Chapter 01: A Family in Japan during World War II
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Description
In this chapter, Dr. Komaki talks about her childhood in Japan, focusing in particular on her experiences in Hiroshima after the Americans dropped the atomic bomb.
She begins by sketching her family background, noting that her father (a banker) and her mother (a member of a samurai family) married across class boundaries. She talks about her mother’s many talents and notes the lessons her mother taught her. She explains her mother’s insistence that her three daughters focus on gaining technical expertise (stemming from her mother’s experience having to provide for the family during WWII). She also talks about her father’s difficult family background and the perseverance that he needed to become successful in business.
Next, Dr. Komaki sketches the family’s story after the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima on 6 August 1945. Her family was living in Osaka, her father having been transferred there for work, but he returned to Hiroshima in the days after the bomb was dropped to search for family members. Dr. Komaki shares what she learned about the devastation in Hiroshima, as well as the health impact on her father and other family members.
Identifier
KomakiR_01_20181106_C01
Publication Date
11-6-2018
Publisher
The Making Cancer History® Voices Oral History Collection, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center
City
Houston, Texas
Interview Session
Topics Covered
The Interview Subject's Story - Personal Background; Personal Background; Inspirations to Practice Science/Medicine; Influences from People and Life Experiences
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.
Disciplines
History of Science, Technology, and Medicine | Oncology | Oral History
Transcript
T.A. Rosolowski, PhD:
So, I am just saying for the record that the time is about two minutes of eleven on November 6, 2018, and I’m in Houston, Texas of course, at the home of Dr. Ritsuko Komaki. Do you go by Komaki-Cox or just Komaki at this point?
R. Komaki, MD:
My professional name is Ritsuko Komaki.
T.A. Rosolowski, PhD:
Okay.
R. Komaki, MD:
And then my social name and the passport, it says Komaki-Cox.
T.A. Rosolowski, PhD:
Okay, all right, and you have a middle initial, U, what does that stand for?
R. Komaki, MD:
That’s my father’s side name, Ueda.
T.A. Rosolowski, PhD:
U-e...?
R. Komaki, MD:
U-e-d-a, Ueda.
T.A. Rosolowski, PhD:
Ueda.
R. Komaki, MD:
Yeah, that’s my father’s.
T.A. Rosolowski, PhD:
Okay, all right great, thank you. Well, because there’s a U there and I always wonder.
R. Komaki, MD:
Right.
T.A. Rosolowski, PhD:
Some people think, well what does it stand for, and I could not find that anywhere.
R. Komaki, MD:
Yeah, that’s my father’s.
T.A. Rosolowski, PhD:
So, Dr. Komaki is a radiation oncologist who came to MD Anderson first in 1979 it was, to ‘80, for a fellowship.
R. Komaki, MD:
Yes.
T.A. Rosolowski, PhD:
And then was away from the institution for a while but then was recruited back in 1988, from Columbia Presbyterian, and we’re going to talk about all those things. I also should say for the record that she is married to Dr. James Cox [oral history interview], who passed away earlier this year very sadly, and I interviewed Dr. Cox a number of years ago. They worked together getting the Proton Therapy Center to MD Anderson. A few other details. In 1988, you were recruited to serve as chief of the Thoracic Section in the Department of Radiation Oncology, in the Division of Radiation Oncology and you retired from clinical service in 2017, correct?
R. Komaki, MD:
Two-thousand seventeen, that’s correct.
T.A. Rosolowski, PhD:
Okay. And then you retired completely this year, earlier this year.
R. Komaki, MD:
Right.
T.A. Rosolowski, PhD:
Okay. This interview session is being conducted for the Making Cancer History Oral History Project, run for the Research Medical Library at MD Anderson, and we are conducting this interview at Dr. Komaki’s home in Houston, Texas. I should also say for the record, my name is Tacey Ann Rosolowski. So those are all the details and I wanted to thank you so much for making the time today and for the great tour earlier.
R. Komaki, MD:
You’re welcome.
T.A. Rosolowski, PhD:
I’ll just start in kind of the ordinary place, and I know you’ve told story a number of times but I hope I’ll ask you some questions that will help you put a new spin on it. Tell me where you were born and when, and tell me a little bit about your family.
R. Komaki, MD:
Okay. I was born in Amagasaki, A-m-a-g-a-s-a-k-i.
T.A. Rosolowski, PhD:
And if you don’t want to spell everything out, I’ll take a list and then you can correct it later. It just you know, it kind of breaks up your storytelling, so this makes it easier.
R. Komaki, MD:
It’s just outside of Osaka, where my father used to work.
T.A. Rosolowski, PhD:
What was your father’s profession?
R. Komaki, MD:
He was a banker, but this was after he moved back, we moved back to Hiroshima, where I grew up. My father graduated from Kyoto University, majoring in economy, and he was working at Han Shin in Osaka, it’s (inaudible), the big company, and he was working there. Then, I was born in Amagasaki [City, Hyogo Prefecture], where our house was.
T.A. Rosolowski, PhD:
Do you want to share your birthdate?
