Letters Exchanged with My Mother (by Honobono)

Letters exchanged with my mother No.1

Sixty years ago when I finished the first year of a junior high school (I was 13 years and 8 months old), I joined the Army Cadet School. I became just a young soldier. I was instructed by the school to write letters to my parents as frequently as possible.

While I stayed in the Army Cadet School for 4 months and 15 days, I sent letters to my parents 14 times. I still have all of them in hand because my parents kept them very carefully. I got my mother's letters 5 times, so I keep them very carefully.

I would like to show some of them to you honestly.

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A postcard to my father and mother

April 25, 1945

How are you, my father and mother?
I'm worried about you because you didn't send a letter to me. Now, early summer has come. Cicadas are making loud noises in the grounds of the Houkoku Shrine.

Yesterday the Army Cadet School students marched from the school to the Kanshin-ji Temple and Nanpian. I respected a great Masashige Kusunoki's loyalty to the Emperor and at the same time I was devoted to the pursuit of my faith in 'Shichisho-houkoku' (this means serving ones country for seven lives ).

I'm studying equations in math now, but I can't understand them at all and I'm suffering from them a lot.---While I study it by myself, I sometimes feel like crying, but I'll study it very hard.

Please look forward to seeing me because I may come back home this coming 30th.

Well, take care, please. Good-by.

from Hideo Ochiai

The third room, the 6th training group, the 49th graduate
Osaka Army Cadet School 　　　　　

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A letter from my mother

May 4 (1945)　

　 To Hideo Ochiai,
The third room, the 6th training group, the 49th graduate
Osaka Army Cadet School 　　　　　
　　　　
I think you went back to your school safely the other day. As I wasn't able to see you go up the stairs of the Kyoto station. I went around the storeroom of cargos and looked over the railway track, but finally I missed you.
I'm sure you went back to your school safely.

This time your father and myself were really glad to see that you looked great. I was so proud of being a soldier's mother.
You can study freely with thanks to the Emperor's authority (Miitsu) though the same other students as your age can't study and have to work even if students.

I do hope you shouldn't forget obligation for Japan and you study very hard because your duty is a student. And make your schools ( Shugakuin Elementary School and Kyoto first junior high school) famous.
Mr. Aono that we saw on your way home looked so glad, didn't he?

Tomorrow is a boy's festival and there is a festival in the Saginomori Shrine. I displayed a military sword in the alcove of our house and prayed your fortune of the war and Japan's sure victory. I hear air-raid warnings very often, but pay attention to everything and take care of yourself.

I wanted to show you onions that you planted in the fields when you came back home, because they grew up very much, but I couldn't show you around there because you didn't have enough time, could I?

Your father and myself are really worried to hear that you suffer from math. If you have anything difficult to understand about math, ask your senior students as I usually tell you, "Better ask than go astray". Do not worry that you can't understand it from the beginning so well as students of the second year.

I am praying to the Rokkatsu Shrine and asking your elder brother's soul about you from my heart. Don't get tired of studying math even if you never understand math. Persist to do your best like your elder brother.

Your father will manage to visit your school because he fortunately has something to do in Osaka this coming 13th ( Sunday). Therefore stay in your school even though you can go out freely. Check what you want to ask him because your father wants to teach you math you can't understand, in a quiet place. I won't able to visit you for some time.

Imagining your healthy figure, I will produce a lot of crops very hard.

Well, take care.

from your mother (Kayoko Ochiai)

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This is a 13-year-old young soldier who aspired to enter the Army Cadet School and took an exam of it, and finally succeeded in joining the Osaka Army Cadet School.
When I came back home, I had my picture taken at a famous photo studio in Mototanaka, Sakyo-ku, Kyoto-city, in order to leave it to my family for a memorial.

Letters exchanged with my mother No.2

(Texts of post cards and letters are original, but of course all of them are written in the vertical direction, which is of a usual Japanese style those days.)
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Post cards to the Ochiai family
(On that day I wrote 2 pieces of post cards succeedingly. In this connection a post card cost 5 sen those days. )

June 2, 1945
Dear my father and mother,

I hope you are all well.
Please don't worry about me because I've been fine and had an enjoyable life for 2 months since joining the Army Cadet School. I believe that defense against air raids not only in Kyoto but also in your family becomes complete though recently enemy planes attack Japan very often. All of our students are working for defense against air raids even at the school and we're sending our winter night trousers to the safer country side.

Crops which we are cultivating in the fields of the school are really growing up. We can expect big harvest this autumn. I've heard you are going to harvest barley soon. How much barley can you get in your fields?

I'm so sorry I refused to see you on 27th(on the last holiday). Instead of that I climbed up Mt. Nijyousan with my comrades and refreshed myself very much. From the top of the mountain I couldn't view Kyoto, but was able to see the Osaka Bay a little faraway.

