by Paul Ham
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3 May (Thu) Weather: fine
School
Kimura Sensei’s biology class was our first lesson of the day.
Kimura Sensei is a really funny teacher and today he was talking about beggars. He was so hilarious we couldn’t stop laughing.
We also learned how to do multiplication using a slide rule. About halfway through our fifth lesson hour, the warning siren sounded and so I caught the 3.16pm ferry home.
Home
I came home earlier than usual because there was a warning siren. When I got home, Mother still hadn’t returned from seeing the dentist, so I went to meet her at the jetty (she was on the 5pm ferry) and we came home together. I finished dinner early, wrote my diary and filled in my table of chores before going to bed.
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Woke up: 5.20am Went to bed: 9pm Study: 1 hour Chores: prepared dinner
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4 May (Fri) Weather: fine then rain
School
The warning siren sounded just as the teacher was about to hand back our diaries, so he couldn’t return them to us. I have forgotten a few things, so I will just write up to here today.
Home
As I mentioned before, I don’t really remember what I did today, so I won’t write anything.
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Woke up: 5.20am Went to bed: 9pm Study: 1 hour Chores: prepared dinner
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5 May (Sat) Weather: fine
School
I came home early today because the warning siren sounded in our third lesson hour. We all took cover straight away. I heard that an enemy bomber attacked the area around the Fukushima Bridge.
Home
I got home earlier than usual and visited my old national school on an errand for the headmaster. I was really happy to see some of my old national school friends there.
On this day last year, Father left to fight in the war.
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Woke up: 5.20am Went to bed: 9pm Study: 1 hour Chores: prepared dinner and ran an errand
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6 May (Sun) Weather: fine
School
Today we had a mathematics test in our first lesson hour. Our second lesson hour was calligraphy, so we practised writing the character for ‘heart’. Our third lesson hour was gym, but I came home early when a B-29 flew over Hiroshima, setting off a warning siren during play time after our second lesson hour.
Home
After I got home I had dinner and rested for a little while. After that, Mother showed me how to knit a cord for my jacket. It was fun!
I finished my national language homework, wrote in my diary, filled in my table of chores and went to bed.
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Woke up: 5.20am Went to bed: 9pm Study: 1 hour Chores: prepared dinner
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7 May (Mon) Weather: fine
School
From today our class will be divided into two groups. We practised how to take cover in an air raid. My group will take cover in bomb shelter number one. School finished at lunchtime, so I came home on the 2.16pm ferry.
Home
I will be coming home from school earlier from now on. I got home, studied and did some more knitting on my jacket cord. Dinner was still some time away, so I went outside and played football.
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Woke up: 5.20am Went to bed: 9pm Study: 1 hour Chores: prepared dinner
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8 May (Tue) Weather: fine
School
Today is Imperial Rescript Proclamation Day. At school we flew the national flag, had a ceremony and listened to a reading of the Imperial Rescript on the Declaration of War. The warning siren sounded, so we all took cover straight away. I heard that fifteen or sixteen planes flew over Hiroshima.
Home
I came home on the 2.16pm ferry. After resting for a little while, I did some more knitting on my jacket cord. Then I did my homework, reviewed what I learned today at school, prepared for tomorrow’s classes, wrote my diary and filled in my table of chores.
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Woke up: 5.20am Went to bed: 9pm Study: 1 hour Chores: prepared dinner
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Imperial Rescript Proclamation Day
In 1942 the government declared the eighth day of each month to be Imperial Rescript Proclamation Day, in commemoration of the Imperial Proclamation of the War Against Britain and America on 8 December 1941, the day after the Japanese raid on Pearl Harbor and the start of war with Britain and America. On this day newspapers would reprint the Proclamation on their front pages and families would fly the Japanese flag over their homes. At school, children participated in special ceremonies, read from the Proclamation and honoured the soldiers fighting in the war.
The day was all part of the government’s determined effort to maintain nationalist fervour and prepare children for fighting the enemy in an invasion. Those efforts were successful, as we hear in Yoko’s comments throughout her diary. For example, she writes on 5 June: ‘We are pushing forward on that battlefield, striving to increase production. If we will not work hard, who will? Whatever it takes, we must work as hard as we can until we win the war.’
– Paul Ham
9 May (Wed) Weather: fine
School
Our national moral education teacher was away today, so the headmaster came and talked to us instead. In mathematics we practised doing multiplication and division.
Home
I got home, ran an errand and then went with Mother to Hatsukaichi to pick up some charcoal that my grandparents sent us from their home in the countryside. Then we rested at Matsumoto-san’s house before catching the 8.12pm ferry home.
