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MN: Now I know during World War II, the term "gyokusai" was used a lot. Can you explain to us, what is gyokusai?

FH: Gyokusai means, just, everybody just vanished all at once. Like being hit by a big bomb and so forth, just scattered all over and so forth. Like there was a term called "ichiyoku gyokusai." This was when Japan is attacked by the United States, the ichiyoku, it means the Japanese population, one billion, one billion Japanese all "defend our country, and all of us are going to die together." That kind of a, that kind of a thinking was prevailing in Japan.

MN: Was this thinking taught in school?

FH: Oh, yes, yes. Very openly, especially the history course and all those things, yes. Correct. We were firm believers in that kind of thinking, like what happened to Okinawa, we hear that quite frequently. But even the mainland Japan, that those things are going to happen, was our belief.

MN: To die for the Emperor?

FH: That's right, that's right.

MN: Did anybody really shout, "Tennoheika banzai," when they died?

FH: That we don't hear, because it's, mostly yelled, "Mom," you know. [Laughs] Although everybody was taught to say, "Banzai," to the Emperor. But we don't hear about that.

<End Segment 14> - Copyright © 2010 Densho. All Rights Reserved.