(Spanish) Here comes the part of the story that, because of my old age, that I can criticize. Japanese education was totally controlled from Nihon, how to teach and what to teach. The Minister of Nihon ordered this. But what…a child was molded into a little soldier.
Why am I saying this to you? I was six-years old when I entered school. And thus it all began. How did the class begin? Listening to radio taiso, [and] doing exercise. Suddenly, the exercise ended, the director of the school appeared and climbed on a platform and began to speak to us: “Young ones, last night….No. Yesterday something happened….” It was a kind of news briefing regarding the war. “The army has entered such and such place, and we have taken such and such place, and this is due to the spirit of the Japanese army.” “Nihon, banzai! (Viva Japan!” we began to shout like crazy. Banzai! But little by little the days passed by…the months [passed by], and we began to receive information about how the war was going in Asia.
Why did they tell such things to a child of six, seven, and eight years of age? This is what I say right now, but it was a situation that Nihon had at the time, one has to understand that. That was our education, our formation. What is true is that we were very disciplined, very correct, very orderly, and when an adult was speaking, the only thing we could say was hai (yes). Period. There were no discussions.
Date: September 6, 2007
Location: Lima, Peru
Interviewer: Harumi Nako
Contributed by: Asociación Peruano Japonesa (APJ)
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