Densho Digital Archive
Densho Visual History Collection
Title: Aiko Tengan Tokunaga Interview
Narrator: Aiko Tengan Tokunaga
Interviewer: Martha Nakagawa
Location: Los Angeles, California
Date: July 29, 2010
Densho ID: denshovh-taiko-01-0007

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MN: Can you share with us what, significance of the Juujuukuushu?

AT: Okay, juujuu is "10-10," kuushu is war, so it was October 10th, I believe in, first came in, must be in '44. 'Cause war ended by '45, so '44. So October 10th, apparently, is the first bombing of island. So that's, that's called as Juujuukuushu. And then from there, it had some time in between, and then the actual landing I think came May or June, two months, end of April. I need to study more history. [Laughs]

MN: Did this kuushu, this air raid affect your family in Naha?

AT: I don't know. I believe that was the time, yes. I think Naha was mostly flattened. Because they did the Naha, they came from Naha to Shuri area. So, but I don't know how much of... yeah. I don't know. At that time, maybe not, because... 1941, '42, '44... yeah, that was a time that, because my sister was three when she was escaping, she said. So yeah, she said she remembers that, just trying to escape from the, 'cause everybody had to walk wherever they had to go. So she said she remembers, so got to be that.

MN: Now, you were just a baby at this time. Did your mother ever, your family ever talk about how they were worried that you might cry and then alert the American soldiers while you were escaping?

AT: Yes. See, during the escape, we had to hide in a tomb or a cave. And yeah, definitely they were very worried that any babies crying, too. And this is, of course, after the land invasion. So, but apparently I was, I probably didn't have any energy to cry, but they said, yeah, I didn't cry. But some babies that cry, I don't know if they've seen actual, but then they were being forced out from the cave to save the other people or some, they had to kill their own baby because of crying. And you know, of course, no milk, no nothing to eat, and the babies would be crying. So I've heard of lot of those cases happening.

MN: How did your mother take care of your basic needs like washing your diapers?

AT: She said she did it all at night. She did it all at night, wherever there's tanbo, sugar paddy, or wherever there's water. She said she had to do it at night. And my grandmother would tell her that she'd take me on her back with her, because if she gets killed, that they couldn't raise me. So she said, she would be complaining that, "I had to carry you on my back and go out and wash all the diapers." So I think that was, I think that's what everybody was doing. But my mother would say, "Oh, you walk through all this and there's dead body there, dead body here, and sometimes mother's dead, the baby's crying," and you just kind of, you don't know what to do with... in square yard, three bodies average, a square yard.

MN: Did your mother have to help with the Japanese soldiers at all?

AT: No, but then she said they had to go and do some labor, some sort of labor job. So I don't know exactly, like carrying some stuff, I remember her mentioning, but that part I'm really not sure.

MN: And then you mentioned about your sister remembering hiding in the caves?

AT: She remembers, yeah. She said, she was only three, but she remembers hiding in the cave, and she said the most frightening thing was the fire bazooka that was being shot into the caves. She said, she said 'til this day that -- which I never knew until I visited the museum and I saw all these, I said, "What's all that?" Then she recalled that. She said, "Oh, that was the most frightening thing." But cave is very, very deep, so they would be going... but they can apparently hide farther than actual attack right through it. But of course, there were people that were being killed. But tombs, there's the stone walls, doors that you can close. But sometimes if you have it open, my grandfather told me, he said he was sitting by the entrance, there was a gentleman sitting next to him, and the bullet came and shot him right there. So he said, "Oh, so and so was just," they were just talking. So he said, "Oh, I've been hit," and just died there. So I think at night, I know they closed it.

MN: Do you know what they were eating to survive?

AT: Everything. [Laughs] Well, mostly potatoes. Yeah, potatoes and grain and vegetable or whatever they can get. Even immediately after the war, as I can remember, I mean, we did eat lot of potatoes, potato and rice, of course. You know, once a year, everybody had... but during the war, I'm sure it was very scarce. So the rice, potato, whatever they can find, anything that they can find in the field.

<End Segment 7> - Copyright © 2010 Densho. All Rights Reserved.