Woman who urged brother to evacuate on Japan vessel sunk in WWII still feels regret

NAHA — On the night of Aug. 22, 1944, during World War II, the Tsushima Maru, a school evacuation ship traveling from Okinawa to Kyushu, was sunk by an American submarine. Of the approximately 1,800 people aboard, including children, teachers, and civilians, at least 1,484 were confirmed to have perished. To this day, 80 years after the sinking, a 92-year-old resident of the prefectural city of Naha regrets persuading her younger brother to board the fated vessel.

Masako Matayoshi said about her brother Shinei Kuniyoshi, aged 10 at the time, “When I die, if I meet Shinei, the first thing I want to say is, ‘I’m sorry.'”

In July 1944, the Japanese government decided to evacuate residents from Japan’s southwestern Nansei Islands. This was because the island of Saipan in the western Pacific, which the Japanese government had regarded as an absolute national defense zone, had fallen into the hands of the U.S. military, and an attack on Okinawa had become a realistic possibility. The plan was to evacuate a total of 100,000 people, including children and the elderly, from Okinawa to Kyushu and Taiwan by ship, and full-scale evacuation of children began in mid-August 1944.

Shinei was initially scheduled to leave on a ship departing on Aug. 19. But when he heard about the evacuation, he was so reluctant to go that he ran away from home.

“Shinei was spoiled,” Masako recalled. As the eldest son who would eventually take over the household, he was given special treatment. While Masako and her mother ate around the table with their home helper, Shinei and his father ate in a separate room with specially prepared meals, and with various meal choices. He was given more snacks too, and even when the siblings got into an argument, Masako was the one to be scolded. “He was raised with extra care,” she said.

Shinei was reluctant to evacuate, telling Masako, “I don’t want to leave father and mother,” but Masako told him, “If the war hits Okinawa, we might all die. If you go to Kyushu, the Kuniyoshi name will continue, and father and mother will be relieved.” Shinei finally nodded in agreement, she says.

Masako could understand the loneliness of evacuating alone. She suggested delaying the departure date a few days so that he could spend as much time as possible with the family. Shinei was happy with the idea, and the departure date was pushed back to Aug. 21, 1944.

On the morning of his departure, Naha Port was crowded with children, school officials, and families seeing them off. Masako went with her parents to the port but lost sight of Shinei after they handed him over to the school staff. She was unable to properly say goodbye, and evening came without her even knowing which ship he boarded. She and her parents waved from high ground as the convoy of three evacuation vessels including the Tsushima Maru set out.

About a week later, when Masako was coming home from school, she saw her mother come out of a neighbor’s house. “I’m home!” she called out. But her mother walked on silently without looking back at her. At home, her mother collapsed onto a tatami mat and said in a stifled voice, “Shinei is … Shinei is …” and began sobbing. Masako frantically asked her what happened and her mother finally managed to get out that the Tsushima Maru, carrying Shinei, had been sunk. The two of them then broke down in tears.

After that, Masako’s parents rarely spoke of Shinei. The only memory Masako has is in April 1945, when the U.S. military landed in Okinawa and the family evacuated from Naha to the mountains in the north. Food supplies ran out and her father, who had injured his leg and had difficulty moving about pointed to the sky and suggested they all join Shinei by taking their own lives. But Masako, who described herself as a “military girl,” pleaded with her father, saying that “a divine wind (kamikaze)” would blow and friendly forces would come to their aid. They withheld from taking their lives, but that was the last time she heard her parents say his name.

While suffering from hunger, the whole family including Masako’s younger sister and brother, who were infants, managed to survive the war.

“If only I hadn’t convinced Shinei to evacuate. If only we hadn’t changed the day …” Feelings of remorse welled up in Masako’s mind. After the war, she became a mother and a grandmother herself. When her grandson was 10, she was once again hit with pangs of regret, thinking “This is how young Shinei was.”

Today, the Japanese government has decided to boost deployment of Self-Defense Forces on the Nansei Islands with a contingency involving Taiwan in mind. The government is also moving forward with concrete plans to evacuate some 120,000 residents from the country’s southern Sakishima Island chain, including Miyako and Ishigaki islands, to Kyushu and Yamaguchi Prefecture in the event of such a scenario. Masako is worried about the situation overlapping with the one that occurred 80 years ago, but at the same time, she worries about the lack of interest among younger generations that haven’t experienced war.

“When my great-grandchildren become adults, they may be sent off to the battlefield. We must never engage in war,” she says.

(Japanese original by Shinnosuke Kyan, Kyushu Photo Department)