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SG: So sounds like a lot of time was spent towards war rather than studying?

MK: Studying. Yeah, because that's the way I was brought up. Because of my father's position that, I remember that wearing nothing but white dresses when I was in public in the car sometimes. And then when I met mayors and governors and so on, always wore white dresses. And then to greet the public, I had to wear white dresses because that will promote kind of feelings of purity and strength and fighting spirit against Americans. Wherever I went, I remember that little Japanese flags used to follow me because the children will line up on both sides of the street waving their Japanese flags.

SG: So you were treated differently because you were a daughter of a military?

MK: Yes, yes, that's the way it was. And then it seems to me that my mother's, my parents' marriage is kind of planned because my mother came from a part of Mitsubishi, and there's a fringe of Mitsubishi Corporation because of her grandfather and so on, and then my mother, my father was a military man. So I think they're trying to kind of, in the military industrial complex, trying to put the industry and the military together. Now that I have studied American history, Japanese history, that's the feeling I get, that everything was planned.

SG: And what was your relationship like with your father at that time?

MK: Well, my father loved me so, so much, and I really felt so good when my father was around. He was so proud of me. And then I remember he, before he got married to my mother and he always took the guests or friends to geisha house. He was quite a playboy. But after they're married, and then my father never took the friends and guests to the geisha house, but he always brought them home. I wasn't sure which was better for my mother. And then so, unannounced, you know. He will bring the guests home, his friends home. And then immediately, my mother and her maids had to prepare the spread dinner. And in the beginning, my mother didn't know very well about it. So when my father brought the friends home and she was opening the canned goods, and then one of the guests said, "Don't you know that your husband knows everything about cuisine?" so my mother had to study so hard how to prepare. We always had to have fresh vegetables and so on. It was quite trying because up 'til the time she married, she had free spirit, and she wasn't prepared to become a navy man's wife, entertaining his friends.

SG: And did you usually, what, did you help out your mom at this time?

MK: Well, at the time, no. I was so, my mother would send me off to do some grocery shopping and so on. But I remember my little brother and I used, I went one time and I had a shopping bag with us, and then we're supposed to buy about ten eggs. And then somehow, we swang around, and it made cracking noise and we laughed and came home, and there's no eggs there, but egg yolk everywhere. [Laughs] My mother, after that, my mother asked the maid to do the shopping, and we were able to escape from all the chores and so on.

SG: And so how often did you, were you able to see your father?

MK: Whenever he came home and then my mother made sure that we wouldn't go near the living room. We had a large home, but I used to sneak in, when my mother went to the kitchen, I used to open the shoji, you know. And then my father was always happy to see me, so I used to crawl on his, just sat on his lap. And then my favorite thing was, memory that I have from those days is I used to sip from my father's beer mug, only the bubbles. And my father loved the German, beer mugs, so we had a nice kind of a reddish and bluish cut glass, beer glass. I still remember those days, just a fun memory.

SG: And he was gone quite, for how long would he be gone?

MK: Yeah, he was gone. Well, sometimes I don't know because I was too small, so I don't know, but he was gone most of the time. I was playing with my siblings. So when I started school, I had a hard time because I used to take care of my brothers and sister. In other words, I used to boss them around all the time. I was oldest. Then I went to school, I had a hard time, the same level, the same age. I didn't know how to handle them.

SG: How was it for your mom to have to raise the children without your father being there?

MK: Oh, that was after the war. Yes, 1944, sometime in the summer that we got a notice from the Japanese government that the entire New Guinea area was captured under American forces, and then communication was cut after I think third of March, and then everybody was missing in action and then presumed dead. That's what my mother received from the government. Before that, the postcard came from my father which said that he was either killed by bombardment from American ships or eaten by crocodiles because where he was was full of crocodiles. And then jungle was so thick that they couldn't escape into it. Also, headhunters were there, and then he felt that he would die either way, yeah.

SG: So your mom, she raised, before your father died, she really raised you by herself as well?

MK: Yes, indeed. It was, I feel so sorry for my mother because my mother is right now ninety-two years old, and she's being tube fed after a severe stroke. But when I think about her life, I feel really grateful about what kind of life I have right now because the moment the announcement came that my father was no longer with us or probably missing in action and so on, not coming back, then we had to get out of our government house and then move to a smaller place. And then government at the time said that they would pay for the rent, so we didn't have to worry about it. But after the war, what is government? I mean, the government that we knew didn't exist anymore. So everything stopped. And here my mother, my goodness, was stranded with myself, Masataka, Masanobu, Reiko and another baby, Seibo, five children. Then my oldest brother, stepbrother came back. He was about nine years older than I was from the navy school, academy. So all of us, what's going to happen now? She didn't know. She had a horrible adjustment probably. All the maids disappeared. She didn't know how to shop. And then also she was so embarrassed to go shopping for grocery without money. And then all those things became my responsibility as the oldest daughter, and what a life at the time we had. And then war ended on August the 15th, the 15th of August, 1945. And then I think the 10th or 11th of September, my youngest brother Seigo starved to death. I still remember the night before, I was able to find only about five, six grapes, and I remember squeezing juice and then feeding him, and that was not enough for him to survive. And next morning, my mother woke me up and said, "Michiko, Seigo is gone." And then I woke up and I looked at Seigo's face and was all white, and he was gone, and I remember crying a lot and then telling myself that I was going to live for him too. And then that really stayed with me throughout my life that I don't have time for small things. Every time I felt sad, and then I thought about my brother that he didn't have a chance, then I was able to get up and go. And then also that I never treated other people in a mean way. It's because of that experience. And also, I lost 25 percent of my classmates on the 29th of June, 1945, when 138 B-29's came and drop 15,000 fire bombs on us, and then 75 percent of the city was destroyed. When that happened, and I just, my best friend was gone. And I played with her and, "See you tomorrow," and tomorrow never came. When I think about those things as a little child, and I said to myself, "I have to live for those people who died just as well, not just for myself." That really kept me going in many ways, I think.

<End Segment 3> - Copyright © 2003 Oregon Nikkei Endowment and Densho. All Rights Reserved.