<Begin Segment 7>

AI: Well, now, at the ending of World War II, with the bombing of, the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, do you recall your father or mother making any comment at that point? Or your own recollection of that, that day.

JY: Well, I knew the atomic bomb was really bad, and, you know, it was huge and it killed a lot of people kind of thing, and, and I can remember my mother saying -- I can't remember the words she used, but showing grief about, about so many people -- [cries] -- about so many people dying. But... you know, the funny thing is... I don't remember it really affecting me at that time. And, you know, all our, all of our relatives, of course, were in Fukuoka, so we knew that they probably were not affected directly.

AI: Because Fukuoka is quite a bit farther south.

JY: Right.

AI: Well, and then about that same time I think you were saying that Tosh had returned from his service in the army also in about '45 or '46.

JY: It, it could have been -- it was either late '45 or '46. I'm, I'm almost -- you could ask him, but I'm almost sure it was after the war was over at that point. Just recently over.

AI: Uh-huh.

JY: Because we were still -- when that picture that you had there was taken, we were still at, at our, the second home that we were with, with the Coles, and, and that's when he came back, so that must have been in '45. Yeah. And, and, you know, there was -- I can remember all the cheering and so forth going on when the war ended and so forth. We didn't participate in it that much, but I can -- there was a, a square called Government Square in Cincinnati that was kind of like Times Square in New York except much, much smaller. And all the Cincinnatians were, you know, were -- just crowded that Government Square and so forth. So I, I do remember the, you know, the celebrations that went on when VJ, VE Day first and then VJ Day came about.

<End Segment 7> - Copyright © 2002 Densho. All Rights Reserved.