<Begin Segment 20>

TI: Okay, so you eventually get to Japan after a really rough, rough ride, and then what happens?

RY: Well, we get to this Japanese reception center at a place called Kuriyama and it was a reception center for all of the Japanese returning from the South Pacific and all of the other places that Japan had. And so it was a pretty rough place and these people, they would steal you blind. We had to sit on our baggage.

TI: So other Japanese would steal from each other?

RY: Yeah, because when you got to Japan there was no food, there's no clothing, there's nothing. And they fed us there but it was like napa with some broth in there, you know. And I made the mistake of... it was in the barracks, it was dark, and you could eat it, it was alright. But what I made the mistake was to go outside and eat it and there's a bunch of worms on the bottom. [Laughs]

TI: And so inside it's too dark to really see what you're eating.

RY: Yeah, and I go, oh my god, so they gave us like some dog biscuits, like hard, so I ate that the rest of the time. [Laughs] And we stayed there a few days before we went back to Hiroshima.

TI: And you went there, 'cause earlier you talked about being reunited with your grandfather. Is that where your grandfather was?

RY: My grandfather was in Hiroshima. My dad, we went to Hiroshima because we couldn't go to Okinawa and so we went to my mother's family's side and went up to where she was born and raised. It was nice for her to see all her family, her sister and cousins and stuff. But I wasn't happy.

TI: But Hiroshima, so the atomic bomb --

RY: Oh, that's another thing.

TI: So what was the --

RY: That's another thing. When they dropped the bomb, people didn't know anything about radiation or anything, and so they dropped it in, was it October I think wasn't it?

TI: It was August.

RY: August, well, I walked through Hiroshima in ,I think it was January or February the next year, which is only like six months removed. And I don't know if I got radioactive or not because that was ground zero. And I just was curious and I could stand by the railroad station and I could see, I don't know how many miles it was, but I could see the Japan Sea down the other end. There was nothing else in between.

TI: 'Cause it was just flattened.

RY: Just flattened.

TI: No buildings standing.

RY: Yeah. And the other night I was watching the news when they had the tsunami and one of the Japanese says, "It looks like Hiroshima." And I said, no way does it look like Hiroshima because when I walked through Hiroshima city there wasn't a stitch of wood on the ground.

TI: 'Cause everything had burned.

RY: Everything was disintegrated. The only thing that was standing in the Hiroshima city was the department store which was concrete. But I went inside the concrete building and there wasn't a stitch of wood even where the stairways they'd put in forms to make the stairs, that was all gone you could see just spaces. But I remember that.

TI: And when you were there were there very many people in the city?

RY: There were some people trying to salvage stuff and getting tin, what do you call it, the tin teppan they call it and they try to make shelters, but it wasn't very nice.

TI: And was your grandfather there when the bomb...

RY: My grandfather, he was very fortunate, he lived out in the country, he owned property in Hiroshima and he was supposed to go to Hiroshima and get the rent money. Well, he happened to get a big sliver in his foot and he couldn't walk, so that day he dropped the bomb he was at home in the country and that saved him from getting killed.

TI: Otherwise he would have been right there.

RY: Otherwise he would have been in the city. And I remember my mother's cousin was there and he got a whole new layer of skin, and when I saw him he was just pink, you know, totally burned.

TI: And he survived though.

RY: He survived but I guess he was from Hawaii, too. See, he went back to Hawaii and he had leukemia from the radiation and he had to have his leg amputated and he didn't make it. But when I saw him he was laying down there on the bed and he was just pink.

TI: 'Cause all his skin had burned off.

RY: All the skin burned off. And I go oh, my goodness and there were a lot of people around there that were burnt and the Japanese didn't know how to treat it. I don't think the Americans knew either 'cause that's the first time they ever dropped the bomb.

<End Segment 20> - Copyright © 2011 Densho. All Rights Reserved.