Biker Babe & Granny(PART 2 OF 3)
Fifty Years After WWII
and My Remembrance
A year before the end of the war, my husband was sent to the island of the southern Philippines when a red conscription card was delivered to our home.
We had been married for seven and a half years.
Although I had heard that he was sent to Mindanao island at first, then to Cebu, I hadn't received any letter from my husband.
My husband was a 36-year-old civilian who used to say that he'd like to study painting in Paris aftre the war.
He was kind of a dreamer, I suppose.
Without realizing his dream, however, he died on the battle ground.
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I clearly remember the day he went to war with two young men in the neighborhood. 。。。 I carried my 12-month-old daughter on my back while taking the hands of four-year-old son and six-year-old daughter.
With neighbors and send-off friends, we went to the nearby station, but I couldn't find my husband.
I was quite concerned about what happened to my husband.
The departure time of the train was looming, and the send-off party was ready at the platform.
When I went up together, to my surprise, my husband was standing all alone at the end of the long platform.
My husband was a pacifist who hated wars and loved liberty.
Probably because he was forced to go to war, he might have taken such a behavior as a reistance.
My heart really ached whenever I thought about how he could manage to get along with disgruntled sergeants in the army of tough military desciplines.
In March 1946, I received an official notice of my husband's death.
I said to mayself, "My dear... You died because you stood alone at the end of the platform when you went to war."
Two young men who went to war with my husband returend home safely.
My husabnd returned but he turned into a tiny pebble in the urn.
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I wonder how he died in the southern Philippines.
Since I didn't see his death myself, my thought about his death remains blurred.
。。。
When you encounter an unbearable distress, you can't shed tears.
I had such a first-hand experience when I had to face the death of my husband.
When I received the urn, I had to think about how we would have to survive before I had a time to shed tears.
I had to support my three children and my mother-in-law and father-in-law.
Thinking about the difficulties as well as the chaos in the post-war years, I swore to myself, "I'll support my kids and my in-laws by all means and I'll never let them starve to death."
Such being the case, I did not afford to shed tears.
。。。
Thanks to English I studied hard at the girls' Catholic high school in Yokohama, I started working in a foreign trading company.
Immediately after the war, my father-in-law died unfortunately.
I lived with my mother-in-law for another 25 years.
Although some people made quick money in the post-war mess in many cases, our life with a single bread earner was rather poor.
However, I thanked God for the fact that we were healthy through all these years.
When the occupation authorities returned a Yokohama department store to the Japanese hands, my younger daughter asked me, "What is a department store?"
"It is a store where you can buy anything."
Then my daughter told me, "Mama, please buy me a father."
I was really troubled.
My younger daughter is now living in Toronto, and I live with her family.
I've been here in this city for 18 years since I immigrated to Canada.
I'm now accustomed to a Canadian way of living.
Although I don't have much luxury, I enjoy this moderate lifestyle.
And friendship I have built since I came here is a real asset for the life of an 85-year-old grandmother.
I really appreciate the kindness of my friends.
I lost my husband in the Philippines and my brother in Okinawa.
My "life after the war" or remembrance will be always with me until my death.
At the end, however, I can certainly tell you, "I have no regrets about the fact that the militalistic Japan is gone now."
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(translated by Kato)
SOURCE:"Romance in Tough Life"
(『きびしい暮しの中のロマン』)
July 28, 2014
I was really moved by reading the above passage.
Were you? What made you get so moved?
The following part really made me moved.
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When I received the urn, I had to think about how we would have to survive before I had a time to shed tears.
I had to support my three children and my mother-in-law and father-in-law.
Thinking about the difficulties as well as the chaos in the post-war years, I swore to myself, "I'll support my kids and my in-laws by all means and I'll never let them starve to death."
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How come you were so moved by the above passage?
Well ... she said that her favorite movie was "Waterloo Bridge" and that it gave her a lift so that she could put up with the hardship whenever she viewed it. So I borrowed the DVD from Vancouver Public Library and viewed it myself.
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■"Actual Catalogue Page"
"Waterloo Bridge"
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The film opens after Britain's declaration of World War II.
Roy Cronin, an army colonel, is being driven to London's Waterloo Station en route to France, and briefly alights on Waterloo Bridge to reminisce about events which occurred during the First World War when he met Myra Lester, a ballerina, whom he had planned to marry.
Roy and Myra serendipitously meet on Waterloo Bridge and strike up an immediate rapport.
On parting, Myra invites Roy to attend that evening’s ballet performance.
Roy, already enamored with the ballerina, cancels his dinner appointment with a fellow officer to attend the ballet.
At the show’s end, Roy sends a note to Myra to join him for dinner.
The note is intercepted by the directress of the ballet troupe, Madame Olga Kirowa who forbids Myra from continuing her relationship with Roy.
Madame Olga ultimately learns of Myra’s disobedience and dismisses her from the ballet troupe.
Myra and another dancer, Kitty, who has sided with her friend is also asked to leave.
Both young women then join together, sharing a small apartment, and look for work.
(To be followed)