What's up, guys? This is IYASASA RADIO by Akane and Minami.
In this radio, we are going to talk about random topics in Okinawan Japanese and English.
Hi, guys. This is IYASASA RADIO by Akane and Minami.
In this radio, we are going to talk about random topics in Okinawan Japanese and English.
This is IYASASA RADIO by Akane and Minami.
6月23日の慰霊の日は、沖縄戦犠牲者の霊を慰め、世界の恒久平和を願う日です。沖縄県が条例で記念日として定めました。
沖縄戦は、太平洋戦争の末期である1945年に、日本軍と沖縄諸島に上陸したアメリカ軍を主体とする連合国軍との間で行われた戦いです。
6月23日の慰霊の日は、沖縄では休日になりますが、日本の休日ではなく沖縄県独自の休日であり、これには歴史的背景が深く関わっています。
第二次世界大戦で敗れた日本は、連合国軍の占領下に置かれることになりました。
その後、1952年のサンフランシスコ共和条約によって日本の主権は承認されましたが、沖縄県だけは引き続きアメリカの統治下に置かれました。
そのため、日本の休日とは別に沖縄独自の休日が定められたのです。
1972年に沖縄返還が行われると、沖縄県にも日本の法律が適用されるようになりました。
慰霊の日は日本の休日ではないため除外されましたが、沖縄県の条例により、沖縄県独自の休日として今も残り続けています。
Thank you, Minami. Let me talk about Okinawa Memorial Day.
Okinawa Memorial Day is a public holiday observed in Japan Okinawa Prefecture annually on June 23rd to remember the lives lost during the Battle of Okinawa.
It is not celebrated nationally throughout Japan.
The Battle of Okinawa was the only ground engagement of the Pacific War fought on Japanese soil.
Over 240,000 lives were lost and numerous buildings on the island were destroyed along with countless historical documents, artifacts, and cultural treasures.
It is estimated that about half of the war victims were local Okinawa residents among them children.
はい。Thank you.
はい。
今年の2021年6月23日でちょうど戦後76年だそうです。
で、今日は慰霊の日やささ特別編ということでWe have two guests.
Yay.
Yay.
Yay.
Yay.
23日は関係あるとても。
慰霊の日だから。
お父さん、お兄さん、こっちの長男、長男兄さん。
おじさんね。
長男。
だから、慰霊の日だからさ、おばあの話を今日はたくさん聞こうと思ってきました。
はい。
よろしくお願いします。
慰霊の日だから。
So, when we think about this topic, we wanted to have different perspectives from different generations.
So, today we have two guests.
Minami's grandma and father Naoko and Katsuji-san.
Yes.
So, Naoko-san is 89 years old.
89歳。
そう。
And her son Katsuji-san is 66 years old.
And Minami is the third generation if count after the war.
うんうん。
うん。
今日は、ミナミのおばあとお父をゲストに招いてからお話を聞こうと思っております。
おばあのお家でね。
うんうん。
And she told us that she got some...
何?
She was on a newspaper talking about Battle of Okinawa back in 2016.
で、その記事が結構面白いというか、深いものだったので、
ちょっとその記事をあかねが今からさらっと読むので、
はい。
聞いてください。
一年、ナオコさんが84歳の時に取材された記事です。
台湾で生まれ、母親の出身地の久米島に渡り、
父の故郷ヨナバルの板嵐に戻ったのが小学校3年生の頃。
まだ生活が落ち着かなかった大里国民学校6年生の時、
立ち覗きのような形でヤンバルに疎開することになりました。
で、家族2世帯合わせて10人でトラックに乗り金に向かいました。
ただ、そこは危険ということで一泊しただけで、
And she was born in Taiwan.
But then the war started.
She had to move to Okinawa because
Taiwan was part of Japan at the time.
But because the war started
Japanese people had to go back to Japan at the time.
That's why she moved to Okinawa from Taiwan.
Yes.
And then
while I was living in Okinawa
the army called me right away.
Your father.
He came in.
But I didn't have time to see my children.
My husband and grandfather.
And my father and mother.
I didn't have any property here yet.
I just brought my children here.
While I was doing this
I was taken to the military base.
You were taken to the military base.
How many siblings did you have?
Four.
And
my older sister was one year older than me.
She was sick.
She had a foot infection.
It got into her stomach.
And she was hospitalized.
My father was taken to the military base.
