W05, Rio Yanaga ‘22, Masahiko Yanaga, Grandfather, c 1935, Kunika Yanaga, Grandmother, c 1935, Tōkyō, Nagano, China
I asked my paternal grandparents to talk about their memories of World War II. They were both about ten years old when the war ended in 1945. I interviewed them in November 2020, seventy-five years later.
Q: Could you describe your experiences during World War II?
Grandfather: Yes, of course. I was in the first or second grade of elementary school when the war first started. At the time I lived in Tōkyō and attended Negishi National School in Taitō-ku. However, soon the government advised everyone living close by to move away, because the school was painted white and stood out to enemy planes. As a result, I moved to the Yanaka area near Ueno Zoo and attended a school over there. The school in Ueno did not really focus on education but rather on helping out with the war. Everyone who lived nearby came together to grow and cultivate potatoes.
At the beginning of the war, we all believed that we were going to win, so I do not remember life being tough. However, as the war progressed I recall life got worse, and resources became scarce. Officials knocked on each door asking for any items which were made out of metal. Handrails and other metal objects were taken and replaced with wood. Officials also took away valuables in return for war bonds, but they were virtually worthless after the war, and our valuables were never returned.
Although I was not directly involved in any significant bombings or air raids, I specifically remember seeing an enemy fighter jet really close to the ground once. In fact, the jet was so close I could see the face of the pilot. I later learned that the fighter jet was flying towards China after bombing another part of Tōkyō and that he was flying low because there was an observation deck/radar in Ueno.
After living in Ueno for a short period of time, my mother, my three younger siblings, and I evacuated to Nagano. My father and my six other siblings remained in Tōkyō. I was the oldest child among the ones who evacuated, so I remember helping out my mother as much as I could. Children often evacuated with either their family or their school. I remember children who evacuated with their school having little or no rice in their lunch box and being extremely skinny and frail. I was fortunate enough to have evacuated with my family and I stayed with some connections that my family had. Consequently,we had enough food to survive.
While I was staying in Nagano, the rest of my family had to move to Shimo-Ochiai, because the government once again insisted that they move. They claimed that, since Yanaka had many temples, it would have been dangerous if it was bombed, as all the temples would collapse. In Shimo-Ochiai, my older siblings were assigned to take down old buildings, because that would help prevent fires from spreading. During the bombing of Tōkyō in March 1945, the roof of the house where my siblings and father were living caught on fire. However, with the help of neighbors, they were able to extinguish the fire. As a result, the landlords were thankful and let us stay for a long time after the war.
Grandmother: I was living in China during the war, because my father was a government official and was sent to China, near Wuhan. I did not have a lot of negative experiences of the war but I do remember that the Chinese people treated me well, because my father also treated the Chinese people with respect rather than hatred. I specifically remember the Chinese people being kind and helping us move back to Japan when the war ended and Japan lost.
Q: What did you do every day?
Grandfather: After I moved to Nagano, I attended school every day as usual but as I said before, school was much different. We hardly studied, and our daily routine revolved around bowing to a portrait of the then-Emperor and after that, cleaning ourselves. During the war, we barely got any soap to clean ourselves. As a result, a lot of us had lice on our bodies and clothes. Apart from that, we either helped out in the mulberry fields to produce silk or carried stones to build an airfield. I think the Japanese army was trying to build a base in Nagano. We also grew vegetables and helped out by weeding.
Q: What was the food like?
Grandfather: As the war continued, we got less and less food. I vividly remember that the amount of food we received from rations was not nearly enough and that some people died from starvation. I remember after the war, I travelled a long way to Chiba to go to a black market. There I traded some commodities to get food for my family. However, on my way back, all the tickets for the train back were sold out, so I had to sneak onto the train. After I got off at my stop, I had to somehow convince the train conductors why I had no ticket and why I had food in my hand. This was a scary experience, because all my hard work could have been gone in a matter of seconds. However, thankfully I think the conductor took pity on me, because I was just a child.
Q: What memory do you vividly remember?
Grandfather: I remember walking around Nagano with my mom and knocking on each door to trade for food. We were not begging for free food but were merely asking to trade. However, everyone rejected us, even though they had rows and rows of apples and other food. At the time, this frustrated me a lot, that they were not even willing to give us a single apple.
Another story I remember is when I came back to Tōkyō after the war, pilots from the U.S. dropped canisters filled with food. This was because Seibo Catholic Hospital used to be a retirement home for foreigners. I was desperate for food, so I sneakily took one home for my family. However, once I got home, to my surprise, my mother made me return the canister and scolded me. I also distinctly remember the first time my mother went to a supermarket. This was several years after the war. She was in shock to see all of the food and could not believe that there was so much food on display.
Q: How do you feel the war changed you personally?
Grandfather: I was still young when the war started, so I did not exactly know what life without war was like, until the war ended. I do not really know how the war changed me. In addition, all my relatives were able to come out of the war, so it did not affect me as much compared to others.