<Begin Segment 13>

TI: So as we get closer to the end of the war, my notes show that you went up to Tokyo.

PY: Uh-huh.

TI: Can you tell me why you went to Tokyo?

PY: Oh, to attend the college. Those days, they had about, about three or four exam. The first exam, second exam, third exam or something like that. And then I passed the first exam. The first exam was not, not written exam, but just like an interviewing kind of exam. And I passed that, so now I have to go to Tokyo to get the second exam or third exam, I forgot. But that's why I went to Tokyo.

TI: So it's interesting to me that in the midst of this war, with bombs coming and even Tokyo, bombs and everything, that still, that the university was still giving these tests, these exams, and doing all this?

PY: Well, you know, not too much of the liberal arts class, but the science class, yeah. They wanted, they wanted the young boys to get into the engineering or things like that. That kind of course was... so if you go into the liberal arts, arts class, they would postpone or whatever. But if you go to engineering course, then you were, the class was open.

TI: Okay, that makes sense. And so, were you taking these exams specifically for Waseda?

PY: Uh-huh.

TI: I'm curious, when you went to Tokyo or even Hiroshima, the cities, earlier you mentioned that those people had harder times getting food and things. When you traveled to the city, did you see examples of people struggling, that it was hard for them?

PY: Yes.

TI: And what would, what would be examples of that? What are some things you saw?

PY: Well, we had a food card, something like food card. Everybody had food card and so in order to get the food, you have to show, use the food card. And then for young people, food card was not enough to fill up your stomach. Yeah, but we had very hard time. So many black market was going on, yeah.

TI: And so you went to Tokyo in August, around August of 1945?

PY: To take the exam, that was a little earlier, I think, around May.

TI: Okay, May.

PY: After they accept me, yeah, I went... you know, actually, the school started in May or so. But many military outfit where I, where you were forced to go, Kure Navy Base never allow us to go. So we went around, I think around, it was July, I think. That was 1945, July, some people did go to Waseda in May. Every place was different time, and we were allowed to go to Tokyo to attend the college in around July.

TI: Okay, so July. So you went earlier in May to take the exams, and then later on you, in some ways, started a little bit later, but in July of 1945, you were attending classes in Waseda.

PY: But, you know, not too long, though. From Waseda, I mean, yeah, we went to the class a little while, I don't know how many days. And we were forced to go to Nagoya again, to another factory.

TI: Oh, so they needed more workers, so --

PY: Yeah, yeah. So they told us to go Nagoya, I forgot the factory name, but they had the number of factory, 201 or 205 or something like that. And then that was early August, I guess, and we were going to the Nagoya to go to the factory and help the military. But August 15th arrived.

<End Segment 13> - Copyright © 2009 Densho. All Rights Reserved.