The relatives dad never spoke of: Japan kin lost in WWII air raid learned about in records

KOBE — “Died in an air raid”: Looking at these small words written in the family register copy is how a woman in this western Japan city learned of four relatives who were lost in a wartime air raid 79 years earlier.

Her father barely ever spoke about his memories of the war. Now, his descendants are still taking in the weight of their newly learned facts.

The Kobe air raids are depicted in the film “Grave of the Fireflies,” which was based on an autobiographical novel by Akiyuki Nosaka. In the ending phase of World War II, some 8,000 people are estimated to have died in the firebombings of Kobe, which included over 120 attacks within the last year of the war, 1945.

The full scope of destruction is not known due to the wartime chaos and other factors, but the names of the victims are being compiled by the “Association to remember the Kobe air raids” civilian group launched in 1971. In 2013, a memorial cenotaph with the inscriptions of 1,752 names was set up at Okurayama Park in Kobe’s Chuo Ward. Since then, newly discovered victims have been added, including 36 at an inscription ceremony in June this year, bringing the total number to 2,267.

When Aya Takesada, a resident of the city of Nishinomiya, Hyogo Prefecture, saw news about the ceremony on TV, the 56-year-old recalled what her mother Hiroko, now 85, had told her before. Her father Katsuaki Emoto, who died this February at the age of 85, had lost his family in a firebombing. She checked a copy of the family register received as part of postmortem procedures, finding that Katsuaki’s 39-year-old mother, 13-year-old elder brother, 4-year-old younger brother and 2-year-old sister were all listed by handwriting as “Died in an air raid” at 9:30 a.m. on May 11, 1945.

A Kawanishi Aircraft Company munitions factory in what is now part of Kobe’s Higashinada Ward was the target of that attack, and the surrounding areas were also destroyed. Roughly 1,400 people are thought to have died as a result.

‘Feeling the cruelty of war’

Katsuaki had revealed to Hiroko, “My mom and siblings were killed when a bomb fell on their air raid shelter. I was evacuated with my immediate older brother and survived.” After his dad’s remarriage, he did not get along with his stepmother. His father died when he was in high school. He was accepted to a university but turned it down, taking up work at a department store.

Hiroko had said that even if she asked Katsuaki about the events of the time, he snapped, “If I told you, you wouldn’t get it,” and fell silent.

When Takesada saw the names written in the family register, she was shocked, thinking to herself, “I can’t believe four of my own relatives were killed in the air raid.” While she never heard about it from her dad, she is considerate of his feelings, believing, “It was so harsh an experience that I guess he didn’t know how to tell me.”

With Katsuaki’s death, the direct relatives of the family members who died in the air raid have all perished. Believing it’d make her father happy, Takesada submitted the names of all four of his lost family members to the memorial association. They are set to be added in the next inscription ceremony two years from now. “Since my late grandmother, uncles and aunt were much younger than I am, I’m feeling the cruelty of war,” Takesada said.

Now approaching 80 years since the war’s end, most of those who submit names to the memorial association are in the generations of the victims’ siblings or offspring. However, a growing number are, like Takesada, finding out about their historical link to the air raids through copies of the family register.

That’s how Takashi Nishishita, a 61-year-old junior high school teacher who lives in the city of Kawachinagano, Osaka Prefecture, was able to have the names of his grandmother and uncle added to the plaque in the 2022 ceremony. His father, who passed away in 2017, had never once spoken about the air raids. According to the family register he received after his father’s passing, his dad’s 34-year-old mother and 11-year-old brother were killed in an air raid in Kobe’s Nada Ward at 8 a.m. on June 5, 1945. His father, then 4, escaped with the two to an air raid shelter, but following incendiary bombings, he was the lone survivor.

After Nishishita’s father died, he began to hear from his 83-year-old mother about the stories she had heard in bits and pieces from other relatives.

Testimony of air raid victims’ lives

The June 5 air raid that claimed the lives of Nishishita’s family members was on a massive scale and destroyed much of the eastern half of Kobe. The terrible state of affairs was also shown through scenes of the brother and sister who lost their mother and home in the attacks in “Grave of the Fireflies.” Nishishita remembers a time when the animated film was broadcast on TV, his father suddenly shouted, became agitated and locked himself in his room.

Nishishita did not know what happened at the time, but believes his father may have had a flashback of his experiences in the air raid. His father’s new wife in a remarriage after the war raised him. He speculates that his father’s silence was out of consideration and feelings of obligation to his stepmom. “I guess there are other bereaved relatives who have died with their experiences hidden away for all sorts of reasons,” he said.

This May, the “Association to remember the Kobe air raids” also received a name from a 58-year-old resident of the city who said that he confirmed through the family register that his aunt was killed at the age of 18 in the June 5 air raid.

According to the association, the family register information attached to the names submitted so far has included notes such as “died in an air raid” or “wartime death,” but in some cases only the time and location of death have been noted. Tomoko Kojo, the 72-year-old secretary-general of the association, said, “As the bereaved families are aging, the family registers are proving to be a useful source of clues. Even from the date, time and location, in some cases, it can be determined that deaths were due to air raids, so we hope that lots of people will take an interest in preserving the living testimony of those who died.”

(Japanese original by Shinya Yamamoto, Kobe Bureau)