We're now talking with our friends about coming back home, but I hear about our school principals plan that only the students of the first year might come back home. But please don't look forward to seeing me because it depends on a war situation. We don't know whether the progress of a war is good or not.

Yesterday 200 or 300 enemy planes (B 29) stroke our area. Is Kyoto all right? We clearly saw 6 ones to be shot down, with our own eyes.

Today we took a physical exam, and got vaccinated against smallpox and had a very big injection against typhus. I gained 1.2kg weight, my breast became 2.9cm bigger and I became taller than a previous physical exam constantly. A rainy season has finally come. My father and mother, please take care.

Sincerely,
Hideo

From Hideo Ochiai
The third room, the 6th training group, the 49th graduate
Osaka Army Cadet School
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A letter from my mother
(a lot of sentences including a postscript are fully written in 2 pieces of rough and cheaper paper. The envelope is made by hand. A stamp cost 10 sen at that time.)

June 12, 1945
Dear Hideo Ochiai,
The third room, the 6th training group, the 49th graduate,
Osaka Army Cadet School, Nagano-cho, Minami Kawachi-gun, Osaka-fu

I feel summer has suddenly come.
Your father visited you on 10th. I'm so glad to hear from him that you are getting better and better than before. I'd like to visit you once, too, but I couldn't see you on that day because I wasn't able to have my transportation ticket available unluckily.

I'm really pleased that you can understand math much better than before. Anyway, ask your senior students as I usually tell you because the spirit of study about everything is important for you. I hope you have a good result !

It seems that your school is really eager to produce crops. I also produce crops very hard because everybody is self sufficient. I will have harvest barley in a few days. By the way, I wonder how much barley I can get. I'll make parched barley flour.

In the near future I'm going to plant potatoes outside. Though I remember you got soil of the fields turned over very deeply last year, I (your mother) will do this year.

I looked at the photo sent from you very fondly, but I recognized only Mr. Kageyama among your other friends who stayed in an inn with you at that time. All of them in it looked proud and they will become brave special attack corps in future. I think they are really reliable.
Take care of yourself after injection and don't overwork.

By the way, recently enemy planes attack Japan very often. Pay attention to them. Don't worry about me (your mother) because I won't be killed by them easily. The Japanese mainland has now actually become a battle field.
Lets show our Japanese pride to the enemy!

Your aunt's children (The Shinohara family) are going to come to our home for some time.
I've heard from your aunt( Mrs. Hirano) that she is recently missing her hometown because she moved into the very lonely mountains.
Tell Kousuke Shimizu in your letter that he must take an exam of the Army Cadet School this year because he is now in the first year of a junior high school.
Ken, our neighbour, recently is working at the Shugakuin School.

Well, I'll write to you in my next letter.
Take care and discipline yourself!

from your mother,
Kayoko

P.S. It has been drizzling since yesterday. I feel it is the middle of a rainy season.
If it were fine today, we would have helped a farmer for his harvest barley.

Letters exchanged with my mother No. 3
Post cards to the Ochiai family

I was guided by my boss that if I had nothing particular in my daily lives in my Army Cadet School days, I should write to my parents only "I'm fine." I actually did something like that.
I introduce you 3 post cards from the end of July to the end of the war as follows, never changing their contents.
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July 30,1945

I'm well.
All of my comrades safely came back to the school.
I hope you are all well.
Sincerely,
Hideo

(We had to write a diary before bedtime every day at the Army Cadet School, by grinding Chinese ink and using it. I had a bad writing in my diary in the beginning. However, I came to lose a feeling of resistance against writing in a diary by using a brush and Chinese ink.)

















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August 4, 1945

Dear my father and mother,

(Please tell me about contents and matters of communication
between the family.)

I feel like summer has come recently. I guess you are all well.
I'm also fine and have an enjoyable life, but to tell the truth, I'm so sorry that I haven't recovered from diarrhea yet and the other day I got injured in my left knee by a nail carelessly. So I've stayed in my room, stopping training and taking a rest for 2 days. But my knee has already been cured completely. And my stomach is also getting better and better.

It's time for us to harvest pumpkins in the fields of the school. According to usual harvest, we'll be able to take about 7 ton this year. We were very surprised to see that the students of the third year took a very big pumpkin (about 10 kg, 3kan) the other day. I guess you harvest as big pumpkins as in the school.

Though I took a physical examination today, unfortunately I lost 1.4 kg weight and was really disappointed to know that my weight was less than when I joined the school. -----I will improve my body, train it a lot and have a very good record this fall! Well, I hope you are all well.

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August 14,1945

Dear my father and mother,

I didn't write a letter to you for some time. Recently I have heard autumn insects chirping. I've been fine since I recovered from diarrhea.

