Interviewing our Grandpa Jiji about his Memories of World War II -Izzy and Ethan

     We came to Chicago to visit our grandparents and to prepare for our trip to Japan in August. We have been reading books about Japan and studying Japanese with Jiji. Jiji is a nickname for Oji-san which means grandfather in Japanese. Jiji is more informal, like "grandpa." One of the books that we read was Hiroshima by Laurence Yep which is about the dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima. After reading this book, we had many questions and decided to ask Jiji about his experiences in World War II. Each of us came up with a list of questions to ask him and this is a summary of our interview. --Izzy


1) How old were you when the bomb was dropped over Hiroshima by the Americans?- Izzy

The bomb was dropped on August 6th, 1945. Jiji was born on May 10th, 1938. He was 7 years old. At that time, he was living in Tokyo with his parents. Before starting first grade, he remembers playing hide and seek with his friends in the temple cemetery. One time the sirens went off warning everyone about a P-51 attack. Everybody knew, adults and kids, that you were supposed to run at a 90 degree angle to avoid being shot by the P-51. P-51 planes flew low to the ground and shot at anything that moved in their line of direction. Jiji and his friends were chased by the P-51 but luckily nobody was hurt. Below is a picture of a P-51.

Jiji was sent to live with his aunt and uncle in a village in Ibaraki which is about 80 miles from Tokyo and over 700 miles from Hiroshima. The people in Tokyo and Ibaraki did not feel anything when the bomb was dropped over Hiroshima. Jiji heard about it from the family. Nobody knew about the atomic bomb or how powerful it was. They simply called it "Pika-don." Pika means shining light and don was the sound.


2) How did you know all the different types of planes? -Ethan

There were two types of planes that were mainly used: the fighter, also known as the P-51 shown above,  and the bomber which was the B-29. The P-51 flies low and the B29 flies  VERY  high. You could also tell the difference by the sound the planes made. You had more warning time from the B-29. Jiji told us that the American planes first attacked Japan in the south and then went north where Tokyo is. The major cities had sirens that went off 30 minutes before the expected attack and this gave people time to get into shelters. And everyone had a shelter. The B-29s picked different targets to bomb nonstop for three or four days at a time. The planes came from American warships.

 

 Jiji told us that his dad's factory in Tokyo was completely destroyed in a air raids. His father had tried to save the factory's machinery by shipping it on a train to the countryside but the train station was also bombed. The heavy bombing over Tokyo lasted from February to April.

After that happened Jiji's parents moved to the countryside to live on a farm. This was in 1945. 

3) What were you doing every day while the war was going on?-Izzy

In June of 1945 Jiji was sent to live with his aunt and uncle in Ibaraki. He only went to school for a month and then summer vacation started. He helped on the farm and mainly did weeding but one day they went looking for mushrooms to harvest. He and his friends found a hole in the ground filled with a bunch of shiny, slimy eggs and they decided to collect them and bring them home. When they got home, they put them in a bucket under the house. They checked on them every now and then but one day, they saw a bucket filled with small squirmy greenish snakes. He said that his aunt made him take the bucket of snakes far away and let them go. These are our pictures of what the snakes might have looked like:

This one is mine.

This is Ethan's.

4)  What were you eating during the war?--Izzy

Jiji told us that they ate a lot of buckwheat that was made into noodles and dumplings. They also ate fish that they bought from the fish vendors and brown rice which was cheaper than the white rice. The last thing was miso soup. But all food was scarce. They ate three times a day but only had small servings and were always hungry. They never ate snacks. When there was no rice to eat, they caught grasshoppers with a net that had a long handle. They put the grasshoppers in a covered basket that suffocated them. Next, they took them out and dried them in the sun. Jiji said they tasted good! They were crispy. They ate grasshoppers at least once a month. Jiji also said that they were lucky living in Ibaraki because they also had sweet potatoes. They roasted the sweet potatoes and ate them plain.

This is Ethan's.

