70 Years Ago, the War Ended

–

A dark night of the ending year of the war

70 years ago and I was 7 when the major air raid attacked our town

I was hanging on as I was told to the one end of a rope

The other end was tied around the waist of my mother

So that I would not be lost in the crowd as we walked

–

A dark night but there was light in the sky

It was the reflection of fire storm on the ground

There was nothing they could do

But abandon their houses and flee from them for their lives

–

A dark night and the fire was only about 100 meters from our house

When my father decided then that we leave the house and join the crowd

But he said he would stay on in the house to do what he could

To save whatever he could in a hole he dug in front of the house

He was to burry a statue of Buddha and other things of value to him in it

–

In the dark of the night my mother carried my baby brother on her back

Some food and other things we might need if we could survive

Were wrapped in cloths and they were hanging from her hands

I walked as fast as I could so I won’t be left from the crowd

The people in the crowd do not speak a word but only walked

–

A dark night and they don’t seem to know where they are going

They were only walking from their burning houses

They aren’t sure if they will have places to return when the air raid is over

They are walking only because they don’t want to die

We only followed the crowd

–

Then I saw what I’ve never forgotten for the past 70 years

–

In the sky of the dark night, there was a flash of light

One of the booming cannons must have hit a plane

It was no doubt an enemy pane

What appeared to be a parachute jumped out of the plane

The white object quickly disappeared in the darkness

–

Some people in the crowd who saw it stopped walking

They steepled their hands toward the plane bowing their heads

Other people also stopped walking  pressing their palms together

I felt strange because from what I heard people talk about “American devils”

A joyous shout from the crowd in union seemed to be more in order

–

But all the people were bowing their heads in prayer

At 7 I was too young to know anything

But instinctively knew they did not want the war

They were simply forced to follow what the military ordered them

–

In those days, I knew even a slight hint of an antiwar word

Or a praise for an enemy in the war

Would be subject to arrest by special police

There were always the vigilante in the neighborhood

–

But my father was dangerously outspoken

As a sailor on oceangoing ships, he had seen the enemy country

“America is not a country that Japan’s military can lick,” he would say

I was too young to understand the words he uttered

But the words still ring in my head today

–

“I was the first Japanese to be on the top of the Empire State Building”

That’s what he often boasted and I believed him

He talked of the Paramount Theater, Gone with the Wind, Golden Gate Bridge, etc.

“The carpet in the theater is so thick my shoes were buried in it,” he’d say

“They can make that kind of a color picture. How can anyone beat them?”

–

“Those idiots in the military,” he would shout

“If they had been to America and seen things there

“They wouldn’t even think of a war like this

“They are simply idiots. Just because they have big ships and guns

“They think they have all the power in the world”

–

Our neighbors would scurry away whenever he shouted things

They were afraid they might be caught by the vigilante and taken to the police

But my father was free from such arrest

My father had lots of money

–

Smuggling was how he made sumptuous amount of money

His main contrabands were tiny wrist watches called “ticks” for ladies

Wealthy noble families of those days would pay fortunes for them

Japan then had not the technology to produce such things

They were ideal items for the ladies of the noble families to flaunt

–

My father brought home a pocket-full of them after each sailing

For some reason, the government connived at such smuggling then

The money made him an outstanding person in the neighborhood

The “ticks” also helped him to make connections with powerful families

So neither the special police nor the vigilante could touch him

–

“Those military idiots have the power of violence to control others”

His words still sound in my mind, with some meaning now

“The military must always be under the rule of the Emperor and the government

“But once a conflict breaks out with other countries, they overpower

“They are now keeping even the Emperor incommunicado”

He would bow his head every time he said “Emperor”

–

“Don’t you ever join the military when you grow up,” he’d say to me

“I don’t care if you don’t go to school, but go abroad – America, for instance

“And learn that Japan is not the only country in the world

“There are other people there. Their culture is different from ours

But the people are just like us”

–

More than 100,000 people died in the air raid on our city on that night

While walking in the crowd, news went around from mouth to mouth

Many people jumped into the Sumida River to escape from the burning houses

There was a mountain of dead bodies in the Hibiya central park

They were all people who did not want the war

–

Five more months the war went on killing many more hundreds of thousands

The explosions of atom bombs over two cities put an end to the war

Another hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians died in the explosions

They were the same sort of he people with whom I walked in the crowd

They would steeple their hands and bow their heads even at the death of enemy fighter

–

Had the war continued, I would have forcibly been trained to be a soldier to kill and die

Instead, even in those distorted days after the war, I had a chance to go to America

My father was right.

No mothers and fathers of those killed in the war held enmity toward me

They didn’t want the war themselves in the first place

–

I met a mother of a fighter pilot who went missing and found dead decades later

She talked to me about her son in so many occasions

She sounded extremely angry

But not to me though I was a person from the former enemy country

Her anger was directed to someone, or something, else that I want to know

(Aug. 2015, AshiAkira)

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