H12, Asako Kanzaki ‘00, Toshinori Kurata, 1928, Korea, Hiroshima, Yamaguchi
Q: When and where were you born?
A: I was born on February 18 in 1928, in Pyong’an-Pukdo (in Japanese called Heian-Kokudō), which is now North Korea.
Q: Tell me about your family.
A: There were 10 members in my family including myself. I had two brothers and four sisters and my parents. My father was a policeman, and my mother was a housewife since she had so many children to take care of.
Q: What were you doing during World War II?
I was studying very hard for entrance into the Naval Academy in Etajima, which was the most elite school in Japan. I really wanted to get into this school, because I wanted to be a successful naval officer leading Japan to victory. I was so happy when I saw my exam number on the results board, showing that I had passed. You might have thought that I would relax, because exams were over, but you would be wrong. We had homework: we were given some texts on different subjects to review at home, so I hardly ever slept.
At this time Japan was already losing against the U.S. in the war, but nobody knew this, and I didn’t know either until later on. It was April 1945: my neighbors and friends wished me “Good Luck!” They saw me off from Kagoshima Station to go to Etajima in Hiroshima. On the 10th of April, there was an entrance assembly. The principal was Admiral Kurita. The work was so tedious and tough, and I thought it was harder than I had believed. Training and education were strictly controlled by our teachers.
In August, when the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, I was in Ōshima in Yamaguchi prefecture, at a science class. There were rays of light near the ocean, so all of our attention focused on the window. We saw huge clouds spreading over the sky. Before we knew it, there was a great explosion, even though we were so far away from Hiroshima. There was one professor who identified what the explosion was before anyone else knew. A couple of students had diarrhea because of the bomb, but I was okay. Instead all of my hair dropped out, but in a few months my hair grew back.
Then on August 15, 1945, there was an announcement at school telling us that at 12:00 noon, His Majesty The Emperor (Tennō Heika) had something to tell us on the radio, so we must dress formally in uniform. We were told especially to wear our newest undershirts and underpants. We also had to wipe our shoes until they were clean, and then we had to go out onto the drill field and assemble in straight lines.
When I heard this announcement, I thought it was to praise the Emperor as always, but I was wrong. He announced the end of the war and that Japan had lost against the United States. We were all very disappointed, and I started to think “What was all this hard training for?” But I had some feeling of relief that I could go home, even though I was confused and angry about all of this.
Q: Was there anyone in your family who fought in the war?
A: Yes, my brother Toshio who was the oldest. He volunteered for the Naval Air Corps when he was 19, which was one year before the war ended. He worked as a mechanical officer for the “Zero-sen” fighter planes. He was located on the Japanese air base on Cebu island in the Philippines. In 1945 he was fighting in the Battle of Leyte Gulf. He was attacked by U.S. airplanes, but he was saved by a Japanese battleship, which took him back to Cebu island. However, he couldn’t survive after that. He was 20 years old, and it was four months before the end of the war when he died.
Q: What feelings do you have about the war?
A: I felt that war was necessary for our country—until August 15, 1945—because we strongly believed that there was nothing else for us but war. Now that I am 70 years old, my opinions have greatly changed. I think that war is the most horrific thing in the world, and we must avoid it in order to keep our society peaceful for the future.