Becoming a Dressmaker: My Life After the War
Ms. Tomiko Nakamura
Birth year：1934
Birth place：Haebaru City
When I was a little girl
My father farmed, and my mother wove textiles. I helped my mother, doing things that even a child could do, like winding thread. My grandmother walked to Tomari, Naha to sell the textiles. Before the war, people in Kyan, Haebaru made a living through textiles.
Evacuating to Kochiya in northern Okinawa
During the Battle of Okinawa, we escaped to Kochiya, now Matsuda in Ginoza. We evacuated with people from our village and were put on a big truck to be taken there. Nothing in particular changed even after relocating to our evacuation site. My father was the mayor of Kyan, so we stayed at the Kochiya mayor’s house. The house had many fields, so we were given a lot of food and taken care of. The mayor of Kochiya had fled to the mountains during the Battle of Okinawa and died there. People said he was wearing a kimono woven by my mother at the time.
Going home post-war
My father was taken prisoner and held in the Yaka prisoner of war camp in Kin. He was then taken to an internment camp in Hawaii. We moved from Kochiya to Funakoshi, Tamagusuku after the war ended, then went to Ufugusuku in Ozato. After that, we returned to our home in Haebaru. We moved with two other families who also lived in Kyan Village. There was nothing left of our house, which had burned down during the war. We built a thatched-roof house at first, then a house with an ordinary roof, and made a home in Haebaru. My grandmother died during the war. We buried her along with a bottle that had her name written on it at the site where she died during the war. When we later went to get her remains, the remains and the bottle were gone. To this day, I still don’t know where her remains are.
Life in Kyan and restoration
I helped out a lot around the house, often helping prepare meals, like steaming sweet potatoes and making soup. I also went to the mountains to gather firewood. Lots of sweet potato leaves grew in the fields, so I would dry them and burn them for fire to cook with. We had no pots to make tempura, so we used metal helmets American soldiers had used instead. We made sweet potato tempura which was savory and delicious. It’s scary to think about now, but we were actually using motor oil to fry up tempura then.
School life
Right after the end of the war, the elementary school system went up to the seventh and eighth years, but the system changed when I would have been an eighth-year student, and eighth-year elementary school students became first-year junior high school students. School was easy, and you could graduate without studying. We had homework but it was something that anyone could do, as long as you reviewed the material. I studied a lot because I liked it, and I represented our class at our junior high school’s graduation. As a reward, I received a pair of American-made shoes, but they were too big to wear.
Attending dressmaking school
After I graduated from junior high school, I attended dressmaking school. I liked dressmaking, and my friend asked me to go to with her to dressmaking school, so we went together. Back then, the school was in Kokuba, Naha. I had no shoes then, so my brother made me a pair of geta clogs out of wood. I walked barefoot through Tsukazan, Haebaru with those geta in my hand, and I would wash my feet with water and put them on just before arriving at the dressmaking school in Kokuba. The geta would get muddy sometimes, and I didn’t want to let them go dirty so I walked barefoot until I got near school. At the dressmaking school, I learned things like how to make patterns. When I was a student there, I heard that pants would sell well and thought I would make some. I hadn’t yet learned how to make pants at dressmaking school, so I figured it out by taking apart my father’s pants and started making my own.
Moving on to dressmaking business
Everyone was saying that off-the-shelf items would sell, so everyone around my age in the village was making pants. I bought a sewing machine and made pants, and sold them at the Naha marketplace. I used the fabric from wheat flour bags. I bought wheat flour bags, dyed them at a dye workshop, and sewed them into pants. That was my life. I pretty much always dyed the pants navy blue. I made two or three pairs of pants a day. People in Kyan began buying sewing machines after hearing that making pants with a sewing machine would be more profitable. I heard there were around 80 sewing machines in Kyan at the time. I bought a Fukusuke sewing machine because I couldn’t afford an expensive, top-quality one. I also made tanzen (large padded kimonos), which kept people warm in cold weather. My lights were on until 10:00 at night. I would light candles when I used the sewing machine after that, and I always worked until midnight. I continued to make a living by using the money I earned selling pants to buy the next fabric to use.
A look into everyday life
On special occasions, I went to watch movies or plays. I went with friends to the movie theater and watched films like “Kiminonawa” (What’s your name?) and “Shiroi Kyotō” (White Tower). There was a performing theater in the neighboring village of Ozato, and I went to see plays performed by actors like Kotaro Ogimi and Rokuro Takayasu. I got married when I was twenty years old and had four children. My husband was two years older than me. He farmed and raised sweet potatoes and sugarcane. Since he didn’t have a house or field, he rented someone’s field to farm. My husband was the second son, and his older brother lived next door. There was vacant land everywhere then, including the land owned by my uncle who had moved to Hawaii. My aunt said that we should get proper approval before building a home on my uncle’s land, so we sent a letter to my uncle in Hawaii. I got an answer telling us to take the land, and we inherited it.
I started learning weaving seriously around when I was forty years old. I went to a place that taught traditional crafts, and also learned from local textile artisans about how to weave the authentic way. The local artisans were especially good teachers.
A message for young people
We live in a peaceful world today and I hope it lasts for years to come. We can’t have another war. It’s dreadful.
Ms. Tomiko Nakamura has devoted her life to learning the weaving techniques. In 1997, she was recognized as a traditional craftsperson of Japan for Ryukyu Kasuri textiles. She has also worked ceaselessly to teach the trade to the next generation of craftspersons.
