Wartime Memories

Tag: 1925

  • Motoni Katayama

    A05, Motoni Katayama ‘85, Mrs Ishikawa, Piano teacher, 1925, Tōkyō On Tuesday, May 15, 1984, I interviewed my piano teacher, Mrs Ishikawa, about her experiences during and after World War II. Q: How old were you in 1945? A: Well, it’s such a long time ago! [Laughs] I was twenty years old then. Q: Where…

  • Shinobu Suzuki

    D05, Shinobu Suzuki ‘91, Tokiko Suzuki, Grandmother, 1925, Tōkyō In November 1989, I interviewed my paternal grandmother, Tokiko Suzuki, 64 years old, in my living room. Q: Which specific period of time do you remember most clearly? A: The year before Japan surrendered, 1944 and 1945. During that time, the hardest experience was the Great…

  • Yumi Okuda

    G08, Yumi Okuda ‘99, Mrs Gotō, Neighbor, 1925, Tōkyō In November 1997, I interviewed my neighbor, Mrs Gotō, who lives quite close to my house. She is the grandmother of my friend, Daisuke, who is 16, the same age as me. Mrs Gotō was born in 1925, and now she is 72 years old. The…

  • Sayaka Haishi

    H06, Sayaka Haishi ‘00, Grandfather, 1925, Grandmother, 1928, China, Hokkaidō, Tōkyō Before Japan attacked Pearl Harbor and declared war on the United States on December 8, 1941, Japan had already invaded China and Vietnam. The Japanese Army then attacked the Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore, and Indonesia and kept moving southward to enlarge the area under Japanese…

  • Shiori Okajima

    J05, Shiori Okajima ‘01, Grandfather, 1925, Shizuoka, Aichi World War II was the most disastrous event which took place in Japanese history. There is a very close person to me who survived the war, and that is my  grandfather. I interviewed him in 1999, and he described his life from the time when he joined…

  • Katherine Burghart

    K02U, Katherine Burghart ‘02, Seiryō Hayashi, Grandfather, 1925,Toyama, Fukui I interviewed Seiryō Hayashi, my grandfather, who is 75 years old, on November 3, 2000 in Tōkyō. He described to me his experiences during World War II and the U.S. Occupation of Japan. I was born in 1925 and grew up in Yatsuo, Toyama Prefecture. My…

  • Lisa Ferrie

    L02U, Lisa Ferrie ‘04, Kisaburō Matsuda, Neighbor, 1925, Tōkyō, Gifu,  Kanagawa: Yokosuka-shi I interviewed Kisaburō Matsuda, who was born in 1925 and is 77 years old. He is my neighbor and a friend of my mother. Q: How old were you when the war started? A: I was sixteen years old when it started, but…

  • Remi (Lemi) Sekine

    F07, Remi (Lemi) Sekine ‘97, Grandfather, 1925,   Shizuoka, Ibaraki, Gifu In December 1995, I asked my grandfather about his experiences during World War II. He was born in 1925, so he is 70 years old now. When my grandfather was 19 years old, he enlisted in the Japanese Army. It was on April 20, 1944…

  • Daniel Bissonnette

    H01U, Daniel Bissonnette ‘00, George Tanaka, Family friend, 1925, United States George Tanaka, a family friend who is staying at my grandmother’s house in California, agreed to be interviewed by telephone on his experiences in a relocation camp during the Second World War. George Tanaka, a second-generation Japanese-American, was relocated to a camp in southwest…

  • Reina Baker-Yoshino

    J01, Reina Baker-Yoshino ‘01, Kiyoe Nakamura, Grandmother, 1925, Ehime, Tōkyō I interviewed my maternal grandmother about her experiences during World War Il. Her name is Kiyoe Nakamura. She is 73 years old and will turn 74 on November 20, 1999. I interviewed her at home, because we live together, and I found out things that…