Sunday, September 16, 2018

Grandma's Stories - The Kind Japanese Officer

Another Japanese occupation story that I had neglected to document. Here's a short story about the kind Japanese officer who took a liking to my grandmother when she was a little girl.

Maybe my grandmother reminded him of his little girl back in Japan; or maybe he just likes the company of children (but not in a sexual way)... regardless, my grandmother's family was lucky to have caught the attention of this kind Japanese officer.

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The large house my grandmother lived with her 7 sisters, a young brother and her mother had a garden in it, and during the Japanese occupation, food was scarce. They had grown tapioca in addition to a few fruit trees that were already there. 

One day, my grandmother was digging for tapioca when the Japanese officer came around. They often walk to other people's homes and properties uninvited and this was not at all surprising. 

However, my grandmother didn't realize that he was there... that is until he squatted down and helped my grandmother to dig up the tapiocas. He then took her around to their neighbour's gardens and helped her harvest some of the ripe fruits that were there. Being the young girl that she was, my grandmother didn't think too much about befriending a Japanese officer, though her mother had other ideas.

But try as she might, she could not stop the Japanese officer from coming around now and then and taking my grandmother out for "fruit-hunting" trips around town. In some way, the officer helped my grandmother's family by providing them with more nutritional food rather than just tapioca, but those extra food were actually stolen from their neighbours. Not sure how or what her neighbours thought about this but they couldn't really speak out in fear of being executed.

Then, for an entire stretch of days, the officer simply didn't come around anymore. My grandmother had no clue what became of him - he was likely restationed - but her family no longer had extra food (in some way) from the officer.