My sister and I were in the bed next to our mother that night. There was an air raid by the aircraft carrier loading machine, and a precautionary warning awoke us from our sleep around 5:30 in the early morning. Because it was not an air-raid alarm but a precautionary warning, mother said to us to stay in bed and she would go and check downstairs. My sister and I sensed of the danger about the situation and asked her to let us go together.
The telephone rang noisily right after we reached down stairs. I realized immediately something unusual and serious had happened since my mother rushed out with a desperate look from the telephone room after a little conversation. It was an urgent message from Prime Minister Kantaro Suzuki and soon we knew that we had better evacuate because the rioters had just attacked and set fire on the Prime Minister's private residence and they were on their way to my house. The moment my mother took our hands and tried to escape from the rioters, we heard the large vehicles stop in front of the gate of my house and a loud voice broke the silence over the town in the early morning. It was an urgent attack but my mother took our hands and kept running through the corridor. She directed the old maid Naka Uemura who was a firm and trustworthy woman to take care of evacuating us and she ran back to Kiichiro who was in danger of losing his life. We hastened to escape from the backdoor but we were trapped half way down the corridor by one of the rioters with a sword. The young man in a white shirt threatened us with his sword and he shouted, "Answer where Hiranuma is." I was not in awe of him because I was too young to understand the whole story of the happening and I only remember wondering why he was shouting with fierceness. The firm old maid shielded my sister and me from the young rioter and she shouted back to him, "I don't know where the Master's room is. Let us go. I don't know! I don't know!" But the man holding the sword high toward us yelled she must know it because she lives in the same house. Although he flourished his sword over his head, the maid persisted in saying that she knew absolutely nothing about the matter, therefore, he went out saying that it would be a waste of time and he gave up threatening the little children and the stubborn old woman at last. |
