Interviews
Living in Japan during the war, preparing for U.S. bombings
Well, I remember seeing, Okayama came before Hiroshima, so Okayama was being bombed, the city of Okayama, we lived just on the outskirts where we could see the B-29s, in those days, it was B nijuu kyu, B-29s circling around. And you can actually see the American insignia on the plane. And before this, we used to have air shelter practices, you know, the air raids. And by the time Okayama came, I mean, we heard in the news that oh, Tokyo, Kobe, they were all being bombed. But then by the time they came to Okayama, we no longer had those air raids, I mean, practices. We never even went into the air shelters because -- we had them in our backyard, but we never did that. We just, just stood outside and saw the plane just circling right above us and going back to drop more bombs on Okayama. That's how long it (continued) -- it kinda desensitized us. I mean, the fear, or whatever, you just have to live it. And otherwise you'd be living in the hole, constantly.
Date: August 3 & 4, 2003
Location: Washington, US
Interviewer: Alice Ito
Contributed by: Denshō: The Japanese American Legacy Project.
