<Begin Segment 9>

TI: So after they make the announcement, what happened next as students? Did you just go back to your schools?

PY: I guess I went back to the school, yeah.

TI: And how did your life change after the war started?

PY: Well, we were all forced to do more at the high school military training. But it didn't change too much, though.

TI: How about just in general like how things would run? Would there be more military people around after the war started, or would it be about the same in terms of just day-to-day life like in the streets and things like that?

PY: Well, about the same, but I knew that, I know we went to the, what you call a training and help the factory that make the military things. We were forced to go to that, mainly military outfit to help the military people.

TI: Oh, so the students eventually had to go help at these factories.

PY: Yeah.

TI: Where would, the factory that you went to, where was that located?

PY: Oh, in Hiroshima. But my fourth and fifth year of the middle school, we were forced to go to Kure, Kure Navy Base. And at that time, from Hiroshima to Kure is, it's kind of far, so we lived in Kure. We didn't have no class or anything, and worked the whole day, seven days a week at the Kure Navy Base, just like Pearl Harbor.

TI: And what kind of things did they have you do at the Kure Naval Base?

PY: Well, we used to make the little submarines. You know, it came to Hawaii.

TI: Yeah, so a two-person, two-man submarine?

PY: There were all kinds. The name was different, but two-person, three-person, four-person, five-person. There's many, many little submarine that they used to make. Not only submarine but little boat, very fast boat, and the wooden boat that they can keep American ship. So things we used to make at the Kure Navy Base. And the high school students didn't participate, but the Yamato was built in Kure, too. You know the well-known...

TI: The battleship?

PY: Yeah, battleship Yamato?

TI: Yes.

PY: Yeah, the Yamato was built in Kure Navy Base, too.

TI: So it was a major, major shipbuilding place.

PY: Yes, major shipbuilding, yes.

TI: And then like your job, what kind, do you remember what you had to do?

PY: Well, I used to handle parts, all kind of parts of the, at the office, yeah.

<End Segment 9> - Copyright © 2009 Densho. All Rights Reserved.