After that
it was the hardest time for me.
I think it was six years.
And my husband and his family.
They came here to dig potatoes and cook them.
Your brother and sister.
In order to feed my sister
they dug potatoes.
It was hard.
And they brought potatoes to the hospital.
At that time, potatoes were the staple food?
Yes.
We didn't have much rice.
I see.
We didn't have much rice.
We didn't eat much.
I bought tofu.
I bought tofu from a tofu shop.
I went into my house like this.
The soldiers saw me.
They came in between the trees.
They asked for tofu.
The soldiers?
Yes, the soldiers.
My mother was having a hard time raising four children.
If my father was here,
we would have money.
But we didn't have money.
It was a really hard life.
But we had to take care of the soldiers.
The soldiers asked for tofu.
My father was in the army.
He was in the army.
He didn't have time.
He didn't have time.
He didn't have time.
He didn't have a salary.
When my father was in the army,
it wasn't the time for Okinawa to be in the war.
Japan was preparing for the war in 1945.
At that time,
Okinawa was busy building a runway and an airfield.
I was called to work as a soldier.
I was told that I didn't have a salary.
I didn't have a salary.
It was a hard life.
The soldiers were also hungry.
My mother was having a hard time.
Japan was in the middle of the war.
Everyone was suffering.
We didn't have much money at home.
It was a really hard life.
When it rained,
we went to the field where we had potatoes.
When it rained,
my feet were all wet.
When it rained,
my cousin,
who also had a hoe,
went to the field to dig potatoes.
You didn't know where to go.
You walked to another place.
They put us on a military truck.
Was it a Japanese truck?
Yes, of course.
At that time, there were a lot of Japanese soldiers.
You rode on a military truck from the south to the north.
We didn't have a truck.
I think I've heard of it.
Why did you go to the north?
At that time, it was called Kin'yanbarun.
It was called Kin'yanbarun.
It was a one-year-old truck.
It was called Kin'yanbarun.
It was a one-year-old truck.
I can't believe it.
How many days did it take?
According to the information,
Kin'yanbarun was a village with a lot of trees.
It was a village with a lot of trees.
In Naha and Shimajiri,
the Japanese military was in charge.
But they were pushed by the Americans and fled to the south.
They said it was better to go with the soldiers,
so they fled to the south.
They said Yanbarun was safe, so they went to Yanbarun.
There was no right or wrong answer.
They fled from place to place.
You went to Yanbarun, but there was no food,
so you went back to Yonabarun, right?
That was later.
By chance,
my father, mother, and my aunt Yasuko,
Yasuko was my youngest sister,
and my mother.
Since then,
the air raids had been going on for a long time.
When Yasuko was 11 years old,
she walked all the way to Yanbarun.
She was so exhausted.
Fortunately, my aunt was still alive.
Did you have a truck?
Yes, I did.
Did you have a truck?
Yes, I did.
Did your aunt Yasuko have a truck?
No, she didn't.
She walked all the way to Yanbarun.
Her legs were swollen.
At the entrance of Kin-no-Go,
my aunt Yasuko and my aunt Yasuko,
decided to go and see if they could make something to eat.
It was getting dark, so they decided to go.
At the entrance of Kin-no-Go,
my aunt Yasuko and my aunt Yasuko
had a rare chance to meet each other.
My older sister and her cousin
were making something.
My uncle and aunt Yasuko
were my youngest siblings.
What was life like in Kin-no-Go?
In Kin-no-Go, there was water.
It was a little dark.
There was a high place.
From the entrance of Kin-no-Go to here,
there was a stream of water.
My legs were wet.
While we were doing this,
we walked all the way to the back.
My older sister and her cousin
were looking for something to eat.
There was a house up there
where we stayed overnight.
We went there and stayed overnight.
Now we don't have anything.
We don't have potatoes.
We don't have anything like this.
We have to go to the field and dig.
It's a house for people.
We don't have anything like this.
We wanted to see if we could make something.
While we were trying to find something,
we found a pot.
In Kin-no-Go, there were a lot of rice fields.
There were a lot of sweet potatoes.
There were a lot.
In Kin-no-Sho-Nyu-Do, there were a lot of rice fields.
It was long.
It was long.
It was terrible.
What did you do?
In reality,
the soldiers in the U.S.
and the women in Okinawa
were exchanged with each other.
When they were prisoners.
