G11, Yurika Terada ‘99, Seiji Terada, Grandfather, 1931, Fukuoka, Niigata, Philippines
World War II was the harshest war in world history including the most countries and with the most people killed. Most of the young men were forced to go to war as soldiers, and many people had very hard lives. My paternal grandfather is one of them, and he experienced a hard life during World War II. Therefore, in November 1997, I took the opportunity of this assignment to interview my grandfather about his life during war time and his feelings about it.
He was born on January 3, 1931, in Fukuoka, as the first son of the Terada family. He was named Seiji by his father. World War II began when he was only in Grade 3 of elementary school. At this time, his family moved to Niigata, where his father was managing a box lunch shop (bentō-ya). About the time my grandfather entered middle school, the war was becoming more intense day by day. There were air raids by the American air force almost every day. Therefore, although he was a student, he couldn’t really concentrate on studying. The English language was considered to be Teki-go, meaning “the language of the enemy,” so the government prohibited people from using it. Baseball was the most popular sport in Japan then, as it is in recent days too. However, since English words couldn’t be used, the umpire had to change all of the English words used in the game to Japanese. For example, “Safe” was changed to “Yoshi,” and “Out” was changed to “Dame.
In 1945, the state of Japan in the war became worse, and the air raids by the American air force were growing worse and worse. During this time, most of the middle school and high school students were sent to Gunju-kōjō, which means working in factories to provide weapons for the war. This was because most of the young men had gone to fight, so the students and even women had to work instead. My grandfather was sent to a factory too, as he was a middle school student. He was basically making parts of the switches for bombs there. The factory paid the workers, but it was rice and potatoes instead of money. My grandfather said that “the food shortage was really serious during the war, and even if you had money, you couldn’t buy any food. Therefore I was very grateful to get food from the factory rather than money.”
My grandfather’s father (my great-grandfather) went as a soldier to World War II. He was sent to the Philippines, and there the Japanese Army was almost annihilated. Only a few Japanese soldiers, including my great-grandfather, escaped deep into the mountains. However, there was nothing to eat, so they caught snakes and lizards and ate them. As days went by, the snakes and lizards became harder to find too, and many people died of starvation. Also there were Filipino resistance fighters coming to find them. They shot the Japanese soldiers as soon as they found them, mercilessly. My great-grandfather was shot by a Filipino, but he survived, although he had a hole in his abdominal region. My grandfather said that “My father used to tell me a lot about his experience on that mountain in the Philippines. I guess it was the most fearful time in his whole life, facing death. My great-grandfather was alive until five years ago, but his abdominal injury remained throughout his life, as well as the injury in his heart.
Through this assignment, I came to know more about people’s real experience and feelings, who actually lived at the time of war. They couldn’t have basic things that they needed to live, such as food, clothing, and education. Also they lived every single day facing death. My grandfather said at the end “Today we have everything. We are able to have anything that we need to live, very easily. And also we have stable lives. So we have to be grateful for every single thing that we have.”
I think this is true. We must not repeat the war. In order to prevent another war from occurring, the first thing we have to do is to respect all that we have, including food, clothing, education, and a stable life, as my grandfather said.