<Begin Segment 5>

[Translated from Japanese]

NM: As for the end of the war, there were radio broadcasts of the emperor declaring the end of the war. Do you remember that?

TF: That was when I suffered a tumor on my nose and was making many hospital visits. I was in bed at home. It was the Bon period, and my sisters and relatives were at home too. We were told there was to be an important announcement and were all lined up and listening to the radio. It was breaking up. The voice was breaking up. The language was also unfamiliar for us.

NM: I heard the broadcast was hard to decipher.

TF: Scratching noises were all we could hear. I was wondering what it was all about. I was assuming it was a kind of encouraging message to the people. [Laughs] We used to pass circulars with community notices and announcements around the neighborhood. That's how we found out the war was over. My father was saying we would lose the war way before it ended through.

NM: Few people dared to do it.

TF: He said this nation did not have enough resources and power, and that it was impossible to win the war. My mother always told him not to say that. He was expressing his honest opinions.

NM: He was a person of clear observation.

TF: I have a lot of respect for him.

NM: I assume people were not supposed to make negative comments in those days. He was courageous to say that. [Laughs] What was the reaction from the adults around you? How did they react?

TF: We had a notice circulating right away, meetings were held, and they decided to send women and children away.

NM: Why did they need to be evacuated?

TF: They were afraid that women and children could be kidnapped or raped.

NM: By U. S. and the Allied Powers soldiers?

TF: Right. Male villagers thought that would be the first thing that happens to us. They got together and identified safe spots in the mountains. They were talking about building log cabins and sending women and children to stay there. Male villagers would come back to the village at night and deliver food and other supplies to us.

NM: It didn't really happen? That was just a plan.

TF: It was just a plan. I remember we were packed up and getting ready to go. We didn't end up going anywhere after all. [Laughs]

NM: [Laughs] And no one came to attack you either.

TF: The change took place in no time. There was a big iron factory by the girls' school I was attending.

NM: Where is that?

TF: In Fukuoka. You mean the girls' school? It was Chikushi Girls High School in Zasshonokuma. It was the only one in the region. It was run and managed by the prefecture and pretty competitive to be admitted. There was a big iron factory on the same street. The Allied Forces took hold of the building right away, and U.S. soldiers swooped in. That happened very quickly. Our village was quite a distance. It would take about an hour to get there. People in that neighborhood might have been scared. We didn't see any of the soldiers. Days went by, but we had no idea what they looked like. We figured nothing would happen and decided we didn't need to be sent away.

NM: There was fear about U.S. soldiers at first. What was the education like during the war? Do you remember militaristic propaganda at school?

TF: We had very stoic physical education. I was not athletic and always trying to avoid it. [Laughs]

NM: How about propaganda against the U.S. and American people?

TF: We were taught songs to sing.

NM: What are the songs?

TF: "Red Ogre, Blue Ogre" and so on. American men are rather hairy, aren't they? Some of them are not though.

NM: The implication is that Americans are monsters.

TF: Yes.

NM: That was taught at school.

TF: At school.

NM: That's what you were told.

TF: Such ideas was introduced in rather natural fashion with songs. Military songs were very popular. We were brainwashed but not aware of that. I think that was the educational policy in those days.

NM: That's why people thought the Allied Forces would pose a danger, and women and children had to be sent away for safety.

TF: That's right.

NM: Was the relationship between local residents under the occupation and U.S. soldiers not quite friendly?

TF: We didn't have anything to do with them. We were pretty far away.

NM: There was a distance.

TF: We didn't even see them.

NM: No encounters?

TF: No.

NM: Was there a base? Was the iron factory their base?

TF: It is a Japanese base now. Another base was located in Kasugahara. Itatsuki had an airport, and Kasugahara had a combined base for the army and navy. It was huge, it used to be a horse racetrack. It was a big open space. They quickly put dome-shaped barracks there to establish the largest base in the region.

<End Segment 5> - Copyright © 2016 Densho. All Rights Reserved.