<Begin Segment 18>

SF: How did you hear about the end of war?

RT: At the factory, at noontime on August 15th, it was a really hot day, and they told us all to gather in this field, factory field. And so under the blazing sun on a hot August, we were all standing there and whenever the emperor spoke we had to bow our heads and listen, so we bowed our... but it was not a very, well, the way the emperor speaks, it wasn't colloquial Japanese and it was hard for us to understand what he was saying. But when the, one of the main army officer, after he heard it, heard the speech, and he just crumbled to the ground, crying in anguish, we knew that the war had ended, must've ended. And I was relieved. I was so happy.

TI: And why were you, why did you feel relieved and happy?

RT: That the war ended, that we wouldn't have to worry about air raids or maybe food shortage. Everything was terrible. It was just very scary.

TI: So describe the days after the war ended. What, what happened then?

RT: After the war ended it was terrible because all these soldiers were being repatriated and then these families, too, were coming home, and so the food shortage was doubled, or tripled what it was before. And it was, in Nagoya, people, most of the homes, everything was bombed and people were living in bomb, in their little bomb shelters or huts or whatever they can find, shelter. It was just, after the war it was more terrible than during the war, as far as food.

TI: And so how did people survive, food-wise? I mean, what would they eat?

RT: It was just, I don't... a lot of people went hungry. There was starvation. It's, it's, fortunately my father was still working for his aunt's farm, so we were a little better off as far as food was, but it was still... and then my, after the war my father went to work for the occupation forces 'cause he knew a little English. And so he went to work near Nagoya's, where there was an occupation forces, and he worked in the mess hall as an interpreter and he was in charge of the bus boys there. So he used to bring home the crust of the breads and sometimes they had a little piece of butter on it. We always used to look forward to that, I think. Especially my little sister. She was only six years old. But he used to sneak home, it wasn't, he wasn't supposed to do that, but he was able to sneak home bits of bread and other things.

SF: So the occupation force provided some way for people who had English skills or any kind of link to America to, as a way just to survive because everybody knew that they had food and resources? How did that work? How did, so everybody tried to get to the occupation forces to find a job or get some other...

RT: Yes. There were some young people that went and applied for jobs, and so my father spoke some English, so he was able to be the interpreter and supervise the bus boys in his job as, in the mess hall.

TI: Now, at the end of the war you're about, what, fifteen years old?

RT: I was just fifteen in July and the war ended in August.

TI: So let's talk about you and what you did then, after the war.

RT: After the war we went, finally we went back to the classroom, but then most of our books were burnt. We couldn't have Japanese readers, we couldn't have Japanese history or geography, and it was a girls' school, so we didn't have any military classes, so that was good, but we could only have, like, sewing classes and P.E. and music and maybe English. And the teachers were afraid to open their mouth and say anything because then they would get purged. The U.S. occupation forces was very strict on all those things. They wanted to change everything to a democracy.

TI: So what, in particular, what type of, of information or lessons were the occupation forces most concerned about? I mean, you mentioned, so they didn't want Japanese history taught anymore, things like that, so when you say a teacher was, was very careful, what did they have to be careful about?

RT: Well, the books were all, we couldn't use any of the books that we were using, as far as history or geography or the Japanese readers, because, like the Japanese readers, they always had stories about the war heroes or people like that, and of course history and part of geography, too, because it might've said something about the Japanese trying to, what is it? How they probably, what is it, Korea, you know, Japan at one time had Korea under its, what, occupation, is it? Anyway, the Koreans in those days, they had to change their names into Japanese surnames and they had to study Japanese and talk Japanese.

TI: So these were all things that the Americans didn't want taught in schools, so they wanted to stop that?

RT: Uh-huh.

TI: I see. So it's kind of like, from a school standpoint, people were kind of in limbo, not really sure, not, not being able to teach what they used to teach, but not really knowing what to teach instead of that. Okay, so what happened at school then?

RT: So we used to go to school and then in, after the occupation started, around September or October, I think, I was, I, one of my relatives living in Nagoya still had a little, their business wasn't, they didn't lose their business from the air raids, and so they were buying things from the U.S. GIs on the black market and you know, 'cause in those days the Hershey bar and the cost of prostitution was the same. That's how desperate people were in Japan to get food. And so these GIs, they were entitled to one candy a day. That was their ration. And then their -- I don't know if you know what C-rations are, the military. Yeah, so they would break up the C-rations and bring the canned meat and such and sell it on the black market, and since I could speak English my relatives wanted me to be there on the weekends when I was out of school and I was sort of like their interpreter, go-between when these people, GIs came and sold their things. And so that's how my relatives at that time was able to make a living with selling, being able to buy these things from the GIs and sell it to the other Japanese.

TI: And so what would they pay the GIs with? So the GIs would, say, do a candy bar, in return what would the GIs get?

RT: Gee, they, it must've, it must've been in yen. I never, or maybe they had some kind of a currency. I don't know.

TI: I was wondering if it was a barter system or if was just actually in yen.

RT: I don't know. All I know is that on weekends I used to go there and help, and sometimes the GIs would bring shaving cream, you know, the tube of shaving cream? From their rations or whatever, and they would sell it as, as toothpaste or, or something to eat or something, because the Japanese in those days didn't have toothpaste in a tube. It was in a powder form and you just bought it. And so sometimes the GIs made a lot of money selling the things that weren't what the Japanese thought they were getting.

TI: And how did the GIs treat the Japanese, like in this situation, or treat you when you're talking with them?

RT: They were nice. Yeah. It was, so I think after a while the Japanese families that had sent their daughters to the remote areas realized that the Americans weren't that bad, that they were, and many of these Americans had come from the battlefields and so they were very, very nice, compassionate.

TI: Why would a battlefield sort of soldier be compassionate? I would think almost the opposite, that they'd be hardened and...

RT: No, I think, I think it's because they had families at home, and they weren't, they were family men. They had sisters, siblings at home and they, they wanted to get back home as quickly as possible.

TI: Okay.

SF: Did you ever meet Nisei soldiers when you were...

RT: Not too many, no. I had a relative from Hawaii that was there as one of the occupation forces and he came to see us once, but...

TI: Okay, so on weekends you would go and essentially act as interpreter or helper for...

RT: A go-between, black market. [Laughs]

TI: Go-between. And this was with, I'm sorry, your aunt? Or who was this again, this was your...

RT: It was one of my relatives, distant relatives that was, in other words, using me. [Laughs] And it was, for me it was kind of fun, instead of staying in my little town near the farmlands. It was different. It was kind of exciting.

<End Segment 18> - Copyright © 2011 Densho. All Rights Reserved.