R. Komaki, MD:
September 24, 1943. My parents, they came from Hiroshima, and my [parents and their three daughters] went back [to Hiroshima in 1947].
T.A. Rosolowski, PhD:
Cam you tell me, what was your father’s name?
R. Komaki, MD:
My father’s name was Mister Isao Ueda, that was my father’s name.
T.A. Rosolowski, PhD:
And your mom?
R. Komaki, MD:
My mother’s name, Yukiko Obata.
T.A. Rosolowski, PhD:
Did she work?
R. Komaki, MD:
No, she did not work.
T.A. Rosolowski, PhD:
She just raised all the kids.
R. Komaki, MD:
No, [not only that]. She was just an incredible haiku maker and a cook, and she was a historian. She memorized all the histories, because my mother’s side was Samurai family and my mother’s grandfather was a secretary of the very famous Mister Takeda, Shingen. The first name [was] Shingen, [his last name was Takeda]. My mother’s grandfather was the teacher of the lord of the [Bizen] area, of the Hiroshima [Okayama] area.
T.A. Rosolowski, PhD:
So this is a very educated family.
R. Komaki, MD:
Yes. So, my mother’s father graduated from Tokyo University and he became Minister of Agriculture, and he had asthma and his job was to go all different prefectures to plant cedar trees, so they can prevent mudslides on the mountain. But because of his allergy to cedar trees, his asthma became so bad, that he had to quit [his job]. When he was 55 years old, he retired from that job and he became the secretary of the Lord Mister Asano in Hiroshima Prefecture. My mother, she read all the books in the library at home. [They lived in] a big, huge Samurai [ ] house. She read all the books when she was seven years old. She memorized all the history of Europe, China and Japan, and she remembered all those family trees of the royal family in Europe, and when we took her on a trip to Europe after my father died due to cancer of the bladder when he was 72 years old, my mother explained the whole [European royal] family trees to us. She just had incredible memory. She loved to read all the history of Europe, [China and Japan].
T.A. Rosolowski, PhD:
How did she influence you?
R. Komaki, MD:
She taught me everything. Her passion was [to cook], plant [flowers], and write haiku. She made [almost] 30 different kinds of haiku every day, because when I grew up, it was just after the second war, and during second war, she was not sure my father will be back from the war. He was drafted. She was so concerned [about my father’s death, that] maybe she [would have] to raise all the children by herself. [She] had knowledge about the history [ ], because she had a fear how she could raise the children if my father didn’t come back from the war. So, she decided to get three daughters to become more [more professional women learning] technical aspect, rather than [women who write, although] I liked to write, I loved to read. She pushed me to have something [to do technically], rather than [writing]. [ ] My older sister, two years older than me, she became a vet, veterinarian.
T.A. Rosolowski, PhD:
What’s her name?
R. Komaki, MD:
Noriko, and her married name is Koike, who lives in Nagoya. I became a physician and my younger sister, Hisako, she became a pharmacist. Her married name is Shintani and she lives in Hiroshima. She never moved from Hiroshima. That’s the [same place where] I grew up, in Hiroshima.
T.A. Rosolowski, PhD:
[00:10:036] What about your father, how did your father have an influence on you?
R. Komaki, MD:
My father was the youngest among seven children and he was born in a small island in the inland sea, Minoshima. His father had sake brewery company, but when my father was ten years old, his father passed away, so he was—my father was raised by oldest son in the family. But the ship that was carrying all the sake barrels, was hit by a typhoon and the ship sank. Around that time, they did not have any insurance, so his family went bankrupt.
T.A. Rosolowski, PhD:
Oh my god.
R. Komaki, MD:
So my father had to live with his oldest brother, with his wife, and he was [not welcomed by his oldest brother and sister-in-law]. But he had to live with them to go to junior high school and high school and eventually, while he was growing up with them in that family, they decided to build a small liquor store in Hiroshima, and my father had to deliver sake bottles to neighbors. He got a scholarship to go to Hiroshima University, Education Section, and he majored in education and he taught in a tiny, tiny village near Hiroshima area, saved money for four years and went to Kyoto University, majoring in economy.
T.A. Rosolowski, PhD:
So he was really a self-made man.
R. Komaki, MD:
That’s correct. That’s the thing he taught me. If you work very hard then you can get there. My father went to Kyoto University and then he was working in Han Shin, and he met—well, he got married with my mother, who came from samurai family, and according to my mother, always my father’s side family was below her class. In Japan, they still have this cascade; the royal family, samurai family, farmers and merchants, and so he was below her family rank [ ]. I came from my mother’s Samurai family but my father came from merchant, so there was kind of family difference. They never united, my mother’s side and my father’s side, they were not together.
T.A. Rosolowski, PhD:
So it was always a bit of a conflict around that.
R. Komaki, MD:
Right. But I learned something from my father, he was such a hard worker. The day after he went to Hiroshima, after the atomic bomb, he was exposed to black rain and exposed to a very high dose of radiation.
