Forged In Fire: Stories of wartime Japan

Childhood (Part 2)

Like my mother, I hardly knew my father.  He was a handsome man with pale skin and freckles.  On the rare occasion that I did see him, he was always well dressed and typically wore things like slacks with a pale blue turtleneck sweater, suspenders and shiny leather shoes.   The way that he dressed stood out to me because at the time, Japanese men did not wear things like suspenders and pale blue turtleneck sweaters.  

Sometimes he would take me and my brothers out to eat.  I remember that he tried to hand-feed me once.  I did not like being hand-fed.  I thought to myself: Who is this strange man?  He had a fancy watch and a ring that looked like a snake with diamonds for eyes.  He spoke to me but it was nothing deep like how Grandmother would speak to me.  It was more like, "Come here.  Have some food.  Open your mouth."

Although I rarely saw my father I did see his mother and his aunt; the two women would come visit at our house from time to time.  They would smile at me or stroke my hair but that was about it as far as our relationship was concerned.  I did not know who they were but they would bring support money to my family and stayed in close contact with Grandmother.  Father, who may have been part Russian according to Sadakazu, soon disappeared from our lives.  I had always imagined that he left us to pursue business prospects outside of Japan.

After my mother passed away, her younger sister — Auntie — came to stay with us and help Grandmother raise Sadakazu, Tadashi and me.  Although she was our obasan, my brothers and I were told that she was our big sister — anesan.  Not knowing any better, we had believed it.  Auntie was an unconventional woman with modern ideas.  Her energy and creativity influenced me later in life.

One evening, Auntie took Sadakazu, Tadashi and me out to dinner.  During the ride home we sat together on the train, laughing and chatting.  We didn't realize that a man was watching us from across the aisle.  He began talking to us and asked if he could read our fortunes.  After Auntie nodded her approval, the fortune-teller studied each of us carefully and made a prediction.  After declaring to Tadashi that he was going to be rich and successful, the man leaned in close and grabbed my ear.  After examining it closely, he told Auntie that some day I was going to get married and have four children.  I later shared this story with Grandmother who found it amusing.

Auntie would take me to the busy Ginza shopping district to see foreign films, which at that time were mostly American and French with subtitles. She kept American movie magazines around the house and I would sometimes flip through them.  I became familiar with all of the famous American actors of the time like Gary Cooper and Robert Taylor.

Auntie disapproved of Grandmother taking us to see Japanese samurai films when there were so many foreign films to see.  Auntie even took me to see Popeye the Sailor Man and Betty Boop cartoons.  She felt that Grandmother was interfering with her method of shaping our education.  Despite my appreciation of Grandmother's love for the past, Auntie's insistence on embracing modern times did have an effect on me.

In Japan, there was an expectation that young girls must learn the ways of old traditions: folk dance; tea ceremony; flower-arrangement; shamisen playing.  At the time, it all seemed old-fashioned to me and I refused to learn how to do any of them.  I regret it now.   

Despite Auntie's role in raising us, it could be said that she was a "rebel without a cause."  She bickered with Grandmother constantly.  One day I came home and saw Auntie kneeling on the floor before Grandmother, her hands and forehead touching the tatami in a gesture of sincere apology.  I waited until Auntie had left the room before I asked Grandmother what had happened.  Grandmother sighed and expressed disappointment with how Auntie had doubted her stories about her samurai father.  

Auntie had been so skeptical that she had traveled to Hiroshima where Grandmother had been born and visited the city hall there.  As she checked the city's records, she was surprised to discover that Grandmother had been telling the truth: there was an Emperor's castle there where Great-grandfather had served.  Humbled by her mistake, Auntie had no choice but to apologize to her mother.