This is my drawing of Jiji catching grasshoppers.

5) Why did America drop the bomb over Hiroshima?  Ethan

The Allied Powers wanted to end the war. The major Allied Powers were Britain, United States, Soviet Union, and France.  But Japan wouldn't quit even after Germany surrendered.  The Allies needed something stunning and powerful to stop Japan and this was the Atomic bomb which had never been dropped before. The reason Hiroshima was picked is because there were a lot of weapon factories and Naval ports for the large Japanese warships there. Also August was a good time to test the atomic bomb which required  a specified  temperature and humidity.

 The bomb was dropped on Hiroshima on August 6th, 1945 at 8:15 am. It created a huge mushroom-shaped cloud. A week later it was dropped on Nagasaki because the Japanese still wouldn't surrender even after the Hiroshima bomb.

In Hiroshima, out of 76,327 buildings over 50,000 were destroyed. Up to 125,000 people were  killed that day. The temperature reached several million degrees Celsius. It was so hot that that the hospital  below it and everyone inside completely disappeared.

6) Did you have any family or friends that were killed by the radiation?--Izzy

 Jiji said NO because his relatives were all in Tokyo or Ibaraki. Tokyo is 700 miles away from Hiroshima, and Ibaraki is 780 miles away. However, his first cousin, also an Okano, was a Kamikaze pilot who was killed on a mission. He was honored because of his heroism and he has a huge tombstone in the cemetery.  Kamikaze means "divine wind." This was Japan's special air force. The pilots were a select, elite group trained for special missions where they usually sacrificed their lives for their country.

7) Why didn't Japan surrender earlier after the bombing of Hiroshima? -- Ethan

Jiji said that Japan thought that they could bomb the  U.S. mainland by using a special secret weapon called Japanese fire balloons. These were Japanese balloon bombs or "Fugos." Beginning in 1944, the Japanese  military launched over 9000 of these balloons with incendiary explosives. The balloons could go up to 30,000 feet and ride the jet stream across the Pacific Ocean to the US mainland. Nearly 350 of them actually made it across the Pacific and several were shot down by the US military. The only deaths came from a single incident in Oregon, where a mother and five children  were killed  in an explosion from one of the downed balloons. When this strategy didn't work, the Japanese began to realize that they had to surrender.

Japanese balloon bombs.

They traveled 5,000 miles from Japanese home islands.

8) What do you remember from the time of the war?-Izzy

Jiji remembers that the people were tired of the fighting and were happy to see it end. The ordinary people didn't feel shame for losing, but the Emperor and his close officials did. However, they cooperated with the Allied Powers who were still in the country. He remembers that there was a lot of reconstruction and rebuilding. General Douglas MacArthur from the United States was greatly respected by the Japanese. This helped a lot with the reconstruction.

9) Why do the Japanese like the Americans now? By Ethan

Jiji said that the Americans are very generous and like to help people in need. After the war Japan needed a lot of help and the Americans had great plans for Japan"s reconstruction. This took at least 15 years, from 1945 to 1960! What also helped was the Japanese experience with dealing with natural disasters like typhoons and earthquakes. They learned to be practical about reconstructing. Jiji said that they like the Americans because Americans are also practical. The US is a nation of immigrants who have succeeded because of their Pragmatism which means being active rather than contemplative. Because of the Americans' generosity and practicality, Japan"s reconstruction was successful. So the Japanese  people have respect and gratitude toward the Americans.

10. What have we learned from studying about WW II?

This interview made me think of how bad the atomic bomb was. I do not want it to happen again. I was surprised and happy that the Americans helped the Japanese recover. This makes me proud that I am a US citizen and an American! Ethan

Reading the book, Hiroshima by Laurence Yep  made us talk about the new nuclear bombs, which are even more powerful that the atomic bomb, that some countries are testing. This made me scared because the book talks about all of the damage that the atomic bomb did in Japan. I hope another tragedy like this never happens again and that we will not have to worry about the other countries bombing somewhere. Izzy