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Woke up: 5.20am Went to bed: 10pm Study: 1 hour Chores: ran an errand and prepared dinner
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The Miyajima jetty and the ‘Misenmaru’ ferry. Yoko travelled to and from school each day via this jetty. (Kohji Hosokawa)
10 May (Thu) Weather: fine
School
Today the warning siren sounded in Tenmacho and the air-raid siren sounded in Sakancho, so we went straight to school and took cover there. We were in the bomb shelter for four hours, so I was a bit tired. But whatever happens, I must not give up.
Home
On the way home I went to see our relatives the Murakamis and also visited the Yamaguchis, who live in front of Jissen Girls’ School. When I got to Miyajimaguchi, the ferry had just left. It was too bad! I visited the Kawaras and rested at their home before catching the 5.06pm ferry home.
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Woke up: 5.20am Went to bed: 9pm Study: 1 hour Chores: prepared dinner
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Some School Rules
The following rules were recorded in the students’ classroom diary:
• We must not run in the corridor.
• We must not enter the classroom wearing geta sandals.
• Cleaning should be done in silence.
• We must not simply stand around chatting all day.
• We were very noisy when we went inside the bomb shelter.
• We must do it more quietly in future.
• I think we are too noisy when we are doing private study in the classroom. We must remind one another to exercise a little more restraint.
– Collated by Masafumi Yamazaki, later a teacher at Kenjo
11 May (Fri) Weather: cloudy then fine then rain
School
The air-raid siren sounded as soon as I got to school today, so I took cover in the bomb shelter. After a while, the siren ended and I was just thinking about going back home when another warning siren sounded so I took cover again straight away. After that siren went off, I caught the 11am ferry home.
Home
I had lunch and rested for a while. While we were making emergency rations, Mother suddenly came down with a stomach-ache, so I took care of her and prepared dinner. I was really happy because she praised me and said I did a great job.
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Woke up: 5.30am Went to bed: 9pm Study: 1 hour Chores: prepared meals
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12 May (Sat) Weather: fine
School
I had such a good day at school today. Our biology teacher is really funny. He said, ‘Who wears the best clothes at Kenjo?’ and everyone burst out laughing.
Home
I came home on the 2.20pm ferry and then went to play at Kosuga-san’s house. Kosuga-san’s older sister who went to Osaka has come home.
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Woke up: 5.20am Went to bed: 9pm Study: 1 hour Chores: prepared dinner
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Smart Uniforms
While the senior girls, when they had been at school, wore the typical sailor suit uniforms, junior students wore any mismatched combination of clothes or the hated monpe – grey trousers and tunic and sandals. Some girls made dresses and headbands out of their mother’s kimonos, and changed into their monpe at school or work.
‘We must have been a strange sight, a group of students clattering along the street in our wooden geta sandals, dressed in baggy trousers made from old clothes or our mothers’ kimonos, en route to school. Students from other schools often called ours “the rag school”, and I suppose they were right. At that time, our school had been partially converted into a school factory, which served as a military clothing depot,’ recalled Yoko’s fellow student Kazuko Fujita.
– Paul Ham
13 May (Sun) Weather: fine
School
Today was a home training day.
Home
I overslept a little this morning because I have been getting up so early every day. I prepared for my classes and Mother made me some ohagi sticky-rice sweets for lunch.
Yokoshima-san had promised that she would come to see me today, but she didn’t. There was a warning siren, so that is probably why she couldn’t make it.
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Woke up: 8.30am Went to bed: 9pm Study: 1 hour Chores: prepared dinner
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14 May (Mon) Weather: fine then cloudy
School
In our mathematics class today, we practised doing division with a slide rule and completed some of the exercises in the book. A new teacher called Tsukiji Sensei conducted gym class. We practised dodging things and walking in pitch darkness.
Home
On the way home I stopped by the public hall to see several things that had come from the Grumman American fighter airplane and were on display. Some of them were really amazing, but on the whole I was disgusted by how horrible they were.
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Woke up: 5.20am Went to bed: 9pm Study: 1 hour Chores: prepared dinner
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What Children Knew About the War
Japanese schoolchildren knew how it felt to live in constant fear of air attack; many had seen their cities attacked by US bombers. They were also taught to hate the Americans and British. Some chanted slogans, fed to them by the government. For example, children sang ‘Kill the Americans and British one, two, three,’ as they worked clearing building debris in Hiroshima. Children were taught to blame all their discomforts on the enemy. The lack of food, the evacuation drill, the interrupted school classes – all were blamed on the enemy.
Yoko writes, on 5 June, ‘I am sure British and American schoolgirls are working hard doing all sorts of things to win the war. We must not be outdone by those schoolgirls, we simply mustn’t.’
