For the disabled, WWII was a terror of another level

Japan Times

12 hours ago

In the closing months of World War II, people with disabilities in Japan, like their able-bodied neighbors, desperately sought shelter from relentless air raids.
"I couldn't move my hands or legs because of the sounds of machine gun fire," recalled Isao Shirahata, an 89-year-old resident of the city of Kyoto, who is visually impaired. "Such a terrifying thing must never happen again."
Shirahata was born with low vision due to glaucoma. As a child, he lost sight in his left eye after accidentally striking it on a bicycle brake lever, leaving him with only limited vision in his right eye.
In April 1944, at 8 years old, Shirahata enrolled in the Kyoto prefectural school for the blind in the city, leaving his family home in Miyazu, Kyoto Prefecture, to live in the school's dormitory.
To help students protect themselves, music teachers played recordings of U.S. military aircraft sounds, training them to recognize the approach of enemy planes. "The B-17 had a heavy, rumbling sound. The Curtiss had a light, whirring sound," Shirahata remembered.
He heard the distinctive roar of the B-29, the successor to the B-17, while hiding in his school's air raid shelter. As the air raids intensified, the school was forced to close in March 1945, prompting him to return to his family home.
One morning in late July, while catching cicadas with friends in the mountains behind his parents' house, an air raid warning sounded. Before he could escape, he heard the piercing screech of a U.S. military Grumman warplane and managed to catch a glimpse of it with his right eye.
Suddenly, the rattling burst of machine gun fire filled the air, and bullets whizzed overhead. Although the apparent target was an Imperial Japanese Navy destroyer anchored in nearby Miyazu Bay, Shirahata later recalled feeling as if the enemy aircraft was so close that he himself was being targeted. Paralyzed by fear, he found himself unable to run.
Other children were playing in the mountains behind his parents' house before the aircraft appeared. As Shirahata reached the entrance of the air raid shelter, a bomb dropped from a Grumman exploded nearby. He and his friends escaped unharmed, but a boy right behind them was killed when shrapnel from the blast pierced his neck.
Shirahata continued to live in fear of air raids, but on Aug. 15, he listened to a radio broadcast of Emperor Hirohito — posthumously called Emperor Showa — announcing Japan's surrender while at home with his family.
He noticed that the adults from the neighborhood who had gathered there were crying as they learned of the defeat. But he said he himself felt a sense of relief, thinking, "I don't have to be afraid of air raids anymore."
Isao Shirahata, 89, speaks of his wartime experience as a visually impaired boy during an interview in the city of Kyoto in June. |
JIJI
After the war, Shirahata's glaucoma in his right eye worsened, eventually leaving him completely blind. Despite this challenge, he graduated from the reopened school for the blind. Determined to continue his education, Shirahata went on to study at Tokyo University of Education, now known as the University of Tsukuba, where he earned a teaching license for schools for the blind.
He later returned to his alma mater to teach acupuncture and moxibustion. Following his retirement, Shirahata established an acupuncture clinic in Kyoto and went on to earn a doctorate in medicine from Toho University.
Shirahata expressed deep sorrow about hearing news reports on radio about ongoing conflicts in Ukraine and other parts of the world. "Ordinary people caught in the ravages of war, especially women and children, suffer terribly," he said. "No matter the reason, war is never acceptable," he emphasized.
During the war, even individuals with disabilities, many of whom struggled to escape from attacks, were expected to contribute to the war effort, according to Hiromi Kishi of the Japan Society on the History of Blind Education.
"Records of war play a major role when people think about peace, but very few focus on the experiences of people with disabilities," said Kishi, 76. "Although 80 years have passed since the war, we still need to collect records and testimonies from those who experienced it firsthand."
Kishi began researching the wartime experiences of people with disabilities about 40 years ago, while working at the Kyoto prefectural school for the blind.
While reading a collection of children's essays from 1937, the year the war between Japan and China began, Kishi came across a striking piece written by a boy about the age of a current elementary school first grader. In his essay, addressed to Japanese soldiers on the front lines, the young author urged them to "kill many of them." Kishi was deeply shocked by the evidence of the militaristic education that prevailed at the time.
In another document, Kishi found a transcript of a lecture delivered by a university professor at the school for the blind in July 1943, during the height of the conflict in the Pacific theater of World War II. According to the transcript, the professor told the children, "You are in a position completely opposite to that of servicemen. For the sake of the country, you should be careful not to trouble others with your personal matters."
Kishi's research into newspaper articles from the era also revealed that visually impaired individuals played key roles as air defense observation post members. In places such as present-day Wajima on the Noto Peninsula in Ishikawa Prefecture, they were responsible for alerting residents about incoming air raids.
About 20 years ago, Kishi had the opportunity to interview an elderly man with visual impairment who had served as an air defense observer during the war in what is now Nanao, in the same prefecture.
According to Kishi, the man recalled, "I was able to identify enemy planes even at night because I could hear the sound of aircraft with my ears. I was truly happy to feel that even an individual with disabilities could be useful."
However, while those who primarily relied on visual observation for the same duties received compensation, the man testified, "I never received any," according to Kishi.
Kishi noted, "During the war, people with disabilities were often discriminated against as 'useless,' and may have been left wondering if there was anything they could contribute."
"To build an inclusive society that transcends the presence or absence of disabilities, it is important to revisit and learn from the experiences of people with disabilities during the war," he added.