W03, Kōta Matsumoto ‘22, Isamu Tamura, Grandfather, 1938, Okayama
My maternal grandfather was born in 1938, so he grew up during World War II in the city of Okayama. In November 2020, at the age of 82, he talked to me about his childhood memories.
Q: Was there any shortage of resources before the air raid on Okayama?
A: Yes, there was. Most resources such as food, clothes, and daily necessities were taken by the military for the purpose of sending to soldiers, including military weapons. Therefore, it caused the shortage, and even if people had money, they couldn’t buy enough products, because there was not enough supply as well. People had to use the resources from a tiny supply. However, there was still a distribution of resources to the military, which was also a small amount. So sometimes I had to eat the roots of sweet potatoes and locusts to fill my stomach. Furthermore, my clothes were all hand-made, and they were quite tattered, because I had to wear them almost every day with no chance to buy a new one. I was wearing sports shoes before the shortage, but as the effects of the shortage became more severe, I started wearing straw sandals, because I had to sell the sports shoes. So it was difficult to survive.
However, that wasn’t true for the people who lived in the countryside since they had a large area of farmland, so they could live self-sufficiently. They could eat pure rice as much as they wanted, without any other grains mixed into it. I had an opportunity to eat the rice from the government distribution, but it wasn’t pure. Half of it included garbage such as carrots, lettuce, and squash, mainly vegetables. Although these farmers had a margin to eat, they had to give some of their production to the government for the purpose of circulating the resources to somewhere with a shortage. This was called kyōshutsu. Hence many people went from the cities to the countryside and bought the product from the farmers, mainly by barter, for example selling a kimono. Other than that, the people who lived near the sea sold seafood in exchange for rice.
The shortage also affected the school. All of the textbooks I used in middle school were handed down from seniors, because the schools couldn’t supply the new one. It was also harder to get resources after the bombing began, because the whole city was panicked and due to the fact that all of the prefectures in Japan had a shortage, so the circulation of resources wasn’t sufficient to send to other prefectures. As a result of this condition, there was human trafficking. It was a major event from before the bombing but it got more severe.
Q: Was money important, and did people still have jobs to do?
A: Since there was a shortage, people didn’t need to use money, and when they bought and sold products, it was mainly based on barter. The money was used but not really important, except for the rich citizens. There were jobs but since the cities had been bombed, there was only agriculture to do mainly. Therefore people who had farmland to do agriculture could be rich, since they had stockpiles to sell the product to others.
Q: During the Okayama air raid, what happened?
A: The bombing was on the 29th of June, 1945, in the early morning. Everyone was still asleep. I was awakened by the sound of explosions. I heard from my mother that everyone ran outside without any shoes, because they didn’t know what exactly happened at the time. There wasn’t an air raid warning. Also since I was still sleepy, I brought my cat and my pillow to the pumpkin field to evacuate. However, the bombing was further south of where I was, so I wasn’t in danger. But I saw the clouds covered in red, which was reflected from the fire of the explosion.
Then I saw many B-29 bombers flying over Okayama city and dropping incendiary bombs. It was the first time that I had experienced an air raid, and even though I was about six or seven years old, I felt scared because of the sound. After the raid, I evacuated from the bombed area and went to my uncle’s house. It was in the village of Yamashimo-son, which was north of the bombed area. It was better than staying in Okayama city, since there was panic because of the sudden air raid. At the same time, due to rumours, many other citizens moved north. In addition, from what I learned later from my mother, the bomb hit the food storage of the military, and the explosion caused many of the food tins to fly over the city. Later I figured out that there the military had stored a lot of food for themselves, and they did not distribute it to the citizens despite the shortage. They were monopolizing it.
Q: After the bombing at Okayama, about a month later on the 6th of August, an atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. Did anything change around your area?
A: From my perspective, there wasn’t any change to the climate. There was no black rain or radiation effects on my area. However, there were a few representatives from our village who went to help clean up the mess of Hiroshima. People didn’t know specifically what had happened in Hiroshima, and they only knew that there was an air raid. On the radio, there was no information about the event that had occurred in Hiroshima. The first time that I actually knew that it was horribly damaged was when I watched a movie about it.
Q: Were you influenced by militarism and the Emperor system?
A: Since I was six or seven years old, I didn’t think about it deeply, but I always assumed that, as a man, I would be a soldier when I became an adult. It was a natural sense from what I learned from the textbooks, and it was normal to feel like that. Furthermore, at every event at school or outside of school, there was a picture of the Emperor in the middle of the stage, and we all sang for the Emperor. Also, until the end of World War II, there was an officer in each school to monitor the behavior of students and the education system. It was to prevent any rebellious way of thinking from students, so as not to lose control over the citizens. Also at the same time, there was a group of soldiers sleeping over at school while they were training. As a child, I felt that Japan had no margin to survive the war. The atmosphere was kind of similar to North Korea at present.
Q: How did you feel when you saw the American soldiers for the first time?
A: First, like everyone, I thought of American soldiers as the enemies whom I had to kill, so I felt fear, and at the same time, I was also afraid of black men. They were really big, and they seemed to be so strong, since it was my first time seeing different races. However, I also felt the huge differences between American and Japanese soldiers in terms of supplies. Every time I saw Japanese soldiers, they were dirty and with poor weapons; on the other hand, the Americans were clean, with a better quality of clothes and guns.
Q: After the end of militarism, did you feel that anything had changed around you?
A: As I mentioned, I was too young to think about that, so I don’t exactly know. I lived in that village for a long time so I did not know deeply, but there wasn’t any big change around me. It was like pouring water into sand. The new monarchy system was blended into the society very naturally.