Wartime Memories

Tag: China

  • Irwine Chang

    A01C, Irwine Chang ‘85, Mother, c 1933, China, Hyōgo The following are my mother’s memories of her wartime experiences. I interviewed her in May 1984. She is 51 years old now and was born around 1933. I came to Japan when I was four years old. I was born in Guangzhou [Canton], but because of…

  • Aileen Jo

    D02C, Aileen Jo ‘91, “Anyan,” Grandmother, c 1924, Hyōgo, Nagano, China, Yokohama: Naka-ku In November 1989, I asked my grandmother (whom I call “Anyan”) about her wartime memories. She was a teenager and young adult during the worst years of the war.  Q: Anyan, I’d like to ask you some questions about your experiences during…

  • Aki Tamagawa

    E17, Aki Tamagawa ‘94, Yoshiko Tamagawa, Grandmother, 1919, Aichi, China, Hyōgo, Shizuoka I interviewed my paternal grandmother, Yoshiko Tamagawa, on December 1, 1992. She was born in 1919 and is now 73 years old. Q: How old were you when World War II began?A: I was exactly 20 years old, living in Nagoya. That was…

  • Mami Yamamoto

    E20C, Mami Yamamoto ‘94, Hideo Kawamata, Grandfather, 1917, Yukie Kawamata, Grandmother, c 1920, Manchuria, China, Taiwan, Tōkyō My maternal grandmother and grandfather are Yukie and Hideo Kawamata. In 1941 (Shōwa 16), they were not yet married. My grandfather went for a government inspection when he turned 20 years old, as all men did at that…

  • Takako Kamei

    E08, Takako Kamei ‘94, Yoshiharu Kitamoto, Grandfather, 1911, China, Fukuoka On November 29, 1992, I had the opportunity to interview my grandfather, who is 81 years old. He was born in the late Meiji era (1911, or Meiji 44-nen), and is one of the few who have lived through four eras: Meiji, Taishō, Shōwa, and…

  • 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…

  • Yurika Yo

    M04C, Yurika Yo ‘06, Yo (Yu) Aiko, Grandmother, 1929, Ōsaka, Hyōgo, China I interviewed my paternal grandmother, who survived World War II. Her name is Yo (originally Yu) Aiko, and she is 73 years old. Her parents were immigrants from China, and my grandmother was born in Kōbe. She went to a Chinese elementary school…

  • Mira (Milla) Ikeda

    V01, Mira (Milla) Ikeda ‘21, Reiko Yamamuro, Great-aunt, 1944, Shun’ichi Yamamuro, Great-uncle, 1941, China, Yokohama: Kanagawa-ku, Tōkyō For this oral interview, I interviewed my grandmother’s sister, Reiko Yamamuro, and her husband, Shun’ichi Yamamuro, at their house in Yokohama on October 10th, 2019. Reiko Yamamuro was born in Shanghai in the year 1944, just before the…

  • Rio Yanaga

    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…

  • Yumi Moriguchi

    K05, Yumi Moriguchi ‘02, Fumiko Nakano, Grandmother, 1913, China, Korea, Nagasaki, Yokohama: Naka-ku On November 5, 2000, I interviewed my grandmother, Fumiko Nakano, who is 87 years old. My grandmother wasn’t directly involved in combat in World War II, because she was living in Kyūshū, but she had an interesting experience in China before the…