Her counterparts in Britain and America weren’t labouring for the war effort like Japanese schoolgirls at all.
– Paul Ham
15 May (Tue) Weather: rain
School
I will be in the afternoon group from today. It feels quite strange. We took cover twice when the warning siren sounded. We did two hours of practical studies [agriculture] and then cleaned up, before I caught the 5.06 ferry home.
Home
I came home and helped Mother prepare dinner. Mother is doing some sewing at the moment, so I helped her by cutting threads and winding them up. I filled in my table of chores, wrote my diary, prepared for tomorrow’s classes and went to bed.
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Woke up: 5.30am Went to bed: 9pm Study: 1 hour Chores: prepared dinner
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16 May (Wed) Weather: fine
School
Today we practised using a slide rule and did some exercises in the book. The warning siren sounded during national language time, so we took cover straight away. Sasaki Sensei sent us a message to let us know that we will start doing demolition work tomorrow, so we went home.
Home
Because I came home on the 5.17pm ferry, Mother had already prepared dinner and was waiting for me. Today, Mizuiri Sensei told us to ask our parents where the word aho [silly] came from. So after dinner I asked Mother but she didn’t know. When I told her where it came from, she said, ‘I see.’
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Woke up: 7am Went to bed: 9pm Study: 1 hour Chores: cleared away after dinner
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A Different Syllabus
Many of Yoko’s classes were interrupted by air raids or replaced by labouring work at the school’s agricultural plots, cleaning around the school, and later demolition work in the suburbs.
When the classes did occur she took great pleasure in them. Some of the lessons seem strange by today’s standards. Household management classes prepared the girls for their roles as wives and mothers. Practical studies involved learning about agriculture and commerce.
Yoko seems very excited when she gets to use a slide rule, which is an instrument like a little ruler-calculator with a standard set of scales marked on it that can be slid into position to answer a maths problem. National literature would have involved learning patriotic texts and symbolism associated with the empire.
– Paul Ham
17 May (Thu) Weather: fine
School
Labour service began today, at last.
Our job is to clear away seventy buildings, starting with the local courthouse. Most of the rubble has already been cleared away, but I am going to work hard and do the best job I can anyway.
Home
My legs were quite sore after today’s labour service, but who cares about that compared to what our soldiers are going through. I resolved to work hard again tomorrow, and wrote my diary, filled in my table of chores and went to bed.
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Woke up: 5.30am Went to bed: 9pm Study: 1 hour Chores: prepared dinner
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Exhausting Work
In Hiroshima, as in other cities, the children’s jobs were exhausting. Yoko and her classmates were required to help clear away house tiles and debris that lay on the ground after houses surrounding important buildings had been demolished to create firebreaks – long, wide avenues, which were meant to stop the spread of fires that were expected after American bombing raids. Japanese homes burned very easily. They were usually made of stiff paper, like cardboard, and caught fire like dry wood.
Many children worked long hours. Some rose at 4am to do household chores before school or mobilisation duties; in the evening, they would resume their chores until late. Often they were sent into the forest to gather food – berries and wild fruit – or to collect wood and pine roots. The wood was actually used in aeroplanes, because Japan had almost run out of steel, and the pine roots were ground into oil, which would be used as fuel.
The Student Mobilisation Order insisted that all children over twelve should work as hard as adults. It was little wonder that girls like Yoko – the youngest of the mobilised children – felt exhausted and dizzy. Millions of Japanese children were overworked and undernourished during the war years.
– Paul Ham
18 May (Fri) Weather: fine
School
I did labour service again today. Just as I thought, we were clearing away rubble in the same area as yesterday. I cut my hand while I was dragging some bamboo along. It was only a small cut but it hurt a lot. But who cares about that compared to
the battlefield.
Home
I returned home on the 5.47pm ferry. When I got home, Mother was out collecting neighbourhood association fees, so I prepared dinner. We ate as soon as she got back. Then I wrote my diary, filled in my table of chores, wrote a letter to Father and went to bed.
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Woke up: 7am Went to bed: 9pm Study: 1 hour Chores: prepared dinner
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Collecting Fees
Japanese cities had to largely organise their own fire-fighting units, dig their own air-raid shelters and fortify their cities against firestorms. Voluntary neighbourhood associations had been set up in 1940, under the Imperial Rule Assistance laws, to oversee these home defence activities, and members had to take turns gathering fees from the neighbourhood to pay for them.
The associations were ‘voluntary’ in name only. In practice, social pressure and the Kempeitai – the military police – made sure everyone participated. Of course, many did so eagerly.