered from malnutrition, and he was told by the doctors that he had rokumakuen (pleurisy). He recovered, but he was never really healthy afterwards, even though he is 84 years now.
Q: How did your brother recover, and how did it affect his life?
A: When he was sick, he did not stay at the hospital, and there wasn’t enough milk, butter, or medicine, nothing at all, even though the government gave us a slightly larger ration of food, but thanks to God he recovered.
Q: Did your father go to war, or if not what was his job?
A: My father did not go to war, because he was fifty five years old when the war began. My father was an electrical engineer for Sumitomo, and he went all around Japan, even to Aomori. He directed the dismantlement of electrical appliances and machinery when the company broke down factories to prevent further bombing by the Americans. They used the metal to make weapons and equipment for the Army. When my father retired, he made a small field to grow vegetables for the family.
Q: Did many people own vegetable fields?
A: No, because most of the workers lived in company housing, and not everybody had a garden.
Q: What was the scariest experience you had?
A: There were a few bombing raids over Niihama. The worst experience I can remember was the bombing of the hospital where my sister-in-law had a baby. The city and the hospital were bombed by the Americans, and my sister and I carried the baby and the mother away from the hospital. I remember it very well. We heard the siren and screams, and we carried my sister-in-law and the baby in a blanket, and we just ran.
Q: What happened when Japan won a battle?
A: When we won, there was a festival and everybody was happy, but sometimes the government lied to us and said we won when we didn’t. Ordinary people never knew the truth until the very end. The government used propaganda to hide the truth, especially during the last years of the war. We could not say anything or express our opinion, and the media could not write the truth.
Q: When did life begin to change for the worse?
A: Around the second year of the war, because most of the food and goods went to the soldiers, and we needed to save many things.
Q: What did the older generation think about the war?
A: They had the wrong idea; they thought that Japan would always win. They had already experienced the two victorious wars, the Sino-Japanese War and the Russo-Japanese War, and they thought that Japan was invincible and that the Pacific War would be a victory too. Also people volunteered to fight for Japan and for the Emperor, and they were very patriotic.
Q: Sister, how did you feel when the war began?
I was scared because I had never experienced war. I think that war is not a solution for anything.