B05, Harue Matsushita ‘86, Shiu Matsushita, Grandmother, 1908, Shizuoka, Yokohama: Naka-ku
I talked to my paternal grandmother in May 1985 about her memories of World War II. She was born in 1908 and is 77 years old now.
Q: When did the bombing of Yokohama happen?
A: It was on May 29, 1945 (Shōwa 20), forty years ago.
Q: How old were you?
A: I was 37 years old.
Q: What time was it, and was the atmosphere like?
A: The bombing started in the morning. The air raid siren (kūshū-keihō) was ringing every day, and fire bombs (shōidan) were dropped on our house. So we had to evacuate (sokai).
Q: What were you doing then?
A: When the house began to burn, I took two furoshiki [large pieces of cloth] and filled them with all of the clothes from two drawers. The area near the local residents’ hall was burning, and we couldn’t go there, so we went to a wheat field on a hill instead. When I looked down the hill, I saw that people were streaming up the hill like water flowing. I was horrified, so I went further to another field. I heard that the residents’ hall was not burned, so we went down the hill. But there were so many people in the hall that we couldn’t even sit down. The manager of the hall told us to go to the countryside as soon as possible, so we fled.
Q: Where did you go?
A: We went to Shizuoka by train. I was wearing a boot on one foot and a geta (clog) on the other, but appearance didn’t matter, because everyone was like that.
Q: Were you alone?
A: I was with my husband. I was carrying Namiko on my back, Shirō was at my left hand, Sumiko at my right hand, and Yuriko was still in my stomach. She was born in Shizuoka. We stayed there for ten months, while my husband went back to Yokohama to work. On August 15, 1945, I heard that Japan had lost, while I was in Shizuoka.
Q: What was your attitude towards the war?
A: It was distressing. I want no more wars anymore.
Q: Thank you very much. You talked to me very openly, and it was easy to understand.