After the war,
the U.S. military police was the most important.
Military police?
They went to the U.S. military base to work.
I see.
It was like a military hospital.
Yes, it was.
Even now,
they clean up,
and clean up the rubble.
It's like a janitor's job.
Many foreigners came to Japan.
There were many jobs like this.
I see.
In the U.S. military base,
if you worked, you could get paid.
In the U.S. military base,
the U.S. was rich at that time.
They gave food to the prisoners.
On Christmas,
they brought food to the prisoners.
They were rich.
They wanted to be military employees
rather than public servants.
The women worked at a military club.
At first, they were housemaids.
They worked at a military club.
The U.S. military police helped them a lot.
The U.S. military police was kind to us.
We had money, so we could afford it.
We had food to eat.
Money?
I wonder if we still have money.
It depends on the situation.
The house is big.
It's different now.
It's a different situation.
It's a different feeling.
The poverty is different.
The gap is too big.
The gap is too big.
Their life in the U.S. military base
was like a dream.
They worked hard.
They were able to afford it.
They brought food to the prisoners.
The prisoners were housemaids.
They cleaned the house.
The prisoners were housemaids.
They fed the prisoners.
They fed the prisoners.
They did these things.
They fed the prisoners.
If something happened,
they would say,
it's the New Year in Japan,
so take this with you.
The children would say,
that's amazing.
That's how it was.
When they were little,
they would bring things from work.
They knew there was something inside.
They would say,
that's amazing.
That's how it was.
That's how it was.
That's how it was.
After the war,
my grandmother worked as a housemaid
in the U.S. military base.
She worked as a housemaid
in the prison.
She worked at a club.
There is still a New Year's club.
Yes, there is a New Year's club in the airport.
There used to be a baseball stadium there.
There was a New Year's club next to it.
It was the U.S. military base.
Yes, yes.
It was New Year's.
Do you mean now?
Yes.
She worked there until she recovered.
Until she recovered.
My grandfather was in charge of the construction
of the U.S. military base.
Yes, yes.
Then Okinawa was about to go through
the recovery period.
There were no passenger cars,
so everyone took the bus.
My grandfather was in charge of the bus.
Yes, yes.
At that time,
the bus was used by my parents
when I was a child.
I was in elementary school
until the end of the war in 1945.
At that time,
there was no public transportation,
so the bus was used by bus drivers.
The bus was very popular at that time.
There were no cars,
so most of the roads were opened by the U.S. military.
Do you mean the roads now?
Yes, roads No. 329 and No. 33.
The biggest road was No. 58.
The road was opened by the U.S. military?
Yes, yes.
The U.S. military opened the road
from Naha Air Base to Katena Base.
The road is connected.
The road is connected.
The road is connected.
For the first time,
for Okinawa,
for Japan,
it was a big road.
For the first time,
it was a big road.
The People's Party of Okinawa,
like Kamijirō Senaka,
said they were going to turn this road into a runway.
When the war broke out,
planes came from this direction
and turned this road into a runway.
That's how the road No. 58 was built.
After the war,
it was designated as a national road
and became the national road No. 58.
The national road No. 58 is connected to Kagoshima.
I see.
It's a road that crosses the sea.
The road No. 58.
Before the war,
it was called Route No. 1.
Route No. 1.
Vegetables.
Route No. 1.
I see.
I remember that time.
It was hard.
Buses were interesting.
The bus driver used to be on the bus.
Now, the bus line...
It's like checking the passengers.
It's called a one-man bus.
So,
when it changed from the bus driver,
it was called a one-man bus.
Now, it's just a bus driver.
There were two people on the bus.
The bus driver wore a hat
and held a bag.
He asked,
How much is it?
I said,
How much is it?
It's like a bullet train.
A bullet train is like checking.
The destination.
It's a little different.
The bus driver gave the ticket inside.
I see.
At that time,
there were no cars,
so everyone was on the bus.
When it was time,
the bus was packed.
It was like a train in Tokyo.
In that situation,
the bus driver was moving around.
I wonder what he was doing.
At that time, I was driving.
Well,
I asked him to stop the bus in front of my house.
He said,
I'll stop the bus.
There were four or five of us.
When we made lunch,
my father was driving on this route.
From Naha to Chinen.
He was driving to Naha.
We were standing here.
My father stopped the bus.
He gave my father a lunch box.
I see.
Sometimes the bus driver gave him a pocket money.