In fact, we were forced to stop our favorite swimming and training in the mountain because of daily air raids.
On 13th, with our heavy baggages on the back, we moved into a safer place in a very clean mountain and river. We felt very pleasant that we sat down there and had rice we cooked by ourselves. The cooking was also very tasty. We are going to live in this place similar to Shugakuin for some time.

The Soviet Union also began to battle with Japan and we're in a severe condition. But our spirits are as energetic as we stick the sky. Well, I hope you are all well.

(In the evening of August 14th I wrote to my family in the Kinsen elementary school where we moved, but the next day (on August 15th) in the early morning we were forced to come back to our school at Chiyodadai in Nagano-cho and at noon we listened to the Emperor's message that the war was over, on the radio. As I was discharged from the military service, I could not post but brought it to home. )

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A letter from my mother

To Hideo Ochiai
The 6th training group, the 49th graduate Osaka
Army Cadet School 　　　 　　　　　
Chiyodadai, Nagano-cho, Minami Kawachi-gun, Osaka-fu

August 9, 1945
Dear Hideo,

Hideo, thank you for your post card as usual.
I've heard that you're fine, but you haven't recovered from diarrhea yet and I'm worried about you a little.
You are not healthy in summer every year, so it takes a long time to recover. You should be very careful of food and have less than usual, even though you're hungry, until you recover from it completely. You should bite rice in a dormitory more than twice than usual and stop eating a kind of fruit for some time.

And you should get medicine from the medical department of the school without hesitation until you get well. It's better that you will get well quickly even if you are forced to stop training and take a rest. Please take care of yourself because your stomach is very sensitive from summer to fall stomach. Don't think your body is yours only, but think it's the Emperor's and take care well.

I've heard you were injured of a nail. Never be careless. Soldiers shouldn't be careless even for a moment. I (your mother ) pray to God in order to ask for your daily health and I strongly wish you should become a brilliant officer. I've heard you have a marine training, but I wonder whether bathing is good or not for diarrhea. See a doctor and don't decide it only by yourself.

Anyway, recently the enemy is making air raids very often. So don't be injured carelessly.

I gave back your report card to your school soon after I received it. The condition of your previous health is Kou (excellent) and your personality is also very good because you are serious and cheerful. Your subjects aren't so good in this term because you joined the school from the first year. It's a shame that you couldn't get so good records as in your elementary and junior high school days.

But your record is not so bad, so-so. I hope you study harder. I believe you get better records in the next term. Math was the worst as I imagined, so ask someone about what you can't understand completely and don't leave that alone. You can't defeat the students who joined the school from the second year, but I'm sure that if you study very hard, you will catch up with them. Show your competitive spirit and do your best.

It's time for harvesting pumpkins in our fields.
The other day I got 1 kan(about 4 kg) one there for the first time. This year I'll get about 30 ones. We raised a very good tomb for your elder brother. This year we have the first memorial Bon (a Buddhist rite) for him, so we offered pumpkins and corns in our fields produced by us on the cemetery.

Etsuko's (your younger sister ) school also has air raids many times, so the school is closed for some time and some students get together at my home like a 'temple school', study together and their teachers sometimes visit them.
Children from Osaka moved into the second floor of the Hasegawa family and rent the rooms, so we have a quiet atmosphere at home again.

Don't worry about your father because he's fine and produces arms hard.
I'm sorry that you lost weight, but you shouldn't be disappointed with that and should recover from diarrhea as soon as possible because if you completely recover from it, you'll be able to regain weight. Keep your body warm and be careful not to catch a cold while sleeping in bed.

Well, I'm looking forward to hearing from you you're all right next time.

from your mother

(All of No. 1, 2 and 3 letters from my mother are mostly written by old and unusual characters (style) different from common ones. So I translated the old style into the current one in order to be able to read them easily, but I never changed the contents in her original letters.
Sixty years later when I read all of her letters over and over again, I recall those days and am so much touched by them that I can't describe my feelings with words.)

Hello, Honobono

I recognized junior high school students around 1945
how mature and thoughtful they were.
Quote:I was born in 1943 and I thought I knew things mostly, but I was so
surprised to see that junior high school students around 1945 used the
word of 'Shichisho-houkoku' easily.

In Genkou no Hen ( the battle against a military governable regime)
Masashige Kusunoki who was in favor of the emperor really defeated
a large number of soldiers in a military government
and he fought with Takauji Ashikaga's (the head of a military government )
troops which ran away once, but came up to the east again in Settsu no Kuni
Minatogawa(current Hyogo-Ku in Kobe).
But unfortunately he was defeated by Takauji Ashikaga's troops.

