ABSTRACT
I should be working instead of going to school, constantly lacking food and clothing—that was all I thought about while I was in school. In March 1939 I graduated from Nibutani Primary in its fortieth graduating class. My classmates from better-off families went on to secondary school in Biratori, but I had no desire to continue my education. Or, rather, I had probably suppressed all hope in the face of impossible odds.
