We children fled by ourselves alone, leaving behind the charred bodies of our parents – Young people, please go to elections –
We children fled by ourselves alone, leaving behind the charred bodies of our parents
- Young people, please go to elections –
Witness: Sachiko Nishihira (16 西平幸子)
Date of birth: October 27, 1933
Place of birth: Nishihara-town
Age and occupation at time: 11-year-old, national school
Interviewers: Daughter and grandchild
■ To southern Okinawa from Nishihara in the central area of the main island of Okinawa after the American forces came ashore; loss of my parents and brothers in Maehara, Itoman-city due to bombing
Interviewer: What were you doing when the American forces came ashore?
Witness: The American forces came ashore, so we were all hiding inside a tomb. When the American forces came near Nishihara, we all fled to Shimajiri.
Interviewer: Which route did you and others take in fleeing to Shimajiri?
Witness: We went to Haebaru from Nishihara, and everyone died in a place called Maehara. There, a teacher named Koki Chinen, who taught me when I was in fourth grade and fifth grade, advised us that rather than remaining in one place, family members should move separately. He explained that by doing so, somebody in the family would survive. Right at the time I met this teacher, he had become a soldier, so I was surprised. We listened to this teacher’s advice when we met him here, so my mother was in a different place from where my younger sister and I were. An incendiary bomb directly fell on my mother and my other younger sister, immediately incinerating them, so only we survived. I had been carrying a baby on my back, and although the baby was alive in the beginning, I did not know that the baby had died while being carried on my back.
As I kept on walking, some adults told me to let the baby off my back because the baby was dead… This happened in Shimajiri.
Interviewer: Right in front of your eyes, you mother and ....
Witness: Yes, my younger sister, too.
Interviewer: One younger sister, too?
Witness: I don’t know how, but my younger brother, although his hair was burnt, came out alive.
■ Burnt family members; with my younger sister and brother surviving, we children went on the run by ourselves alone; there was no one among the people and soldiers who let us in air-raid shelters.
Witness: A lot of people died here. Uncles and aunts…after that we walked behind adults and went down to Mabuni.
Interviewer: You and aunt Sadako?
Witness: Yes, with my younger brother, also.
Witness: I was carrying one on my back. All I could hear was gunfire, so I could hardly tell that the child on my back was dead. When we tried to enter air-raid shelters that were occupied by other people, we got chased out. We got chased out even by soldiers. They said children cry and if there were crying children, the enemy would find out. So, when war breaks out, everyone becomes evil. Human beings can no longer remain human beings. They only think about saving themselves. If I think back now, just because the baby cries, even though it was such a small child, I alone was shut out. I was under a tree, carrying the baby on my back…while we were fleeing…when I went to where everyone was staying. It’s like this. Wars are horrifying.
■ In order to survive, I watched and imitated what the adults were doing....
Interviewer: Were you going around the air-raid shelters continuously?
Witness: Yes, although we were only walking. However, there was no one who would welcome children like us with a small child on my back. By now, people really thought about just saving themselves. There were no longer any adults who would try to help us.
Interviewer: What did you do about food, then?
Witness: All we had was sugar cane. My younger sister picked up sugarcane leftovers and sipped the juice by squeezing them. So, at the time we became prisoners of war, my younger brother was on the verge of death. How did I save my younger brother? Well, I watched what the adults were doing, so I had my younger sister catch frogs, find a helmet, boiled the frogs in it, and fed the soup to my younger brother. My brother’s stomach was swollen, his lungs had stopped (breathing), and he was at a point where nothing could be done.
Interviewer: He had weakened to such an extent?
Witness: Yes, and since I had watched what the adults were doing and how they were doing those things, I imitated them and fed the soup to my younger brother, so in two or three days, he was able to open his eyes. It was like that. No one would tell you how to do it. I think I did pretty well for an 11-year-old to come out alive.
