<Begin Segment 5>

SG: Just going back a little bit, what, so what did you do after you got kicked out of the government housing?

MK: Yes. So we moved into this small house. Even that house, my mother thought that the government would pay the rent so we could live there forever. And then, but after the war ended, the government stopped giving us money, and my mother was on her own. And then the trouble began, and she didn't know what to do for a long time. And she tried everything during the war. At first my brother came back, and then I think he was about eighteen or nineteen years old, and my mother thought about employment as well as university because my brother was her own child, and then how mean stepmothers are supposed to be and so on, and therefore, my mother made sure that my brother will have everything, so nobody could criticize her. So my mother asked my brother, "Would you like to go to university?" The university started, at the time, and then my brother said, "No, I'm not that bright. I know it. I don't want to study. Therefore, if you have enough money to send the rest of the siblings to the university, give them education, but I'm ready to work." So he said that. So my mother found a job with a trucking company, and then my brother studied to get the driver's license. I still remember the electricity wasn't there at the time. If we did, it was only temporary, and we always had candles. We had to have money for candles, so we can see at night. And I remember when I was lying in my bed and then next to my bed was futon, not the bed, but futon, there was a desk, and then my brother was studying and then falling asleep. I still, I can still picture in my mind how my brother tried to study with the candle light. And he passed, and then he became a truck driver. But physically, he was not that strong. And then he fell asleep, and he got fired.

And fortunately, occupation forces came in, and then was, my mother heard that. She was very resourceful. And my mother inquired about it, about employment at the PX and got a job for my brother, half brother, and he was able to work. And then that was the first time we saw bread, white bread. Up to then, we had dark bread. I know now, dark bread is better than white bread, but it was just wonderful to see the pure white bread, and then we just fell in love with it, I remember. And then so my mother, my brother helped. Meanwhile, my mother asked me to do, go shopping for grocery, and sometimes we had only ten yen. I had to prepare dinner for everybody in the family with ten yen. And then when I went to grocery store, I could see how much I could buy with ten yen, not enough. I felt very grateful to my father because my father was good to the tradesmen, the people in the city, so they came out to help us out. So that when I went to a grocery shop, the wife said, "You know, I can't give you vegetables straight out because of the neighborhood. Other people will expect that too. But if I throw them on the floor, you can pick them up and free of charge because I'm throwing them out." So that's the way I received the vegetables, free of charge. And then next I went to a butcher store. And then those days, bones are free. I was able to get bones. And then when I went home, I made vegetable and bones. And once in the while, we had fish. And when we had fish, we made sure that we would eat the eyes because my mother said that the eyes had vitamin c, so it will be good for our eyes, so we ate the fish eyes. And after we finished eating fish, we made sure that we took the bones up on the roof and then dry them and then later on broil them and crush them to make, my mother said we needed calcium for the bones. We had no milk, so that became our calcium source. And even we tried to use usu, the grinder, stone grinder, to make powder out of eggshell. And then somehow, I don't know why, but we always had flour and oil. As a result, I used to mix the powdered bones and powdered eggshell with the flour and used to make steamed buns or otherwise donuts. I remember making a lot of donuts. I don't know where my mother got flour and then oil.

SG: And your older brother was working for the American occupational force?

MK: Yeah, occupation, yes.

SG: So did he bring food back?

MK: Yes, and he was not supposed to, but he smuggled some food to us, and that's the way we survived.

SG: What kind of food did he smuggle back, do you remember?

MK: Well, it was interesting. All I remember, it was cheese. And then of course I grew up with cheese because of my father's position. During the war, we had no problem when everybody else was maybe starving because everybody was starving at the time. No more food because Japanese, Japan was in such a horrible situation, lack of food and so on. But being in the navy, a supply division, we always had food. We needed, if we needed, we are able to get bananas, even bananas from Taiwan. And we lived in Kaohsiung, Taiwan, when my father was opening the navy base in Kaohsiung. So we are able to have all kinds of food. But after the war, we had nothing. We just absolutely had nothing. But I know it's going away from your question a little bit, but then I'm very grateful that my father, my mother was so resourceful that not only she learned about how to make food with bones and vegetables, but also she always looked at encyclopedia, and she was looking for things to eat. So at the time I knew when I went outside of the house, which vegetables, which plants we could eat. So I used, I remember pick all kinds of things from the streets, I mean, the outskirt of the town, I mean, the city of Okayama, and we used bring home, can we eat this, can we eat that, and we used to eat. Oftentimes, if you try to eat vegetables as they are, sometimes you can't eat them because they may bitter, they may be bitter. But if you deep fry them one side, put the flour on the one side and just dip it in the oil, it becomes very crisp, and you can eat it.

