Interview with Tsu and Mother
Tsu and their mother are 3rd and 2nd A-bomb survivors. On August 6th and August 9th of 1945, the United States dropped an atomic bomb on the Japanese cities of Nagasaki and Hiroshima.
At least 100,000 innocent civilians died as a result of this action taken by the US government and any survivors were left to suffer with the physical and mental lasting damage. Tsu's grandfather and his sisters were a few of these survivors.
Please read this interview with an open mind.
Please tell us about yourselves. How would you describe your cultural background? What does a regular day look like to you?
Tsu: “I would consider myself a ダブル, or double. I was raised in Hawaii, which is already a cultural melting pot of Asian and Polynesian cultures, so a lot of different cultures went into formulating my childhood. My father is from Louisiana, so there was traditional southern in the mix as well. As for my day—it’s mostly of work. I tend to work for 10 or 12 hours a day, and anywhere between 5 or 6 days a week.
Obviously, this ties in with my Mother’s day as I am not home to take care of the house, so it falls mostly on her shoulders. My mother says she considers her culture strictly Japanese, with very little American influence. But she wouldn’t consider herself “straight” Japanese, or rather, she doesn’t consider herself conservative.. Her day starts at 6 am, feeds the family by 7 am including dogs, drops me off at work, spends most of the day running errands, feeds the dogs at 4 pm, cooks dinner, picks me up from work, and then finished cleaning the house and getting the bath ready before getting to bed by 9pm. Her days are very tiring and busy.”
Sasebo is very interesting. I have heard about the bomb shelters still standing and the emergency alert system still using an air raid siren for regular occurrences such as earthquakes. Is there a particular reason as to why your town is like this? Are there other towns you know of in Japan that are like this?
Tsu: “Our hometown is…very country, and very old. A lot of our systems and buildings are very outdated. We’re about an hour away from Nagasaki City, and it’s just the way the town has always been, old and unchanged. My mom can’t really say whether they keep the old system because the a lot of our residents are senior citizens are just used to the noise as an emergency siren, or if they just can’t afford to change.”
How did [Tsu’s Mother] meet your husband? How did your family react to your marriage?
“They [Parents] met at a bar, where my mother worked at. My father was friends with the Papa of the bar, and lied to him about American ships pulling in and promising lots of business. The Papa told my mother to open the bar in the afternoon so they could cash in on the opportunity, but the only people who showed up was my dad and four of his friends. This was the first time she ever met my father, and she was furious with him tricking her boss so that she had to work all day. After that, my father became a regular of the bar.
My grandfather was always very welcoming of my father; he liked the way he was southern polite, and quiet. He spoke a little bit of English, so they used to be able to have simple conversations. When my mother told him she was going to marry him, he approved of it and explained that a long time ago, during the Edo or even earlier, our family was exiled from Kobe. It was during this downfall that one of our family members took a Dutch woman as a wife and moved down to Kyuushuu. Because of this, my grandfather has already come to accept that our family is just tied with the West, no matter what. It was my mothers aunts, my grandfather’s sisters, who disapproved and very loudly at that. They often nagged her about how my father had no respect for their nationality, because he couldn’t speak Japanese.”
What are some difficulties that come from being a multiracial Japanese family in Japan?
Tsu: “We live in a town called Sasebo, whose most prominent source of income is actually the American base. It’s been here since the ending of WW2. Before that, we were a Japanese base that mostly produced and built ships. Without the ships, our town makes no money at all. To survive, we depend on the influx of sailors so, many of the residents don’t really care what country the ship is from—we get ships from America, Australia, Thai, Indonesia, Korea. Many of us don’t really blink much at it. We don’t spend enough time in other places to really feel the brunt of any prejudice, though we are aware it exists. When I explained this question to my mother, she laughed and told me a story:
When she was a child, she used to live in Imari-cho which was up in the mountains. At the base of the mountain, there were three houses where Americans lived. As a kid, she didn’t understand a word of English but she liked the way it sounded, so she used to go down to visit all the time. The Americans were very friendly towards her. On this day, though, they had hung up a bunch of mosquito catching strips so when she came in to say hi, she walked straight into them and it all got stuck in her hair. The family panicked and took her to a barber, who had to shave nearly all of her hair off. She laughed the entire time and said the family was so kind for taking care of her, even if she had to lose all her hair.
Please tell us about your grandfather as a person.
Tsu: “My mother says her father went through this trauma before he was even married. Whatever information before my father was married, she doesn’t know a thing what he was like, so she couldn’t say. My grandfather nor his sisters or brothers ever talked about life before the war besides facts that skirt around it; because none of the family actually died from the direct after effects. She does know he started drinking more, but that was more from the personal loss of his first wife running away than it was the bomb. She says that her father was more obsessed with her than he ever was with whatever was going on with Japan, the war, or the Americans. While his alcoholism kept them in poverty, and the economy in a state of jumping job to job, she can’t really say whether it was the bomb’s fault or my grandfather’s narcissism that saw her raising herself most of the time.”