When we became prisoners of war, we didn’t have a home, so the three of us were sleeping under a banyan tree. While we were under the banyan tree, we were asked whether we were the children of Hokama-san, and we got helped. Our father had done things to help other people, so we got helped, too. That is why, I want to say frankly that it’s human beings, rather than god. I believe that when you become a parent, if you have good relations with other people, you may not have good things happen to yourself, but doing so will definitely benefit your children and grandchildren. If my parents had been bad people, we would probably have been ignored, but when we met people who knew our parents, they helped us, saying: “Oh, you’re Hokama-san’s children.” There was this rock, and they laid straws on this rock, sheltering us from the wind and rain and creating a living space for us who had been sleeping under a banyan tree. War is horrible.
■ The tragedy of war for children.
Interviewer: If you think back, what do you think of having survived in the war?
Witness: I still feel sorry about my younger brother the most. That is because he lost both parents when he was six years old, and he hardly knew anything about them. Even now, I feel sorry about people like him. I knew about both of my parents to a certain extent, so I really have always felt sorry about children who lost both of their parents when they were so small.
■ What I want to convey to generations that don’t know about war
Interviewer: In order to create peace, what do you think is necessary?
Witness: Okinawan people only place a sanshin on their tokonoma (alcove). In Yamato (mainland Japan), they have swords, don’t they? For Okinawans, it’s the sanshin. We just need to say that we are Okinawans who don’t carry any weapons at all.
At the individual level or the national level or whatever, you’re fighting over toys, aren’t you? Don’t you agree that there wouldn’t be any fighting if someone were to just say, “Please, you go ahead.” In that case, if countries talk about yielding to each other, wars wouldn’t break out, but they fight over things, so wars occur.
Interviewer: Is there anything in particular that you definitely want us to keep passing down to our children and grandchildren?
Witness: Wars can be terminated if we just said that we won’t wage war, but a war will occur simply because a minister stamps a seal. You should choose ministers who will not wage war. Why don’t young people actively go and vote in elections?
I want to say to today's young people: “Go to elections.” Young people don’t go at all. If Japan adopts militarism, you will immediately receive a postcard drafting you (into the military) whether you like it or not.
- Young people, please go to elections –
Witness: Sachiko Nishihira (16 西平幸子)
Date of birth: October 27, 1933
Place of birth: Nishihara-town
Age and occupation at time: 11-year-old, national school
Interviewers: Daughter and grandchild
■ To southern Okinawa from Nishihara in the central area of the main island of Okinawa after the American forces came ashore; loss of my parents and brothers in Maehara, Itoman-city due to bombing
Interviewer: What were you doing when the American forces came ashore?
Witness: The American forces came ashore, so we were all hiding inside a tomb. When the American forces came near Nishihara, we all fled to Shimajiri.
Interviewer: Which route did you and others take in fleeing to Shimajiri?
Witness: We went to Haebaru from Nishihara, and everyone died in a place called Maehara. There, a teacher named Koki Chinen, who taught me when I was in fourth grade and fifth grade, advised us that rather than remaining in one place, family members should move separately. He explained that by doing so, somebody in the family would survive. Right at the time I met this teacher, he had become a soldier, so I was surprised. We listened to this teacher’s advice when we met him here, so my mother was in a different place from where my younger sister and I were. An incendiary bomb directly fell on my mother and my other younger sister, immediately incinerating them, so only we survived. I had been carrying a baby on my back, and although the baby was alive in the beginning, I did not know that the baby had died while being carried on my back.
As I kept on walking, some adults told me to let the baby off my back because the baby was dead… This happened in Shimajiri.
Interviewer: Right in front of your eyes, you mother and ....
Witness: Yes, my younger sister, too.
Interviewer: One younger sister, too?
Witness: I don’t know how, but my younger brother, although his hair was burnt, came out alive.
■ Burnt family members; with my younger sister and brother surviving, we children went on the run by ourselves alone; there was no one among the people and soldiers who let us in air-raid shelters.
Witness: A lot of people died here. Uncles and aunts…after that we walked behind adults and went down to Mabuni.