SG: You said your mother was very resourceful partly from her experience during the great earthquake in Tokyo. Did she talk to you much about what happened?

MK: Oh, yes indeed, quite a bit, yes. And then also at the time that how Koreans got murdered, yes. It's really sad. But then at the same time, my mother was kind of, unfortunately, kind of looked down upon some of the people. I remember when I started school, one of the reasons why my mother objected to going, me going to public school was because there are people who are "untouchables" in the public school. She didn't want me to get mixed up with them. And then on the way to school, there is a village where those people lived. They say eta or burakumin. And then my mother asked me never go there. My mother said, "Those people have, they are like this." So I said, "What's that?" "They are four-legged people." And, "What do you mean by four-legged people?" "Well, you don't associate with them." And then so I was always curious at what adults said. So on the way to school, I went in there to see if they really had four legs. They didn't have four legs, and I could tell that my mother was lying, so I didn't trust my mother either at that age.

SG: So why were they considered to be lower class?

MK: It's because the Koreans originally to begin with, it just doesn't make sense to me now that after having studied history, and we learned so much from Koreans. We learned so much. We brought, adopted their culture in Japan; yet, somehow, we are brought up to think kind of we're supposed to look down upon them. I can't understand it, but that's the way it was. And a long time ago, those people are brought in to take care of the things that Japanese people didn't want to do. And then often, those people formed a village. To me, they are Japanese, but they lived in a different place, and they are segregated and prejudiced against them. And if you marry them, no way you can marry them.

SG: What kind of things did they do that the Japanese didn't want to do?

MK: Like taking care of funerals, taking care of animals, taking care of bamboo product, glass, make windows, and so on. But I'm sure there are other things that I don't know, leather goods.

SG: And you're saying these other Koreans were killed during the earthquake?

MK: Yeah, that's a strange thing. You have to read a book about that that, I think it's like in the South in this country with the black and white, some slightest thing that they try to get the frustration out or something that prey upon minority people.

SG: Did your mom talk about any other experiences during the earthquake?

MK: Yes, that sometimes the ground opened up and swallowed people. And then most important thing I learned was because Okayama was bombed, my mother said, "You think that if you're in the middle of the school yard away from the building, you are safe, but you are not because in the open field, the hot air goes up and then cold air comes down and the whirlwind start. And if you are in a flat area, that's where it starts," my mother said, "so it's very dangerous to be in an open field." That's what she learned in the earthquake because many people obviously rushed into the middle of the schoolyard thinking that would be safe away from the fire, away from the, the falling objects and so on but ended up consumed in the fire, the whirlwind of fire.

SG: So getting back to during World War II, you said your brother died even though your mom was very resourceful and your older brother brought, was able to get food, there wasn't enough for your younger brother?

MK: Because my younger brother needed my mother's milk. He was a baby. We were able to survive by vegetable soup and so on and other things to eat and bread and so on, but my brother obviously, also, I came home with dysentery. After the bombing, the school took the children, the schoolchildren, to the countryside. That occurred only the July 29 or so when Okayama was bombed. Right after that, the school sent out the notices to the parents, "Please send your children to certain destination so that the school will take the children to the countryside, at least the children will be safe." So we were all taken to the countryside and away from the city. And there, we had to live by the river because the river is the water source, and then we are washing our face and brushing our teeth in the river. And then however, there are many schools were all lined up living alongside the river. And then upstream, somebody came down with dysentery, no communications. We didn't know that happened, so we kept washing our faces and brushing our teeth with the same water. And then eventually, I got dysentery, so did many of my classmates. Then the war ended. So when I came home, obviously, I was still sick. And then my baby brother got it, and my rest of, actually, the rest of my siblings all got it from me, and then, so everybody became physically weak. And then youngest brother needed milk, no milk. I guess the vegetable soup was not enough.

SG: How old was he?

MK: He was I think a year and a half or so.

<End Segment 5> - Copyright © 2003 Oregon Nikkei Endowment and Densho. All Rights Reserved.