In that way,
it was a bus with a bus driver.
For a long time.
When was it?
Since I was in junior high school,
there was no bus driver.
It was a mobile phone bus.
In that period?
Yes, mobile phone.
At that time,
there was a bus.
In Okinawa,
there was a bus called
Toyo bus,
Okinawa bus.
There were many first-class cars.
The bus driver and the bus driver
had a fight.
They robbed each other's passengers.
The bus driver
was passing the passengers.
I didn't know that.
He was driving fast and
driving the opposite direction.
He was competitive.
How old was your father?
He was in junior high school.
There was a bus for a long time.
It was a one-man bus.
It was in junior high school.
After the war,
there was no bus for a long time.
The bus driver died.
After the war,
you were born.
There was a bus system.
Yes.
What was the change
from the American rule
to the change
in Okinawa and Japan?
Well,
the return to Japan
was in the second year of high school.
So,
the period before that
was a long time.
We spent a lot of money.
We didn't have
a rich life.
We wanted to go back to Japan
as soon as possible.
When the National Rehabilitation Initiative was passed,
we decided to go back to Japan.
So,
we made a flag of Hinomaru
one by one.
If we made a flag of Hinomaru,
our generation would be good at it.
We made a circle
in the middle
with a cross.
I see.
Hinomaru is easy to make.
If you have a cross,
you can make a red circle
in Okinawa.
The Ryukyu
was ridiculed
in Okinawa.
The Ryukyu
was ridiculed
in Okinawa.
The Ryukyu
was ridiculed
in Okinawa.
And so
U.S. military
carried out
this battle
I thought, this is not good.
But my job was to go to Japan to work as a jeweler.
Okinawa is a poor country.
Everyone goes to work in Yamato.
So I wanted to study standard language
so that I wouldn't be mocked there.
There was a standard language school.
When I was in elementary school, there was a sign for the language.
There was a sign for the language.
There was a sign for the language in front and behind.
What was that?
It was a sign for the people who spoke the language.
Like a red card?
Yes, it was a sign for the people who spoke the language.
Like a punishment?
It was a punishment for speaking the language.
How old are the people who can speak the language fluently?
It depends on the area.
We try to set the standard not only at the school,
but also in the area.
We don't look at Kumijima.
It's a standard language.
Even in the area.
So if they see you using it...
Even in the area,
they say, you don't use the dialect.
In Naha, it's a town of merchants.
There are many people from the countryside.
Many people from Kagoshima.
There are many people from the countryside.
So we don't look at it,
but we speak the standard language.
If we only use the dialect, we can't do it.
So we speak the standard language in the neighborhood.
What about the northern part?
The northern part is the northern part.
It's a poor country.
It's called a barren country.
It's a barren country.
Even in Yanbaru,
it's like a big city in the old days.
It's the same on the main island,
but all the workers come to the southern part.
If you don't have a hard time living there,
you use the standard language.
It's the same in the southern part.
In the southern part, it's peaceful.
The land is fertile,
so you can eat even if you farm.
It's the same in the northern part.
In Yanbaru, there are only mountains,
so you have to work hard.
You can't come here.
So we try to speak the standard language there.
It's the same in Kumeji.
In the northern part,
it's the same in Iayama.
It's the same standard language.
I don't know about Miyako.
You don't know?
Miyako is the dialect of Miyako.
That's why they come here.
Even if they are of the same generation...
They are different.
Yes.
I was born in 1929.
Some people were born in the 1920s.
Some people were born in the 1930s.
Until then,
in the countryside like this,
you don't have to worry about anything.
You don't have to move much.
In Yanbaru, people move.
In Rito, people move.
You don't have to move much.
You can eat here.
People like this
can be used in our house.
For me,
I use it almost perfectly.
Even if they are of the same generation,
in the countryside like this,
even in Yanbaru,
there is a town.
People there don't use it.
When you go to Naha,
in our generation,
there are many people
who can't use it in our house.
I see.
But I don't know.
Not only in Naha,
but also in other small places.
Yes.
In the countryside,
it's a matter of education.
You can't use standard language.
You can't use standard language for children.
In the countryside,
children use standard language.
But in our generation,
we can't use it.
My parents are a little older.
They are about 70 years old.
Parents speak in dialect,
but we can't speak standard language.
We are the same age.
We are the same age.
We are the same age.