When I was a little girl
My father farmed, and my mother wove textiles. I helped my mother, doing things that even a child could do, like winding thread. My grandmother walked to Tomari, Naha to sell the textiles. Before the war, people in Kyan, Haebaru made a living through textiles.
Evacuating to Kochiya in northern Okinawa
During the Battle of Okinawa, we escaped to Kochiya, now Matsuda in Ginoza. We evacuated with people from our village and were put on a big truck to be taken there. Nothing in particular changed even after relocating to our evacuation site. My father was the mayor of Kyan, so we stayed at the Kochiya mayor’s house. The house had many fields, so we were given a lot of food and taken care of. The mayor of Kochiya had fled to the mountains during the Battle of Okinawa and died there. People said he was wearing a kimono woven by my mother at the time.
Going home post-war
My father was taken prisoner and held in the Yaka prisoner of war camp in Kin. He was then taken to an internment camp in Hawaii. We moved from Kochiya to Funakoshi, Tamagusuku after the war ended, then went to Ufugusuku in Ozato. After that, we returned to our home in Haebaru. We moved with two other families who also lived in Kyan Village. There was nothing left of our house, which had burned down during the war. We built a thatched-roof house at first, then a house with an ordinary roof, and made a home in Haebaru. My grandmother died during the war. We buried her along with a bottle that had her name written on it at the site where she died during the war. When we later went to get her remains, the remains and the bottle were gone. To this day, I still don’t know where her remains are.
Life in Kyan and restoration
I helped out a lot around the house, often helping prepare meals, like steaming sweet potatoes and making soup. I also went to the mountains to gather firewood. Lots of sweet potato leaves grew in the fields, so I would dry them and burn them for fire to cook with. We had no pots to make tempura, so we used metal helmets American soldiers had used instead. We made sweet potato tempura which was savory and delicious. It’s scary to think about now, but we were actually using motor oil to fry up tempura then.
School life
Right after the end of the war, the elementary school system went up to the seventh and eighth years, but the system changed when I would have been an eighth-year student, and eighth-year elementary school students became first-year junior high school students. School was easy, and you could graduate without studying. We had homework but it was something that anyone could do, as long as you reviewed the material. I studied a lot because I liked it, and I represented our class at our junior high school’s graduation. As a reward, I received a pair of American-made shoes, but they were too big to wear.
Attending dressmaking school
After I graduated from junior high school, I attended dressmaking school. I liked dressmaking, and my friend asked me to go to with her to dressmaking school, so we went together. Back then, the school was in Kokuba, Naha. I had no shoes then, so my brother made me a pair of geta clogs out of wood. I walked barefoot through Tsukazan, Haebaru with those geta in my hand, and I would wash my feet with water and put them on just before arriving at the dressmaking school in Kokuba. The geta would get muddy sometimes, and I didn’t want to let them go dirty so I walked barefoot until I got near school. At the dressmaking school, I learned things like how to make patterns. When I was a student there, I heard that pants would sell well and thought I would make some. I hadn’t yet learned how to make pants at dressmaking school, so I figured it out by taking apart my father’s pants and started making my own.
Moving on to dressmaking business
Everyone was saying that off-the-shelf items would sell, so everyone around my age in the village was making pants. I bought a sewing machine and made pants, and sold them at the Naha marketplace. I used the fabric from wheat flour bags. I bought wheat flour bags, dyed them at a dye workshop, and sewed them into pants. That was my life. I pretty much always dyed the pants navy blue. I made two or three pairs of pants a day. People in Kyan began buying sewing machines after hearing that making pants with a sewing machine would be more profitable. I heard there were around 80 sewing machines in Kyan at the time. I bought a Fukusuke sewing machine because I couldn’t afford an expensive, top-quality one. I also made tanzen (large padded kimonos), which kept people warm in cold weather. My lights were on until 10:00 at night. I would light candles when I used the sewing machine after that, and I always worked until midnight. I continued to make a living by using the money I earned selling pants to buy the next fabric to use.
A look into everyday life
On special occasions, I went to watch movies or plays. I went with friends to the movie theater and watched films like “Kiminonawa” (What’s your name?) and “Shiroi Kyotō” (White Tower). There was a performing theater in the neighboring village of Ozato, and I went to see plays performed by actors like Kotaro Ogimi and Rokuro Takayasu. I got married when I was twenty years old and had four children. My husband was two years older than me. He farmed and raised sweet potatoes and sugarcane. Since he didn’t have a house or field, he rented someone’s field to farm. My husband was the second son, and his older brother lived next door. There was vacant land everywhere then, including the land owned by my uncle who had moved to Hawaii. My aunt said that we should get proper approval before building a home on my uncle’s land, so we sent a letter to my uncle in Hawaii. I got an answer telling us to take the land, and we inherited it.
I started learning weaving seriously around when I was forty years old. I went to a place that taught traditional crafts, and also learned from local textile artisans about how to weave the authentic way. The local artisans were especially good teachers.
A message for young people
We live in a peaceful world today and I hope it lasts for years to come. We can’t have another war. It’s dreadful.
Ms. Tomiko Nakamura has devoted her life to learning the weaving techniques. In 1997, she was recognized as a traditional craftsperson of Japan for Ryukyu Kasuri textiles. She has also worked ceaselessly to teach the trade to the next generation of craftspersons.