The Japanese flight to the countryside

After the war the United States Air Force conducted an evaluation of their air attacks on Japan to access the accuracy and destructiveness of the bombing effort and in July 1946, issued a “Strategic Bombing Survey.”

Among other things the survey points out that “a striking aspect of the air attack was the pervasiveness with which its impact on morale blanketed Japan.

Roughly one-quarter of all people in cities fled or were evacuated. This mass migration from the cities included an estimated 8.5 million persons. Throughout the Japanese islands, whose people had always thought themselves remote from attack, United States planes crisscrossed the skies with no effective Japanese air or antiaircraft opposition. That this was an indication of impending defeat became as obvious to the rural as to the urban population.”

Imagine how such a huge urban population can sustain life for months on end in the countryside without power, adequate shelter, heat, medical facilities and all the other conveniences of urban living even when coping with extreme danger.

As a result of the failure (or initial absence) of air defense plans, the first air attack made by 16 B-25’s on Tokyo, Nagoya and Kobe on April 18, 1942, did not bring about major damage. Only after the loss at Guadalcanal in 1943 did the Japanese cabinet issue an executive order on the matter and in October 1943 prepare rules and regulations that would govern and guide the population until the end of the war.

I asked my friend Mr. N. Horiguchi, a long time resident of the islands, if he could provide information as to the severity of Japanese life during those days in 1945. While he was in Korea and Shanghai and didn’t return to Japan until shortly after the end of the war his comments that follow testify to the discipline, tenacity, courage and strength of the Japanese spirit during the period of “sokai” (evacuation en mass to rural regions). His account summarizes a typical day in the life of those who fled the devastation of the cities for the countryside. He recalls:

“Upon my return to Japan it was customary for several years for children to stay during summer vacation at our uncle’s house in the countryside because of the general shortage of food in Tokyo. My uncle was a physician, who rode a horse to visit patients because of the absence of gasoline for automobiles.

“I am aware of two types of evacuations once the B-29 attacks started: one involved entire families moving to the countryside or anywhere that could provide a safer location than remaining in the city. Often this meant staying at the residence of a relative. The second typical evacuation concerned that experienced, for example, an entire elementary school under the supervision of a chaperon while the parents remained behind but would visit their children every two weeks or so. This procedure was followed after August 1944 and the fall of Saipan.”

During that period third and fourth graders slept in storage buildings or barns around the countryside. Fifth and sixth graders slept in rooms used for raising silkworms at the residences of the village people or at other places. Pupils would commute about a mile a day to attend school. A typical daily schedule for children might be as follows: 6:00 am—wake up (7:00 during the winter); clean and store “futon” mattresses; attend roll call at school and afterward wash and attend to other bodily needs—all at school.

Time signals at school advising of announcements, etc., was made by a large drum. Life at school was always conducted outdoors even during the winter (except during periods of rain and snow. Breakfast was served at 7 a.m. after which clean-up was required; 8:00—morning ceremony with prayer toward the direction of the Imperial Palace followed by gymnastics; 9:00—classes begin; 11:30—lunch; 12:30 p. m.— resume classes and perform work assignments such as collecting firewood, preparing bath water, attend the fire for the bath, cleaning toilets, etc.; 2:30—finish classes; 4:30—supper; 6:00—return to accommodation facilities; 8:00—lights out. In the evening it was not unusual for a child to start weeping which would soon be followed by others. Singing songs aloud and telling or reading stories until all went to sleep was a continuing practice so not to make the youngsters home sick.

Girls in the fifth grade and above would practice “partisan” (training with pole swords) while the boys would practice with wooden swords and would also study Morse code and flag signaling.

Students in the higher grades would be responsible for “dipping up” night soil and, in lieu of fertilizer, distributing it on the fields; digging wells and air-raid shelters, deliver rationed items of various kinds and so forth. Once or twice a week bathing would occur in a “make-shift” fashion with the use of a drum can filled with water and heated beneath by fire. The bather would stand on a wooden block to protect their feet from direct contact with the heated metal at the bottom of the metal barrel. This would usually occur at the school janitor’s barracks or at the neighboring girl’s high school. Girls would be permitted to wash their hair only about once every ten days.

Seasonal work in the countryside could generally be summed up as follows: Summer—grass mowing at various locations, delivery of firewood, grass mowing and harvesting of beans and other vegetables at different farm locations.

Autumn—collect acorns, pinecones, ears of silver (pampas) grass, etc., collect firewood and clean-up fallen leaves, dig up and peel sweet potatoes; prepare farmland for spring sowing. Winter—deliver coal cinders and spread the material to fill muddy portions of roads caused during the winter weather.

The increased population in the rural areas where medical facilities were limited (if they existed at all) created problems that had to be addressed which included developing countermeasures for lice and fleas and for boils and skin rashes caused by malnutrition.

On March 10, 1945 the sixth graders returned to Tokyo for a temporary graduation ceremony. Thirty -three years later, in 1978 they had their official graduation ceremony where they finally received graduation certificates. (William H. Stewart)