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MN: Now, your family lost everything in Naha. Where did they escape to?

AT: Escaped to southern part, Chinen area. My grandfather was from Tamagusuku, which is little more south. Chinen, Kudeken area is also very south part of the island. But my grandmother's ancestor was from that village, so they had a home there, house there, so that's where we all escaped to. And that house, I guess during the war, they might have had a military, Japanese soldiers might be living in there, but by the time we went there it was all clear, so we were able to live there. And so our whole family lived with Mother's great-aunt.

MN: Now, towards the end of the war, do you know if your family members were pressured to commit suicide?

AT: No. My father, my grandfather was very, very adamant to, for everybody to live. So no, they weren't, I don't think they even thought of it. So, you know, and Okinawan elders, older people, they feel that your life is your fortune, so their motto is "nuchiru takara," your life is your treasure. So they tried to, for everybody to live as much... so it was most, like I said, the ones that committed suicide were mostly those girls that were, who was just being brainwashed, that, what their consequences are if they were being captured by U.S. soldiers. So no, not too many people committed suicide.

MN: Now, once the war ended, your family might be starving, but how did your family feel about receiving U.S. military rations?

AT: My grandfather was quite upset because he said, "I can't eat cheese, I can't eat that," or canned food. But, you know, we all received, thankfully, and my grandmother would improvise it so that he can eat. You know, with miso and shouyu or whatever they had. So it was, yeah, it was okay. And once we started living in the countryside, of course, we raised our own food. So we had big hatake, fields, so we had rice and vegetables, enough to eat for everybody.

MN: Do you know if anybody in your family dealt in the black market?

AT: No. No, not that I know of. But let's see... it's not, well, I don't know if you'd call it black market. But, like, you know, if there's, like from Hawaii, because had a family in Hawaii, maybe they might send ten dollars, twenty dollars, U.S. dollars, something like that. My grandmother would know where to exchange, you know, if you go to Naha area, and these ladies come to us. So I don't know. That's about the thing that I know of. That was to, changed to Okinawan currency. We had a special, they called it BNB currency. And of course that was changed to U.S. dollar after that, then to yen. So other than that, I really don't know anybody that dealt in black market.

<End Segment 8> - Copyright © 2010 Densho. All Rights Reserved.