<Begin Segment 19>

[Translated from Japanese]

TY: Did you write to each other for a long time with your friends and teachers later on?

AT: Oh, I did with my friends, but, today, they all have passed away. Everybody. Some were killed in the atomic bomb. One of them was killed by the atomic bomb while she was teaching at school. I was very close friends with her.

TY: Was it Ms. Kobayashi?

AT: Huh?

TY: Ms. Kobayashi?

AT: No, it wasn't Ms. Kobayashi. It was a teacher from another school. She was married, married, and she was told by her parents to quit, but she didn't even have a child, so she said that she would use her experience in teaching instead of playing at home, so she was teaching the third or fourth graders in a grade school. Then, she sent me a letter saying that she felt younger when she stayed with children everyday. So I thought she was doing a good job, but she died young. Today, I don't have any friends. Only I am remaining alone among friends. Sometimes I think that I should visit the graves, so I want to go to Japan. I also think it will be great if I could visit my family's graves and my friends' graves. But, I really don't have a chance to go to Japan any more. My children tell me that they won't let me go alone. They say that someone has to go with me. Well, even if I go to Japan, I don't have my parents or siblings. After all, well, we call them relatives, but they are like strangers... We don't associate with each other, whatsoever. I don't feel close to any of them. When I think about such things, even my children ask me, "Where are you going to stay, Grandma, supposed if you went?" I say, "Where to stay? I can just stay with the main family." But, I don't know them, so, my children, even if I say that I am going, they don't really say that I should go... They say that I should go when they go. I don't know when I go. It is like that.

<End Segment 19> - Copyright © 1998 Densho. All Rights Reserved.