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SG: So looking back on your experience after the war, what kind of, can you describe what it felt like at that time?

MK: After the war, actually, I remember I felt so relieved. When we are in the village before we came home, we are so tired, we are so sick. Then the Tennoheika, we heard, we listened to Tennoheika's voice on the 15th of August. We can go home, we learned. We didn't know what he said. We didn't understand a word of what he was talking about, but the teachers told us that the war had ended, Japan surrendered. I didn't know what the surrender meant; but anyway, no more planes coming to attack us. And then we're able to go home, so we felt just wonderful. And then we went home. But once we went home, there's no food. The city was bombed. So immediately my mother said, "Find water." My father was, my mother and then two, the other siblings are also evacuated to the countryside. And then when I came home, my mother wasn't there, and then my neighbor told me where my mother went with the rest of the siblings. So I remember looking for my mother and get on the train or something and then went to look for my mother, and finally, I found my mother. And then I remember I wanted to be hugged by my mother because I hadn't seen her for a long time, but my mother was holding my brother because my brother was a baby. And I remember how envious I was of my brother because my mother only said was, "Okaeri nasai." I expected her to say, "Oh, nice to see you," and all that stuff, and there's no such thing. I really felt envious of my brother at the time. My brother was in my mother's arms, you know. Then went to where she was staying was a farmhouse and then a big living room, and there's a fire going in the center, and fish is being roasted alongside it, fire. And then it was dark already and then tried to eat some dinner, and they had rice, of course, being farmers, and I hadn't had the good rice for a long time. I was able to eat as much as I was able to eat, so I was so happy. Then suddenly, I heard right behind me. I turned around. You know, I was stunned, and I turned around. There was a humongous snake. I was ready to scream, but my mother looked at me. That means I was not supposed to. Then I looked, my eyes went to the ceiling like that. All around, I saw snake here, snake there. Then I learned, that's true. Rats live there, so they needed snakes to eat rats. Then I learned something. So then I was told by the farmer, obviously, the farmer realized that I was frightened, that snakes are our friends. They eat rats and that made me feel better. It kind of rationalized my fear, and I was okay. We stayed there for a while. My mother didn't want to go back to Okayama because she knew what to expect. And then she was well taken care of while we were there, but we had to go home. Once we were home, spigot didn't have any water, so I had to look for water, so everybody was looking for water during that time.

SG: At that time, did your father's family or your mother's family, did they, how was the relationship?

MK: Well, unfortunately, we are away from everybody being in Okayama. My mother's family was in Kyushu in Kumamoto-ken. And then my, the rest of the family, my mother's side at the time, no. My father's side was in Fukushima-ken, but they are so poor, so my mother couldn't do anything, couldn't get any help from them. And then my mother's siblings, they are all in Tokyo area, and then her brother was in the government, Japanese government, in fact, had a very important job. I don't know which one it was. He graduated from Tokyo University in the electronic engineer, electric engineering or something and went into the government right away, and he was in the position to negotiate with the occupation forces. So he was doing quite well in comparison with many others in Japan at the time. So they asked us to come back to Tokyo. But my mother felt that maybe my father may come back, and if my mother, if we didn't stay in Okayama, my father would be lost. Even if he's dead, his spirit or the soul would come back to Okayama looking for her, so she wanted to stay in Okayama. Then her siblings got mad at her for being so willful, so they didn't, they had no connection after that for a while. Although, after a while, they felt sorry and then they got together and sent us money. But by that time, my mother was able to get me, kind of train me how to shop without money. I mean, I got so good. I took ten yen to shop. But most of the time, I didn't have to spend money, and I became very proud of myself for buying things with no money and was able to bring home ten yen, so I got hope for the next day. And then so by the time her siblings sent my mother money, and my mother was kind of doing, coasting it all right. So immediately, she bought a violin for all of us because before, during the war, before the war, I had a little German-made violin that my father bought in Germany, and I used to practice violin. That violin was left at my teacher's house when, the night before they, the day before Okayama was bombed, and the teacher's house was bombed and then he died, and I lost my violin too. And then my teacher encouraged me to leave the violin with him because at the time, carrying the western instrument was against kind of government's order. That means I liked western things, and then they consider that was against what we are supposed to do. So my teacher was very concerned for my welfare, so he was kind, so they asked me to leave the violin with him. But it turned out that he died, and my violin just disappeared, and I really missed my violin. So when my uncles and aunts got together and sent my mother money, then my mother bought a violin and wrote a thank you note saying that, "Thank you very much for sending the money, and I was able to buy a violin for the children." And my goodness, my uncle and my aunts are so mad at my mother. They said, "We thought that you're starving. And if you can buy violins, we won't help you again," you know. That's the way my mother was. It's not practical.

SG: How did your mom feel when she heard that Japan had surrendered to the United States and the Allies?

MK: Well, the thing is that I wasn't there. I was away from the village, into the village, I wasn't with my mother, so I don't know how she felt. But then immediately, she thought about the children, what am I supposed to do?

SG: She never talked to you about her feelings about that?

MK: Well, much later, she did that some survivors came to my mother from New Guinea, Hollandia, New Guinea, where my father was stationed to take care of the navy supply in that area. And some survived according to my mother, and one person came. My father was able to actually come back in the last plane. But instead, my father at the time was already forty-five years old. My father said to one of the brightest soldiers that, "You are twenty years old now, Japan needs somebody, people, to rebuild, and you can do more for the country than I can, so why don't you take my place?" So this young man came back to Japan and came to my mother and thanked my mother. And then another person came back and then said that, all the officers got together and said, "Well, Japan is going to lose. We have to surrender." If all the officers were not there, maybe as prisoners of war, the common soldiers would be treated better, and all the officers went into the jungle, never came out. So this kind of story led to kind of believe that my mother, that my father was a bit impractical. He was always thinking about the country. What did the country do to them? Now that she's stranded like this with the children, she was very bitter and said, "Your father was stupid." That's what my mother said to me, and I was so sad, I remember, because I liked my mother so much, because my father was so proud of me always, and I could do no wrong. I just wanted to be with my father all the time.

<End Segment 6> - Copyright © 2003 Oregon Nikkei Endowment and Densho. All Rights Reserved.