E12K, Mami Park ‘94, Mrs Yamamoto, Neighbor, c 1925, Kanagawa: Kawasaki-shi, Chiba
Around the time when Japan was about to enter the Second World War, the lives of the Japanese began changing. The government put into action programs to teach the people the types of actions they would have to know and use during a war—for example, how to put out a fire. University students were sent to work in factories to help make the equipment and weapons needed during a war.
People began preparing for the war by themselves, too. If they had relatives living in rural areas, they began carrying their furniture to the houses in the countryside, because they were worried that their own houses might be burnt down. There were people who rented houses for this purpose in the countryside.
Mrs Yamamoto, whom I interviewed in November 1992, was a teenager during the war years. She had an older brother living in a town called Nakahara, where she carried her clothes and left them before the U.S. bombing began. Mrs Yamamoto’s older brother fought in the war, and sadly he died during a battle.
Mrs Yamamoto lived in Kawasaki, in an area called Kami-Hirama. During the war, the whole Kami-Hirama area was bombed and burned down, since many major factories were located there. The U.S. Army knew that if they destroyed the industrial areas, Japan would not be able to recover its wartime economy. There were only one or two buildings still standing in the area, and the people evacuated to the banks of the Tama-gawa River. Everyone wore a type of cushion called bōsai-zukin around their heads to protect themselves. After the bombing, the people were homeless, with no food, shelter, or anything else.
The survival of the people depended on the Japanese government. Having lost their homes, they had no means of getting food, water, or other supplies. Therefore government officials distributed ration coupons for food, called haikyū. Still, these meals were nothing like what we eat today. No matter how many members were in a family, each family received the same amount of rice and other coupons. A representative from each family had to line up to receive a handful of rice.
The food was of low quality, and it was not enough to fill up anyone’s stomach. It was just a bit of rice mixed with vegetables but mostly with water. All of the people had to come and draw the water from the river themselves. According to Mrs Yamamoto, people’s minds were mainly occupied with simple ideas, like would they survive the war and how they would eat, rather than what was happening on the battlefields.
People didn’t talk much about the war amongst themselves. They gossipped at times when something happened: for example, when the sky turned red, they figured that that area had been attacked and was burning. There were only Japanese living in the area, so Mrs Yamamoto said that there was no discrimination against anyone. They considered survival as most important, so when people from other towns came and asked for help, the families took them in and helped them through the war.
Bombing took place during the nighttime. Attacks were divided, so that bombs were dropped at night, while ships launched attacks during the daytime. During the daytime, people were horrified to see the huge B-29 bomber planes flying over their heads. At times, small pieces of paper like tinfoil came floating in the air. These were dropped by the American planes, but nobody knew their purpose.
The families bartered their belongings with each other. Those who didn’t have any relatives in the countryside depended on the black market to provide their needs. These were trading markets, where people brought their possessions to exchange for something else. It had to be a fair trade, so people survived by selling their valuables.
After the war ended, there were certain regulations followed by women. As there were many male American soldiers entering Japan, women were told to leave their homes and live outside the cities. This would avoid the possibility of being raped. At the same time, women worked on the farms, so they had access to food that they could stake back to their families in their hometowns. For this reason, Mrs Yamamoto had to leave and go to Chiba.
One of Mrs Yamamoto’s most memorable experiences after the war was her marriage. She remembered that she had problems fixing her hair for her wedding, since there were no supplies left, such as hair oil. Trains were running, but since she was dressed in her wedding kimono, she felt embarrassed riding them. Therefore she asked someone to provide a car, which was a very difficult favor to provide then. The government gave her some money for her marriage. This was due to the tradition that brides are supposed to bring their own valuable furniture when they get married, such as a clothes chest, but of course all of these had been burned during the war.
Another sour memory of the war was the lice. Since no one was able to take a bath very often, people began getting lice in their hair. Mrs Yamamoto remembered how the American soldiers spread white powder on them to kill the lice, even on their valuable kimono. Still, when I asked her if the war made her view Americans in a different way, she answered “no.”
By interviewing Mrs Yamamoto, I was able to learn realistically what it must have been like during the war. I also learned the origin of “Hinomaru Bentō,” and that students had to bring it with them once a month for their lunches. The name is because the bentō resembled the Japanese flag, with a red sour plum in the middle of the white rice. I was very moved to be talking with a person who survived the war. It made me understand the discomforts of war, and I hope there will be no war or suffering again.