<Begin Segment 11>

TI: So the place where you worked in terms of making parts for the submarines, eventually the Americans would start bombing those areas because they would want to try to stop that. Do you have any memories of that?

PY: Yes, I do. You know, that's when I felt that, hey, this is something wrong. The government, military tell us that Japan is winning the war, Japan is winning the war. But we were forced to get into the air shelter. To build the air shelter was the most important thing than anything else, build the submarines, small little submarines. Because in the air shelter, they used to have a factory. And to make the air shelter was the number one job for the students. Then I felt that, "Hey, this is something fishy. They're not telling us the truth. Maybe we are losing the war." And when I saw the American planes hit the Kure city, then we used to go out and see the air battle. And I felt, yeah, something wrong.

TI: So let me make sure I understand. So before you would make submarine parts, and at some point, instead of making submarine parts, they had you making these air raid shelters?

PY: Yeah, yeah.

TI: And then you thought, well, something must be wrong here because you're going, you're now not making weapons, you're now making more protective places.

PY: Yeah.

TI: And then pretty soon, later on, then the bombers would come.

PY: Right, right.

TI: So describe that. When the bombers came, what was that like for you and the others?

PY: Well, you know, around twelve o'clock or midnight, twelve o'clock, B-29s used to fly over Kure Navy Base and then drop the bomb. So at the beginning, we used to get up because, with the siren, we used to get up and go to the air shelter. But during the day we worked so hard, and when you have that every night, you come so sleepy. So at the end, we didn't go to the air shelter and we just keep sleeping. And, but one night, they dropped the air, the bomb, the B-29 nearby where we were living. And the lady said, "You have to get up and run to the air shelter because this house is a danger." So that's how I got up and I wear my uniform and then I went to the air shelter.

TI: And then when you come back, I mean, is there lots of, like, destruction or devastation from the bombs?

PY: Yes, yes. I think the city of Kure was maybe, about eighty percent was burned. Only the high area was okay. And then the air shelter that we ran into, plenty of people died in there because the fire, fire went into, quite inside, and we were so hot in there. And I think many people died in the air shelter also.

TI: And when you have fire like that, the fire takes all the oxygen, too.

PY: Right, right.

TI: And so how would people breathe?

PY: Well, we had a hard time, yeah. That's why we used to dig the ground and then put our face into the ground and then breathe, yeah.

TI: And so there was like more air, more oxygen in kind of the dirt area.

PY: Yeah, yeah, I guess so. I guess so. That's what we did. And then I had one hat one, so I put the hat on the, what I dig, and then I used to breathe, yeah.

TI: And you said even in these air raid tunnels, shelters, many people died?

PY: Yes, many people died. And then so in the morning, the, some of the people yell at us and told us that, "The young people, please go in there and maybe some of them are still living. So get them out from the air tunnel or air shelter, and then take them out so they can breathe more freely and they can leave." And I know we had one little, not river, but a stream, and that we took them out to the stream and they used to drink the water over there.

TI: And so there were quite a few people who were just too weak and you brought 'em outside and they were okay?

PY: Yeah. So, they used to say, "Young people, please go in there, because some of them are dying. So take them out and get them to drink the water."

TI: And so that's what you would do? You would go in there and help?

PY: Yeah, yeah. So I didn't, I forgot... I didn't wear my shoes and go into the tunnel. So I remembered that I found one gentleman was dead already, and I took his shoes and I borrow his shoes and went inside and helped people out.

TI: So as a boy, you're not that old, when you come across death like that, what do you think? Is it hard, or what, are you thinking about that?

PY: No, I didn't think anything. I thought they had -- well, I didn't think that I was doing the right thing or wrong thing or things like that, I just, just did it.

TI: Now, did any of your, kind of, schoolmates, classmates, were they injured or killed in these bombing raids?

PY: No, I don't think so. At that raid, no. But many of my classmates died in Hiroshima, though, with the atomic bomb, yeah. That's a little further down.

<End Segment 11> - Copyright © 2009 Densho. All Rights Reserved.