Last Shipment

 

Last Shipment

All war devastates people’s lives and leaves only anger and sadness. No matter how long it passes from war, people’s emotional scars will not be healed and will last forever. Around seventy years ago, Japan joined World War II, and my grandfather was forced to join it by the Japanese government’s order. He moved to Pyongyang, North Korea with my grandmother. After Japan lost the war, many Japanese people rushed to go back to Japan with much fearfulness by ship, but some people were captured by Russian troops and never came back to Japan. Fortunately, my grandparents were able to come back to Japan. However, I sometimes imagine what if my grandparents failed to make it back. That always makes me scared. The return of my grandparents to their homeland, Japan, and their life after the war had a big impact on my family.
 

The war brought my grandmother a lot of sorrow and suffering, and the marriage to my grandfather changed her life. My grandfather decided to get married to my grandmother before going to Pyongyang. He did not know that they would go there prior to their marriage, but he got the order from the Japanese government, so he had to work there. Since he was allowed to take a grandmother there because of his high position, they moved to North Korea together. She actually did not want to live in Pyongyang, but at that time, women had to follow their husband’s decision. In the beginning, it was hard for her to live in a strange land as she stayed alone during the daytime. She eventually became pregnant, but she had a miscarriage of her first child because Pyongyang had a very severe winter. Fortunately, there were some Japanese women who had the same situation, so they helped and encouraged each other. She did her best to overcome her difficulties and support her husband.

 

Life in Pyongyang had totally changed after Japan lost the war. Many Japanese people ran away to Japan since the Russian troops were approaching Pyongyang. My grandfather decided to send my grandmother back to Japan first by ship as he had to remain in Pyongyang to take care of his people. At that time, no one knew when they could take a ship to Japan, or the ship was coming to help them come back to Japan. My grandmother headed to a port in Pyongyang by herself with much hopelessness and loneliness as she was not sure if she would see my grandfather again in Japan. When she arrived at the port, it was very crowded with plenty of people who were eager to flee. She tried to board the ship, but too many people were shoving, and she could not find her place. She felt lost because she thought if the ship was the last one, there was no way to go back to Japan. Fortunately, one kind man vacated his seat so that she did not miss the ship. After the long lonely trip, she finally came back to Japan. Even better, my grandfather also was able to return to Japan and see my grandmother again.

 

My grandparent’s hard work after the war had a significant impact on their family. Several years after they returned Japan, my father was born. My grandparents worked very hard as farmers every day without any holiday to make a living and send their three children to school. During the war, many Japanese people lost their property including houses and money, so they had to recover from their loses. When my father was a high school student, my grandfather started working as an insurance sales person at night to be able to afford my father’s university fees. He worked as farmers from morning to evening, and worked as insurance sales person at night. Even though he had a bike accident and got injured, he did not stop working. Thanks to his great efforts, my father was able to enter a well-known university and completed his study there. Furthermore, he got a good and a stable job at city hall after his graduation. Therefore, I grew up in comfort and my two siblings and I attended and graduated from a private university.

 

 

I do appreciate their safe return to Japan and the hard work that they did after returning. My grandfather had some scars, which he got in the war, and that made me imagine his hard time. My grandparents died three years ago. However, I still remember my grandmother’s sad face when she was telling her story to me about the ship and the time in Pyongyang. She said she had been thankful to the person who helped her. If they had not taken a ship to Japan, their lives would have been changed. My father would not have been born or would have lived in poverty under the current North Korean dictatorship. In addition, without my grandparents’ hard work, my father, my siblings and I would not have been able to get a good education at a well-known university. Thus, my family’s lives would have been totally changed, and we would not have lived in comfort.