Have you ever had any sort of discrimination from being 2nd and 3rd generation A-bomb survivors? Have they acknowledged their past harsh treatment of victims?
“Most Japanese don’t know we are 2nd and 3rd generation. Where we are, most people just don’t talk about it; it’s not a topic that comes up, and it’s not one my mother talks about with her Japanese friends. A lot of our family keeps it quiet out of survivor’s guilt; my grandfather’s extensive reporting to the city hall (his employer at the time the bomb dropped) illuminated to him how much life was really lost. Because not a single member was physically harmed (not until much later, now that a lot of them have passed from different cancers), they made a promise to each other not to talk about it so as not to feel like they are taking away from the families that suffered more. Because of this silence, we can’t really say if they treat people differently. My mother says she’s afraid, mostly, if being accused of being a liar, and of looking only for the monetary compensation when mostly she just wants to tell her family’s story.”
Have either of you been to any museums, exhibits, or events in Hiroshima, Nagasaki, or any part of Japan that showcases the tragic bombings of 1945?
“I have only been to the Atom Bomb Museum and Peace Park in Nagasaki, but my mother has been to both the museums in Nagasaki and Hiroshima. For me, the Peace Park is something I will never forget. My mother told me how my grandfather told her that he actually had to pass through the land the Peace Park is built on, including the nearby river. He said the river was full of people crying out for water, we’re trying to bathe away the heat of their burns and all it did was take their skin and hair. The river didn’t look like a river anymore, and there was a lot of bodies in it. That’s all I ever think about when we’re there. My mom says she’ll never forget just the feeling of the museums—the pictures of the people with the burns in Hiroshima, and the single surviving Torii gate that’s in Nagasaki’s museum, and the heavy atmosphere it gives. She calls it like a shock. It’s still before her time, but to her it feels so alien.”
In the United States, the atomic bombings of 1945 are glorified and still being taught as a victory without acknowledging the many innocent civilians of Nagasaki and Hiroshima who became victims of this event. Any exhibits focusing on the victims of the A-bomb that have been planned in large museums, such as the Smithsonian, have been cancelled due to the beliefs that these exhibits will disrespect American veterans. What are your thoughts on this?
“My mother said the government never changes, whether it’s American, Japanese, Russian. They only care about being able to have power and land and money.
Denying the horrors of war only makes sure that the same things happen over and over again. “It’s stupid. It’s a stupid thought.””
What do you both consider a proper apology from one country to another for committing a crime against humanity? Could the country who committed an atrocity such as the A-bombings, the Nanking massacre, or the Holocaust ever be forgiven?
“To my mother, the only apology that is sufficient for things like this is to stop war at all. “As long as there is war, somebody will cry.” But there is no way to stop that so long as people are greedy, so we have to teach our children all the horrors that happens during a war, stress the pain they suffer, so they learn not about victory but the importance of never having war again.”
Despite these bombings, Japan continues to use nuclear power, even after the nuclear power plant explosion in Fukushima further proving the dangers. How do you feel about nuclear power in Japan?
Tsu’s Mother:“I am old. I am 71 years old. I do not have a lot of time. I don’t want to think about the nuclear plants, or how much time they have until something bad happens. But the people who are young, they’re the ones who should worry and make the change.
They’re the ones who have a long time to live. If Japan is smart and loves their young people, they will go to solar power.”
Tsu:“This question was very funny to explain, because she went on quite the tangent about how knowing an exact date is far scarier than being oblivious to the future.”
Has the Japanese government stayed true to their message of international peace in Article 9, or is it wavering? Do you think international peace is possible?
Tsu’s Mother: “Oh I don’t know. There’s so many stupid people in government. They don’t listen to the people and act like they’re better than us, there’s so many people in government that act like their position means they don’t have to think about anyone else. If the people in government were younger, were more aware, then maybe… Then maybe they could be. The old people are too stubborn in their ways, like me. We’re not good anymore.”
More victims of the A-bombings are getting older and passing away, do you feel like younger generations are starting to forget about the Atomic Bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki?
Tsu’s Mother: “Kyuushuu people, we have seen it. We have lived it. Kyuushuu has never forgotten and we never will. Nagasaki and Hiroshima, it’s part of us now, it is in our bodies now. We cannot forget. But those in Honshu, they have never seen the pictures, they only read about it in books. They haven’t seen it. They haven’t experienced it.
Go to the museum, and you will never forget it. It becomes part of you. Any generation from Kyuushuu and Hiroshima, we all live.”
“No more war. Please, let this concept die. It is the only thing that needs to die, war itself. We will lose everything.”
Tsu's Mother