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MN: I wanted to ask a little bit about your village, about... were there live bombs on the beaches near your area?

AT: Yes. The beach, when we were going elementary school, the beach was just covered with rusted bomb remains. And so we were all prohibited to go to beach by ourselves, because, you know, you have to kind of step in white sand in between those bombs. But, of course, there's people that made big money picking those scraps. And after probably, yeah, within three, four or five years, the beach was just totally clean. But when I was second, third, I've lost two of my classmates from those live bombs, boys. I mean, they were always getting into mischief, and they kind of played around and they were both blown up.

MN: Now, you were just a child, but did you hear of people getting raped or committing suicide after the war?

AT: Rape I've heard, because, you know, I tried to listen to what... I couldn't put together, but then, you know, I kind of knew it was something bad. My grandparents, grandmother and them talking about some mother and child being attacked. And suicide, I've known this man... now I think of it, he might have been, yeah, some guilt he might have been carrying. But he came back from the war, and I don't remember being really, you know, injured, but I know he was going through depression. He used to drink a lot. And so he committed suicide, throwing himself off a cliff. And like some neighbor daughter either was sent to work in bar or prostitution, I don't know, but lot of 'em, they had, so they can support the family. Those I've heard.

MN: Can you share a little bit about this military town called, is it Koza?

AT: Koza.

MN: Koza.

AT: Yeah. It was called Koza, but now they, because of that military town image that remained, so after the reversion to Japan, that town changed to Naha City. No, Okinawa City. Okinawa City. But Koza town is very close to a base, Futenma base is also, was also close. But it was, so Koza town was really known as the, had a military bar area, lot of bars. But I've never... you know, of course, as kids, we weren't told to go there at all, but from my understanding, half of... there's a main center of the street, they call it juujiro, I guess it was nicely crossed like this. Koza Juujiro. And one side I heard was bars geared mostly to blacks, and the other side was white. So they had segregation among military within the base. And I don't know how they behaved in their base, but off base, that's what I heard. Now, that image is all gone, but that Naha City is known as a music town. So they have a lot of theaters, small theaters where they have live hip hop, rock band, in that town. So it's more geared to young people of military and Okinawans, and from Japanese tourists. So it's become very, very famous as far as that.

MN: But you mentioned, did you remember girls from Koza coming, visiting your village?

AT: Yeah, that time was, it was, of course, shortly after that. I guess my grandmother knew the family, the lady who, so-called, like, running a brothel. But she was, she was more or less helping the girls, type of thing. So it was, I didn't know that at all, but from what I can imagine from that time and them talking. But one time, Koza is, you have to go on bus from Chinen. It's far distance, it's more middle part of Okinawa island. And they came to our village, and like a picnic. So the lady was telling my grandmother, "I'm bringing them so that they can emotionally and just physically rest and enjoy their day." So that's... and then sort of the way they talk about what they, what this person was like, this man was like. So you know, from there, I kind of get the idea, oh, must be... but of course, now, those things doesn't exist. But I assume lot of them had that, too, especially to support their family, to feed them.

MN: Now, when your mother went to Hawaii, and also you had relatives in Hawaii, what kind of care packages did they send to Okinawa?

AT: Oh, lot of hand-me-downs and candies. I guess canned goods, too, they sent. But yeah, all the clothing we get -- this is from my relatives -- my grandmother would already separate, "This one should go to so and so, this one should go to so and so," and whatever I can wear, she would keep so I can wear it. And again, the candies, too, she would open a package and all separate. And so, "This is gonna go to them." And anytime somebody would come, and eventually we would be eating -- it was the Kisses, Kisses chocolate, were the most chocolate that they had sent, and it was much easier to eat. But we save it so preciously, sometimes it gets molded, and we still ate molded chocolate, mold and all. But so a couple years ago when I went to Okinawa, my classmates all said that they remember my grandmother because they all got candy from her. So every time they pass by or they stop by, that they would get candies. Which at that time was non-existent.

MN: Your grandmother was very generous.

<End Segment 12> - Copyright © 2010 Densho. All Rights Reserved.