R04U, Hana Shiraishi ‘16, Toshii Saitō, Family Friend, 1937, Niigata, Yokohama: Minami-ku
On November 2, 2014, I had the privilege of interviewing my neighbor, who experienced life under poverty, intense hunger, and confusion as an innocent little girl unable to understand the situation during World War II. Her name is Toshii Saitō, and she was born in Tsunan-machi, Niigata Prefecture in 1937. She is 77 years old.
I was able to listen to her talk for an hour in a traditional tatami-floored room at her house. I entered her house and she invited me to sit down. I sat down with my legs crossed, whereas she sat with her torso resting on her heels in the traditional seiza style.
Me: Thank you very much for having me today. I am sorry to have to bother you at this time [10:00 am].
Saitō-san: I am very happy to have you, as no one ever comes around to my house anymore, except for my cats! [She chuckles.]
Me: Haha! Well, I’m sure this won’t take more than 30 minutes. [It actually took an hour.] What was your life like during World War II? Please tell me everything you can remember about what you ate, your school life, your clothes … anything you are comfortable with telling me.
Saitō-san: I remember clearly the time when my family and I had to hide with other frightened families in an air-raid shelter (bōkūgō) in my inaka (countryside town). I grew up in a small town named Tsunan-machi in Niigata Prefecture. I was only around seven years old so I did not understand why we were hiding, but I was very scared.
Now that I think about it, it makes sense that we were very concerned about being bombed,because we were near the Shinano-gawa electric power plant station. The U.S. planes were targeting these stations, because they were the source of all electricity and heat. If the Power Plant Station were destroyed, we wouldn’t have been able to keep ourselves warm, cook, or see when it became dark.
Whenever we received an air-raid warning, we shut the windows with the curtains as fast as we could and pulled long black cloths over the lamps so that we could keep the lights on without having the light leaking outside, which would be obvious to the planes that flew over. We could not take the chance of relying only on the curtains covering the windows.
I have one vivid memory. I remember witnessing the bombing of Nagaoka. [Later I researched it: it took place on August 1, 1945, so Saito-san was eight years old]. From where I lived, the flames were very very clear. I was pretty far from the bombed location, but it was bright red. The sky was red too.
Me: What did you do with food?
Saitō-san: We always had too little food. We were always hungry, but we had no reason to complain. The very fact that we were alive was a blessing. We had rice and we used to put purple sweet potatoes (satsumaimo) in the rice cooker as we made the rice. It was very plain, but it kept us alive.
When I was small, none of us had decent or even clean clothes. We all had patches all over our clothes to hide the holes we had. We didn’t have enough money to buy new clothes, so we just had to keep fixing the ones we had. We didn’t have shoes either. We came to school barefoot, and we had to wash our feet with water before we entered the school. Unlike kids now who have clean shoes and clothes, we didn’t have anything. We didn’t have toilet paper or tissue paper either, so we used old newspapers all the time in the bathrooms, to blow our nose, for everything. That was our generation.
Me: What was the most fun memory of your childhood?
Saitō-san: That’s a good question. I would say, when I climbed the mountains during the autumn, we found silverberries (gumi no mi). They are sweet and delicious. We ate silverberries as a snack. Those were the closest we got to something sweet. And also I loved to scoop loaches (dojō-sukui). I did it almost everyday! I actually didn’t like to eat loaches, but the act of scooping them up was very fun for me. We had woven baskets that we held to scoop them up.
Me: What about school?
Saitō-san: After things calmed down, we were able to go to school but education was not encouraged very strongly. During classes, my friends and I would walk to a nearby rice paddy field to catch grasshoppers (inago). That’s how we made money, you know. We brought bamboo containers to capture the grasshoppers and boil them to sell afterwards.
Me: How else did you make money?
Saitō-san: There were men with huge backpacks who came around to our houses every once in a while, and they traded our clothes like kimono for rice. My memories are flowing back now. After the U.S. Occupation began, there were shops run by American soldiers, and they sold kamaboko (semi-cylindrical fish cakes)! So on the way back from school we always passed through these shops run by gaijin-san (foreigners). A lot changed during the U.S. Occupation. There were foreign soldiers everywhere.
Me: Just one last question: what was this area like when you moved here from Niigata? [“This area” is Yokohama, Minami-ku, on top of a small hill named Kuboyama.]
Saitō-san: When I came here, this whole area was a vegetable field. It was very empty with few houses, so I could see Mount Fuji beautifully from my house. In the winter, the white blanket of snow over the flat top was clearly visible. I miss that view very much. Now there are too many houses that block the view. There were not many street lights either, so it was very dark at night. I used to walk home from Yokohama Station every night, after I finished my job as a hair stylist. It was always very dark and I would look back frequently, because I was scared of someone following me from behind. Now I am so happy with such availability of electricity. There were not many taxis too, like there are now. People now are so blessed. You are very blessed too.
Me: Yes, I really, really am. Thank you so much for talking to me today. I really think that it is critical for every generation to understand how people suffered during the war and hear the genuine opinions of these survivors. It’s also important so that we do not repeat the past and so that we can truly appreciate the blessing of our generation. Being able to wake up every morning without fear is a miracle.
Saitō-san: Yes. I believe so as well. Thank you for coming! Please come by anytime and whenever you’re free, I want to take you out for lunch at Minatomirai! I found this restaurant where you can eat different kinds of vegetables and as much as you want.
I was very happy to be able to directly talk about such real memories with someone who survived through a horrible time in the past. Without this assignment, I would never have asked her about such a topic and never have heard about the fascinating memories she has to tell. I was able to deepen my understanding about Saitō-san through this interview, as well as be reminded of how blessed I am in being healthy and so free.