Cook & Cook- “Life Goes on.”
The narrator of the first story, Arakawa Hiroyo is a “classic Edokko” (Tokyo, born
and raised) and worked in her family’s bake shop. Their most popular product was kasatura, a spongecake like food. In this exert, she talks of her life as the second world war progressed, how food became more scarce and life’s hardships became overbearing. They had to give up their cooking machinery to the
military because it was made of iron. Her house burned down, and her family’s first response was to dig out some rice and cooking utensils that hadn’t been destroyed. She considered herself lucky because no one was killed.
The narrator of the second story, Funato Kazuyo, was living with her family in Tokyo on the night of March 29, 1945, when Tokyo was attacked by heavy bombers. She talks of her schooling and how it was centered on the military; compositions written to soldiers thanking them for service, etc. Initially they thought that the air raid was simply a reconnaissance mission, but soon incendiaries were coming down in full force. They ran to a park, but weren’t let in, so they had to backtrack through the firestorm. Everyone survived except for the child the mother had carried on her back. And the mother was severely burned as well
The narrators of the final story are Tomizawa Kimi and Kobayashi Hiroyasu. Tomozawa describes how she became a
telephone operator, and how it was a great job for a girl. And Kobayashi worked on the machinery outside the telephone company. The telephone company was essential for the train system and everything else. When the air raids occurred, they were not allowed to evacuate. “Defend your position to the death.” Only when they found their supervisor burned to death did they try to escape. But by then it was too late for most of them. 31/35 died.