The Record of 600 Days of Evacuated Pupils by the Picture Diary （by Ehe)

　
You can find the original site of this article, The record of 600 days of evacuated pupils by the picture diary ", in the links　of the Japanese site.
--- (Please enter the links from the menu on the left side of the Japanese site.) ---

My acquaintance went to an elementary school in Tokyo at the time of the war and had an experience of the group evacuation.
She published a book about memories of those days with her classmates.
She also made a home page as Heiwa Kinen project 21(pray for the peace project 21).

We are permitted to reprint this by the person in charge of the home page.

　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　by Ehe

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About the group evacuation of schoolchildren　　　　The Editors

The schoolchildren evacuation means that the government forcedly moved schoolchildren of the national elementary schools in big cities temporarily to safer areas, so that they were beforehand prevented from the mainland bombing by the U.S. army during the last years of World War II.

At the beginning the personal relation evacuation was performed, in which schoolchildren were left to the cares of their relatives living in the country. Since June, 1944, the group evacuation became popular. Schoolchildren of from the 3rd to the 6th grade were forcedly evacuated in a group unit.

In the group evacuation, the schoolchildren suffered from the severe rule and the pecking order which were almost the same as those of the army, the discord, the bully, the flea and the louse concerning the food by being hungry and so on. In any case, their evacuation life left the scars which were not able to be erased on many young schoolchildren's mind.

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The picture diary　The first　ー　Before evacuation　ー

--- a note of the person in charge of the homepage ---

This picture diary must be unreadable, because of the time passed and the poor quality of the paper.
The picture diary becomes bigger when you click it, so that you can read a little easilier.
Also, to make it easy to read, we changed the old kana orthography into the new kana orthography, and correct hiragana letters to the kanji and have been extracted in the column on the right.
Because it is the record, the name of the author becomes a boy of ○ year and a girl of ○ year.

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The record of 600 days of evacuated pupils by the picture diary (1)

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The war began

1941 December 8th (Monday) sunshine　The girl of 1st grade

Around 7 o'clock in the morning, it said that the war began by news.
Sometimes we went out of the school to hear news.
Today, we kept the radio on throughout the day.

teachers comments

Follow the example of soldiers and be an honorable child.











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The first air raid

1942 April 18th (Saturday) cloudy　　The girl of 2nd grade

In the 1st class we did a little practice for the literary exercises and it began from the 2nd class.
Otani, Kume, Sugizaki and me four were in charge of punching the ticket.
Mr. Shiro Mori, third of 2 grade,spoke an opening speech.
Ms. Iwata Noriko, first of 2 grade, spoke a closing address.
〔omission from the middle of a quotation〕
The teacher praised for doing well the literary exercises.
When we were playing in the lunch break, the airplane of America came and dropped something.
After a while, an air-raid siren sounded.
While waiting in the classroom, we told a story each other.
〔omission from the middle of a quotation〕
The air-raid siren stopped around 4 o'clock and I was relieved.

Teachers comments
　
All is protecting you.
You must not be afraid or be hasty.
　











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The day of the departure for evacuation

1944 August 21st (Monday) sunshine　　The girl of 6th grade

I write a diary with a pencil from today.
Today, by the group evacuation, I finally leave a house
I went to see the neighborhoods association to say good-by.
I was sent by the neighborhoods association after I took a bath twice to purify.
After an opening ceremony and a send-off ceremony in the school, I marched into Takadanobaba and parted from my mother there.
Unpacking was hard for me, but I did my level best.
I stayed at Muranos house.
We had a little chat in the bed feeling strange and enjoyable but I seemed to have slept much earlier than all.
　







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The day of the departure for evacuation

1944 August 21st (Monday) sunshine　　　　The girl of 4th grade

Today is the day of the departure at last.
In the morning, I said good-by to all and left my home.
At the school, after an opening ceremony, we hold a send-off ceremony for the people who evacuated.
After that, we backed to class room once to have a break, and then we all marched to Takadanobaba. My mother went there　in advance with my luggage.
When I arrived, my mother was waiting for me having luggage and smiled.
I received my luggage and got on the train.
We had lunch immediately when we arrived at Kumegawa.
We were so hungry that the lunch was especially good.
We had dinner, too, on the grassland.
At the night, I slept with Ms. Toshima in the same bed.
　







Heiwa Kinen project 21

(To be continued)