Interviewer: You and aunt Sadako?
Witness: Yes, with my younger brother, also.
Witness: I was carrying one on my back. All I could hear was gunfire, so I could hardly tell that the child on my back was dead. When we tried to enter air-raid shelters that were occupied by other people, we got chased out. We got chased out even by soldiers. They said children cry and if there were crying children, the enemy would find out. So, when war breaks out, everyone becomes evil. Human beings can no longer remain human beings. They only think about saving themselves. If I think back now, just because the baby cries, even though it was such a small child, I alone was shut out. I was under a tree, carrying the baby on my back…while we were fleeing…when I went to where everyone was staying. It’s like this. Wars are horrifying.
■ In order to survive, I watched and imitated what the adults were doing....
Interviewer: Were you going around the air-raid shelters continuously?
Witness: Yes, although we were only walking. However, there was no one who would welcome children like us with a small child on my back. By now, people really thought about just saving themselves. There were no longer any adults who would try to help us.
Interviewer: What did you do about food, then?
Witness: All we had was sugar cane. My younger sister picked up sugarcane leftovers and sipped the juice by squeezing them. So, at the time we became prisoners of war, my younger brother was on the verge of death. How did I save my younger brother? Well, I watched what the adults were doing, so I had my younger sister catch frogs, find a helmet, boiled the frogs in it, and fed the soup to my younger brother. My brother’s stomach was swollen, his lungs had stopped (breathing), and he was at a point where nothing could be done.
Interviewer: He had weakened to such an extent?
Witness: Yes, and since I had watched what the adults were doing and how they were doing those things, I imitated them and fed the soup to my younger brother, so in two or three days, he was able to open his eyes. It was like that. No one would tell you how to do it. I think I did pretty well for an 11-year-old to come out alive.
When we became prisoners of war, we didn’t have a home, so the three of us were sleeping under a banyan tree. While we were under the banyan tree, we were asked whether we were the children of Hokama-san, and we got helped. Our father had done things to help other people, so we got helped, too. That is why, I want to say frankly that it’s human beings, rather than god. I believe that when you become a parent, if you have good relations with other people, you may not have good things happen to yourself, but doing so will definitely benefit your children and grandchildren. If my parents had been bad people, we would probably have been ignored, but when we met people who knew our parents, they helped us, saying: “Oh, you’re Hokama-san’s children.” There was this rock, and they laid straws on this rock, sheltering us from the wind and rain and creating a living space for us who had been sleeping under a banyan tree. War is horrible.
■ The tragedy of war for children.
Interviewer: If you think back, what do you think of having survived in the war?
Witness: I still feel sorry about my younger brother the most. That is because he lost both parents when he was six years old, and he hardly knew anything about them. Even now, I feel sorry about people like him. I knew about both of my parents to a certain extent, so I really have always felt sorry about children who lost both of their parents when they were so small.
■ What I want to convey to generations that don’t know about war
Interviewer: In order to create peace, what do you think is necessary?
Witness: Okinawan people only place a sanshin on their tokonoma (alcove). In Yamato (mainland Japan), they have swords, don’t they? For Okinawans, it’s the sanshin. We just need to say that we are Okinawans who don’t carry any weapons at all.
At the individual level or the national level or whatever, you’re fighting over toys, aren’t you? Don’t you agree that there wouldn’t be any fighting if someone were to just say, “Please, you go ahead.” In that case, if countries talk about yielding to each other, wars wouldn’t break out, but they fight over things, so wars occur.
Interviewer: Is there anything in particular that you definitely want us to keep passing down to our children and grandchildren?
Witness: Wars can be terminated if we just said that we won’t wage war, but a war will occur simply because a minister stamps a seal. You should choose ministers who will not wage war. Why don’t young people actively go and vote in elections?
I want to say to today's young people: “Go to elections.” Young people don’t go at all. If Japan adopts militarism, you will immediately receive a postcard drafting you (into the military) whether you like it or not.
