At a train station, I saw a woman collapse from hunger. Her skin was so dry from malnutrition that it looked as if someone had tossed white flour on her face. I saw a dead man lying next to a railroad track, his head bloody and swollen.
When hunger became unbearable, Sadakazu became the man of the house. He started taking our family heirlooms to trade for food: mother's and Grandmother's silk and brocade kimono; great-grandfather's red samurai armor and katana; Auntie's Singer sewing machine and Victrola phonograph player; and the beautiful black, lacquered letter box with the gold chrysanthemum on the lid.
One by one, these items disappeared from our home. Sadakazu went to the train station and traveled to rural areas to negotiate with farmers, exchanging our treasures for a sweet potato the size of a horse's head or a five-pound bag of rice. While I appreciate what Sadakazu had done for us, it saddens me that I do not have a single one of my family's heirlooms. I have only my memory of those beautiful things.
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Forged In Fire: Stories of wartime Japan
SachbücherForged In Fire is the true story of a young girl's childhood in pre-WW II Tokyo; her schoolgirl dreams; the violence, starvation and desperation of wartime that drove her family out of the city; and the American Occupation that shaped Japan's future...