In our generation,
there are many people
who can't speak standard language.
I see.
I didn't know that.
In our generation,
until junior high school,
there was a dialect school.
There was a toilet a little away from our house.
In your generation, the toilet was a given.
The washlet was a given.
But 75 years ago, Okinawa was living like that.
Okinawa is a poor prefecture.
Out of that poverty, immigration came out and Okinawa became an immigration prefecture.
Okinawans who immigrated to Okinawa are mainly from South America, such as Hawaii and South America.
In Okinawa, they say that Okinawans are arrogant.
This is not something that Okinawans should be proud of.
Okinawans who immigrated to Okinawa did their best.
They let Okinawans go.
After the war, Okinawans sent pigs to Okinawa.
Okinawans helped Okinawans a lot.
Okinawans who immigrated to South America had a hard time.
But Okinawans were united.
Okinawans were united and helped each other.
Okinawans educated the second generation of Okinawans.
The second and third generation of Okinawans flourished.
There are many Okinawans in my generation.
All Okinawans are excellent.
I think that Okinawans are fighting with the will of the victims.
But Okinawans should not leave the poor as they are.
Okinawans fight desperately.
Okinawans should not leave the poor as they are.
Okinawans should unite and help each other.
Okinawans have a strong position in South America.
Okinawans should not leave the poor as they are.
Okinawans should not leave the poor as they are.
Okinawans should not leave the poor as they are.
Okinawans should not leave the poor as they are.
Okinawans should not leave the poor as they are.
Okinawans should not leave the poor as they are.
We have to make it a right to discard Okinawan people for work.
I want to tell all Okinawans to work hard.
Please don't leave the poorer as they are.
I agree with what Katsuji-san just said.
It's not like we're doing this because we're poor in Okinawa,
or because we're in need of help because of our social status.
It's more like we're doing this because we're proud of it.
I think that's a really good idea.
100% agree for my dad.
I tend to forget important things.
Then let's record a lot.
That's why I think it's a good idea.
It's a good idea.
I tend to forget important things.
Even if I forget last night's dinner, I won't forget what I ate 30 years ago.
World War II and their life after that.
How did you feel about it?
We discussed about recording Irenohi Special a couple months ago.
It's been 2 to 3 months.
At the very same moment we started publishing our episode,
I wanted to create an episode which really related to a local topic.
I was imagining how it would turn out when we were actually discussing about it.
But it was so different from my imagination in a good way.
It was the first time to hear their narratives from my dad and my grandma at the same time.
It was pretty fresh to me.
New to me.
You often heard your grandma talking about the war in Minami, right?
Yes, I did.
But it was the first time we talked about it together.
He explained more of it and he translated to Okinawan to make her understand better about my question.
So I think it was good.
It was good to see the communication between the dialect and standard language.
It was interesting.
How about you, Akane?
I was so impressed that she talked about real episodes about the war.
How she experienced it and how she survived.
People are dying who experienced the war already.
So that was so important to listen to their stories.
And we need to tell that story to the young people.
It's like a peace relay.
I wanted to do that more.
Some people think that they don't want to talk about the war.
Because it's too sad and they don't want to remind of it.
But Minami's grandma wasn't that uncomfortable to talk about it.
So she opened up her story.
She got used to talk about it.
To me, she seems like she found her mission to talk about her experience.
At first, I thought she was very talkative.
But when I met her today, she said she didn't want to talk about it.
But everyone wants to listen to me.
So I have no choice.
It's like a mission.
It was hard and poor.
My dad and my brother died in the war.
So I don't want to talk about it.
I wanted to listen to their stories and learn something.
I wanted the young people to be grateful for their lives.
I wanted them to study hard.
They couldn't go to school at that time.
I wanted to hear their thoughts.
Yeah.
Now, Okinawa is a tourist attraction.
It's an island where everyone can relax.
There are a lot of immigrants.
People in Okinawa are happy.
But there's a lot of history.
I want to be grateful for what's happening now.
I want to be grateful for peace and love in my busy daily life.
I want to do that in the future.
I feel the same.
Like Akane said, I want to cherish our lives, work, relationships, and people around us.
I'll do my best from tomorrow.
I want you to be grateful to your ancestors.
Otherwise, I wouldn't have been born.
I want to give positive energy to everyone listening to this special episode.
I hope you have a peaceful life with big love to everyone.
That's all for today.
Bye-bye.