Finally he swore that he would be reborn 7 times and fight for Japan, and he committed suicide.
After that, Masashige's loyalty to the emperor summoned up the Japanese
courage for a long time and he influenced the Japanese in order to overcome
difficulties in every era. --This is a historical world for me.

But around the Pacific War was the word of 'Shichisho-houkoku' very popular
among the Japanese as if junior high school students wrote it ?
Was the pronunciation of the word 'Nanaseihoukoku', wasn't it ?
To tell the truth, it's the shame that I knew about the word of 'Miitsu'
in 'letters exchanged with mother' for the first time after I checked it
in a dictionary.

I found it 'the emperor's authority' there.
From ancient times the Japanese called strange, strong and mysterious
power related to the royal family the word of 'Miitsu 'in Japan.

Has the Japanese mind changed a lot since 1945 ( after the end of the war) ?

When I read 'letters exchanged with mother' , I felt that a 13-year-old
junior high school student before 1945 was like more mature than
current students.

from Anmitsuhime

Dear Anmitsuhime,

Thank you for reading 'letters exchanged with mother'.
I've heard from you that you studied Masashige Kusunoki's
historical fact and I respect your good search.
The word of 'Nanasei Houkoku' in Japanese is pronounced like 'Shichisho Houkoku'.
In our elementary school days this word was very popular in Japan and we used to use it in the title of calligraphy.

I usually think the pupils in elementary school days should really study Japanese history though on TV 'Shinsengumi' are very popular among them and it's also good for them.

Masashige's son, Masatsura obeyed his father's instruction, but he died on the battlefield (Shijyonawate).
In 59 years after the end of the war we will make a plan for visiting the Shijyonawate Shrine for '11Mairi'.-when boys are 11 years old, they visit the shrine.

When Masatsura Kusunoki was 11 years old and he said good-by to his father, Masatsura was persuaded by his father to do like this 'Obey your father's instruction and protect　the emperor even after his death. That is loyalty　to your father.' And afterward Masatsura swore to do as his father told him.

The event of '11Mairi' is based on such a historical fact.
It means that 'Boys, have an object for the future when they are 11 years old .' That Chinese famous philosopher, Koushi said that 'Determine to do something for the future when they are 30 years old.', but Masatsura resolved to do something for the future at 11. ( This is a jump of logic, isn't it?)

Anyway, thank you for your response very much.

from Honobono

Dear Honobono,

Quote:I'm ashamed that I didn't know that it is pronounced like that.

Your thoughts you want to protect Japan, even though you will be reborn 7 times !
Japan was protected by those who had such thoughts and died, wasn't it?

Before the Second World War Japanese young people were forced to accept such an education and as a result it spread out all through Japan and they were influenced by it, didn't it? How did children study around that time, didn't they?

The word of 'Shichisho-houkoku' reminded me of Yukio Mishima. He got into an army post in Ichigaya in Tokyo with young people who belonged to 'Tatenokai' by force and he agitated from a balcony. He was wearing a headband and the word of 'Shichisho-houkoku' was written in it, wasn't it?I was so shocked that he committed 'Harakiri', suicide in 1970.

However the royal family in Japan has continued to exist (one royal line )from the first emperor, Jimmu to the current emperor in Heisei era for a long time (the 125th in the succession) consecutively. There isn't such a royal family with a long history, even though you look for all of the country, is it?

Quote:I had experiences in '13 Mairi'. - I visited a shrine with my daughters when they were 13 years old. But I knew for the first time that boys visited there when they were 11 years old. A kind of Japanese culture is about to disappear little by little, isn't it?

Is '11 Mairi' still held in the Shijyonawate Shrine?

from Anmitsuhime

The 11th study group the 6th training group the 49th graduate
Osaka Army Cadet School 　　　　　
　　　　
Dear Anmitsuhime,

The 49th graduate consisted of 6 classes (education group) and
each class was divided into 2 groups.
The 11th group consisted of 31 members and they studied French
as a foreign language.
Students in the 12th one studied Russian.
All the time they had the same schedule together except learning
foreign languages .
60 students in an educational department lived together in 5 bedrooms.
Model students from the 47th graduate lived with younger students
than them in every bedroom and they disciplined younger students for future
officers day and night.
We still have a reunion every year though we lived together only
for 5 months.












'collection of words of best wishes on the page of a notebook
from my old classmates'

On Jan. 20 in 1945 I got a telegram from an inspector general of
education as follows :
'You'll be able to get into Osaka Army Cadet School, so reply
whether you want to do it or not at once .'
　　　　　
2 boys from Kyoto first junior high school passed it.
My classmates in the first year when I went to school at that time
congratulated me on collection of words of best wishes on the page
of a notebook
This is a precious and memorable data for me.
You can look at the name of Mr. Edamura who was a Russian

ambassador before toward the lower left in it.






Honobono