T.A. Rosolowski, PhD:
And just for the record, when was the bomb dropped?
R. Komaki, MD:
That was August 6, 1945. I was two years old and if we had been in Hiroshima, I wouldn’t be here, that was for sure. But because my parents, they were from Hiroshima, and usually, Japanese people, they don’t move around. But because of his job, we were living just outside of Osaka, which is like two hundred miles away from Hiroshima. [My immediate family] survived from the atomic bomb.
T.A. Rosolowski, PhD:
Now, why did your father go back to Hiroshima a couple of days—
R. Komaki, MD:
[My father went to Hiroshima City on the following day after the atomic bomb had been dropped] to look for the family members, whoever survived. He had to look for them and to bring them outside, and that’s why he had to go inside of Hiroshima, where my grandmother, my mother’s side, and some of his own family, brothers, they were living in Hiroshima. [ ] In Japan, they always take care of family members, so he had to look for whoever survived. He had to take care of them.
T.A. Rosolowski, PhD:
Let me just ask you one question and clarify, because you said your dad was serving in the military during the Second World War?
R. Komaki, MD:
Yes.
T.A. Rosolowski, PhD:
Okay. So you were living near Osaka and was he in the military service at that time?
R. Komaki, MD:
No. He became ill and he was discharged.
T.A. Rosolowski, PhD:
Okay. Okay, so that’s how that happened.
R. Komaki, MD:
That’s correct.
T.A. Rosolowski, PhD:
Okay, so he goes back to Hiroshima to look for family members. Now tell me about what did you hear about his experiences at that time, in the city?
R. Komaki, MD:
He never ever really mentioned it. It was just so much disaster. And after, my mother’s mother --she was in the middle of Hiroshima, very close to epicenter. And at that time, her husband --so my mother’s father, was dead due to asthma. But she was living in a huge, big Samurai [house] there, [where] she had a few maids and three secretaries, who were attending to college from their house, like college students. They were living in their house since the house was so big. The atomic bomb, it caused incredible blow [in the sky], the suction phenomena, [with the result that] the house was collapsed. She was underneath the house, but they dug her out and she survived.
T.A. Rosolowski, PhD:
Oh my god.
R. Komaki, MD:
She had total body radiation, and her hair fell off and [she developed] nose bleeding and diarrhea. She had acute total body radiation effect but she survived. She was dug out and she was taken outside of Hiroshima, about six months, but [ ] she never had any leukemia or cancer. Eventually, she died of osteoporosis and Alzheimer’s, when she was like 72.
T.A. Rosolowski, PhD:
Now you said your father never really spoke much about what he experienced in Hiroshima.
R. Komaki, MD:
[ ] No, that was not only my father, [but also] my grandmother who was there and my aunt, my mother’s younger sister. They never told [us] how bad their experience [was], and what they saw, because they didn’t want to influence the children against Americans, who dropped the bomb. In Japan, they don’t want to talk about terrible disaster to the children, that will influence their mind, and they don’t want to create the fear. Maybe children, they might start to see nightmares or something [horrible] and they don’t want them to [be hostile toward] America. At school. When I was four years old, my father decided to move back to Hiroshima, to [work for] Hiroshima Bank, so he became a banker. He worked at Hiroshima Bank so many years. [Therefore} we had to move around wherever he became chief of the Hiroshima Bank. I had to move four times when I was in elementary school, with him, but my—yeah.
T.A. Rosolowski, PhD:
But he came back to Hiroshima at that point. That’s two years, I mean there was so much devastation.
R. Komaki, MD:
Yes.
T.A. Rosolowski, PhD:
The city could not have been much rebuilt even.
R. Komaki, MD:
There were no [residential] houses [in the middle of the city, there were] shacks underneath the bridges. You know, in Hiroshima, there are seven rivers going from a mountain and draining into the [inland] sea. That washed some radioactive material [into the sea]. Hiroshima is built in a delta, and there were no houses when we moved back there. We lived in peripheral Hiroshima. At the beginning, we lived in Ujina, where my father’s older brother had a [private] practice. He was an internist, and we moved in their house first, but they didn’t want us to live too long because [of lack of food] around that time. So, we were a kind of parasite and they said, “Why did you move here?”
T.A. Rosolowski, PhD:
What a difficult time.
R. Komaki, MD:
It was so difficult. Then, we lived in [a small apartment provided by] Hiroshima Bank for a while. Then my father was offered —[ ] [the position of] chief of the Hiroshima Bank in a [different] prefecture, Yamaguchi Prefecture. Where we moved there [for] a couple years. Kudamatsu, that’s the name of the city. From there, we moved to Matsuyama. That’s in Ehime Prefecture. It’s Shikoku Island, and my father became chief of that Hiroshima Bank in Matsuyama City, so we moved there.
Recommended Citation
Komaki, Ritsuko MD and Rosolowski, Tacey A. PhD, "Chapter 01: A Family in Japan during World War II" (2018). Interview Chapters. 1282.
https://openworks.mdanderson.org/mchv_interviewchapters/1282
Conditions Governing Access
Open
