World War Profiles: WWII Japan

Hiroko Yoshida (Julia Plascencia)

(i) TIME & PLACE:

I come from Japan and I live in Kanagawa. Today is August 26th, 1940.

(ii) BIRTHDATE:

I was born on December 4th, 1920. I am 19 years old, these December I´m turning 20.

(iii) PROFESSION:

I was a student, but since the war started, I decided to leave my studies and enlist as a nurse to help the people who are fighting for our country.

(iv) FAVOURITE FOODS AND ACTIVITIES:

My favourite food is rice with soy sauce and meat. Sometimes we have enough food to eat sushi and vegetables. Before I decided to be a nurse, I liked going with my mom to the fields and help with some crops, that was one of my favourite activities. My favourite activity out of all is listening to the music played in gatherings and dancing the traditional dances. Now, since the situation became harder, I have been learning how to cure sick and hurt people.

(v) FAMILY:

I live with my mom, my dad, a little sister and a little brother. Soon, they will be 13 years old!

(vi) MY REGULAR DAILY LIFE (before the World War was declared):

My regular life consisted in

IDENTIFY whether life was generally more peaceful or conflictual in your country before the assigned World War began. DESCRIBE in 1-2 sentences what a normal day is like for your character around the time-period just before the World War is declared.

 

(vii) PERSONAL REASON FOR ENLISTING IN THE WORLD WAR CONFLICT ONCE IT STARTS:

I enlisted in the world war as a nurse because I want to help the people of my country and I want to do something that helps this situation to get better. I know that all of the things that my country is doing and what we´re responsible for is not something we can be proud of, but still, I would like to help my people survive.

(viii) NATIONAL REASON FOR ENLISTING IN THE WORLD WAR CONFLICT ONCE IT STARTS:

I think this war will have lots of consequences for my country, I think there will be a lot of damage, because maybe some powerful countries will attack us. I know my country supports the Nazi ideology and, because I don´t support it, I wish that after this war the ideology stops and we have the chance to become better and have a better political, social and economical status. I hope my country recovers from the war. ç

(ix) YOUR WORLD WAR ROLE:

I chose to become a nurse because I´ve always wanted to study medicine and I think that, even though the conditions and situations are not the best, it is an opportunity for me to serve for my country and help. I think my contribution would be trying to save lives and being someone that cares for others. I think being a nurse is the best way to contribute to my country, because in this way, I´m saving the people who are the future of Japan, people who may not be soldiers and want to go back to their families and stay alive.

(x) PROFILE PICTURE:

(xi) THE CONFLICT CONTEXT:

Today is December 7th, 1941. It has been a year since I wrote here, and lots of things have happened, but right now, an attack from my country to the U.S. has happened. I was called to accompany the planes that attacked, and when we got there, my plane crashed. Unfortunately the pilot died, so I had to go out and seek for help, but it was a surprise to see that I had no one to ask for it. There were too many wounded, many of whom were civilians. Even though I'm from the side that "won" I couldn't just sit back and do nothing, I decided to help the people there. It was shocking to see how our planes caused so many deaths, so much destruction. In this past year I saw deaths, but not as much as in Pearl Harbor and definitely not as devastating. I felt sick, dizzy, helpless.

(xii) TECHNOLOGY:

Since the war started, I´ve been learning more about the new technologies that the war has made possible to use and invent. When I was traveling to Pearl Harbor, I realized that the aircraft that I was in had new and advanced programs and new levers. At first I didn´t know for what they were, but, when the attacks started I Knew they had explosives and weapons in them. When I got down of the plane and I started helping the injured ones, I saw that in U.S. they had advanced tanks that were a lot more imposing and better armed than others. Finally, I heard some people talking about an atomic/nuclear bomb; even though I don´t know a lot of this topic, I think this bombs and weapons are going to be really dangerous and will have a negative effect in the war, they may destroy lots of territories and kill thousands of people, so no, I wouldn´t like that to happen, because my country could also be in danger of these bombs and weapons. After this war ends, I think the weapons will become very dangerous devices that can endanger the security of the countries of the world. 

(xiii) CHANGE vs CONTINUITY:

I am really devastated for all that happened today, before, I thought that my country was doing what was necessary to preserve its nationalism and its territory, but now, I realized that it was just about power and controlling others. My perspective has changed, and as a consequence of this, I decided to stay and cure the injured,, because at the end of the day, we´re all people and we shouldn´t kill each other.

(xiv) WRITTEN LETTER: