H09B, Sophia Ikeda ‘00, Yuriko Kosakai, Neighbor, 1924, Kanagawa: Kamakura-shi, Tōkyō
During the Second World War, many people were killed and many lives were affected. It was not a good time for anyone, because it created many memories that people don’t want to remember. I interviewed my next-door neighbor. Her name is Yuriko Kosakai, and she is 74 years old. The interview took place on November 14, 1998, at her house. She has been my neighbor for about five years so she is not a stranger to me.
When the war started, she was 17 years old. She was living in Ōfuna, Kamakura, at that time. She said that she wasn’t affected by the war very badly, although there were many things that she didn’t want to remember. She was able to see the skyline of Yokohama, all orange and burning in the distance, but Ōfuna wasn’t affected very badly at all. She also remembered hearing announcements that there might be a bombing, and she had to run into the air raid shelter along with many other people. It wasn’t very comfortable, and the atmosphere was very tense. She could feel everyone’s fear.
She was still a schoolgirl when the war started and was in her early twenties when it ended. She envies the younger generation now, because everything is so modern and easy compared to when she was growing up. She told me how washing machines used to be the type that you had to squeeze the water out by turning a handle. Nowadays everything is electric and doesn’t require a lot of strength or effort at all. The clothing then was also very different. She had to wear monpe: balloon-type pants that covered all parts of her legs, unlike miniskirts that girls wear now that show a great deal of skin.
Most of her time involved making supplies for the war. so she didn’t get to go to school very often. She had to work in factories along with other girls her age, which involved a strict routine. She was less affected by the war, because her father was in the administration of Kamakura Girls’ School, and he worked with people in the Japanese Army. She remembered quite clearly the warning that Hiratsuka, a nearby city, might be bombed. Everyone was panicking and didn’t know what to do, but that didn’t happen, which was a relief.
She remembers the food shortages during that time. Food was very scarce, so everyone had to use it as sparingly as possible. She can never forget what it was like to feel really hungry and not be able to eat a lot especially while she was still growing. She thinks that may be the reason why she’s not very tall today. There were constant arguments about the amount of food, because everyone was equally hungry, but there was nothing you could do about it. Everyone would get just enough food to last a couple of days; otherwise you would have to go without food. Nobody was rich, and it made it impossible to buy any food, because everything was too expensive for anyone to afford.
When Mrs Kosakai was about 20 years old, she began to work at the Mitsubishi Electric Company not far from her house. While she was working there, announcements about precautions and what to do in an emergency were made very frequently, so that it became like part of their work day. It wasn’t sudden or unexpected. She would have to go into the air raid shelter frequently while she worked at that company, but she didn’t feel as scared as when she was younger. She was used to this now: she knew how to act and what to do, so it didn’t feel like something new. There was always a feeling of a little feeling of fear and the uncertainty of not knowing what to do next or what else was going to happen.
About a year later, Mrs Kozakai went to work at a new company located in Hamamatsu-chō, in Tōkyō. She recalls how there was no skyline of tall buildings; instead, there was rubble everywhere. She says that it still feels strange seeing the Ginza area as it is today. She remembers what it was like during and after the war: empty, barren, and desolate. There were hardly any stores, and if there were, everything was so expensive that nobody could afford to go shopping. When she was 17, she owned only her nightwear and the monpe that she wore to school. By the time she was 20, she owned a few more pieces of clothing, but they were all simple, and she wore the same clothes every single day. Nobody could be fussy in those days. They had to accept and be grateful for the little that they had. Most stores sold canned food that was for the soldiers to eat, but otherwise it was not easy for the average person to buy any. Electricity was also scarce, and so she remembers using oil lamps at night. In the daytime, everyone was careful about the amount of electricity that they used. It had to be used sparingly.
The war ended, and Mrs Kozakai remembered the relief and happiness that everyone felt. The days of worrying and living in fear and poverty were over, but there was still a lot to overcome to restore their lives back to how they were before the war began. Her last comment was that she never wants to have that same experience again, because it took everyone a long time to forget about the war and to get used to the lifestyles that they have today which are easier and don’t involve a lot of physical work.
We are fortunate not to have experienced these events in our lives—although we may in the future. Nobody knows what might happen, but we should be grateful that we are alive in this world and that we have these opportunities to learn through others about what happened in the past. That will help us to live our lives to the fullest and learn from their experiences to improve our lives and to help keep history alive. After all there aren’t very many sources left, and soon these parts of history may be lost forever.