My mother who ascertained Kiichiro's safety soon came and carried me on her back. As soon as they gave up investigating where Kiichiro had gone, they sprayed gasoline in each room and set it on fire. The whole house was enveloped in flames in a matter of moments. At that time, some bags and bundles containing the records of our family trees had been arranged on the long corridor in advance to carry out in case of a sudden air raid. "I must be sure to save this!" She was desperate to save the record of our family trees. Carrying me on her back, my mother stretched out one hand to reach for the record. However, a dry wooden house is quick to catch on fire, moreover, the fire broke out in the whole house. The roaring of that fire, and the violent wind were terrible and I was scared. I cried out as loud as I could on her back. According to mother's memory, when she heard my screaming, she realized "It is truly important to save the record book but I can't lose our lives for this, or else I don't know what excuse I would have for our ancestors. " and she gave up trying to save bundle of records which was only a few meters away. I tried to look back at the house burning on our way to our relative's house for evacuation. All the pillars of the whole house were in a blaze against a clear summer sky and the burning house seemed to be framed with a yellow flame. Since I was still a small child, I thought from the bottom of my heart that scene was very beautiful. If there is no error in my memory, my mother had never tried to look back at it. Though I can't guess mother's mind completely, now I imagine that her head must have been filled with anxiety about the future of Japan or about the many difficulties that might happen to our family.
My mother Setsuko Hiranuma was a really valiant woman and she always took good care of others. She excels in intuition and she is a person of keen insight especially into people's emotion or interactive relationship. That is why Kiichiro also trusted her very much. I heard that she was the last one to evacuate from the fire on that day after confirming the safety of Kiichiro and Grandparents Iida. The fire had been greatly burning and spread in all directions. She reached the back door but there was no footwear there unfortunately. It was just like her to return in the fire to the storeroom and she got a pair of brand-new Japanese clogs, and she came outside boldly through the backdoor staring at the soldier who had set the house on fire. Mother looks back on those days and says, "I know what I had done was really silly but it was so regrettable that it could not be done otherwise." |
