A Thousand Stitches (31 page)

This story uses the Japanese names for aircraft. The Model 93 Intermediate Trainer (Kugisho Navy Type 93 Intermediate Trainer (K5Y)), the Model 96 fighter (Mitsubishi Navy Type 96 Carrier Fighter (A5M)), and the Zero (Mitsubishi Navy Type 0 Carrier Fighter (A6M)), were, respectively, code-named “Willow,” “Claude,” and “Zeke” by the Allies.

Akemashite (omedeto gozaimasu)
  New Year greeting

Anime
  Japanese animated film entertainments

Ao-gera
  Japanese green woodpecker

Banzai
  Literally, “ten thousand years”; hooray

Bento
  Lunch box in which various small dishes are packed in individual compartments

Bizen
  Much-prized pottery from the Okayama-Himeji area of Japan, usually brown and unglazed

Bonton ame
  Old-fashioned chewy citrus candy of Kyushu; chewy squares wrapped in clear edible wrappers that dissolve on the tongue

Botan yuki
  Large snowflakes; literally, “peony snow”

Botchan
  Title of famous novel by Natsume Soseki; literally, “young master” or “greenhorn”

-chan
  A suffix used after a first name; a term of affection used with the names of children and very close friends

Chankoro
  Derogatory term for “Chinese”

Daruma
  Roly-poly dolls; Japanese color in one of their blank eyes when they make a wish, and then the other when the wish comes true

Dōki no Sakura
  Japanese song about cherry blossoms that bloom at the same time/on the same day; popular in the last years of the war in several versions, including one used by the Japanese Imperial Navy

Edo
  Old name for Tokyo; the period when the
Shoguns
were the real rulers of Japan (1603–1867) is referred to as the Edo Era.

Furoshiki
  Traditional cloth used to wrap and carry parcels

Futon
  Traditional Japanese bedding; mattresses spread on the floor

Gaijin
  Japanese for “foreigner”

Gambatte
  “Good Luck”; “Do your best!”

Geisha
  Artistes; female entertainers who specialize in traditional Japanese music and dance

Genkan
  Entryway to Japanese homes; at a lower level than the interior flooring

Genmaicha
  Japanese green tea combined with popped rice

Geta
  Wooden sandals

Haiku
  Japanese verse form that traditionally includes a seasonal reference and consists of seventeen syllables arranged in three lines of five, seven, and five syllables

Hibachi
  Japanese grill

Hoanden
  Enshrinement Hall

Hojicha
  Roasted tea

Hōryūji
  Famous Buddhist temple in Nara

Issei
  First-generation Japanese-American(s)

Iyo kasuri
  Indigo splashed pattern textile of Ehime Prefecture

Judo
  Japanese martial art

Kaki kueba
  First two words (and first line) of a famous
haiku
poem that all Japanese schoolchildren learn

Kakkō
  Common cuckoo

Kamikaze
  Literally, “divine wind.” In the 13th century, two attempts by the Mongolians to invade Japan failed, thanks to storms of ­typhoon magnitude. The Japanese never forgot this myth, which ­reinforced the belief that the Shinto gods protected Japan. During the last part of World War II, the term
kamikaze
was applied to members of the Japanese Special Attack Forces, Japanese fighter ­pilots trained to make suicide attacks on Allied ships.

Kempeitai
  Wartime military secret police; “thought” police

Kendo
  Japanese martial art

Kimigayo
  The Japanese national anthem

Kiyomizudera
  Famous Kyoto Buddhist temple with a broad veranda over a valley

Kimono
  Traditional Japanese women's dress

Ko-gera
  Japanese pygmy woodpecker

kokeshi
  Cylindrical wooden dolls from the northern parts of Japan

komadori
  Japanese robin

Kosho
  Matsuyama Commercial College

Kotatsu
  A low table covered with quilts and a tabletop; situated above a fireplace or constructed with a heat source attached to the bottom of the table

Koto
  Japanese transverse harp

Kozara
  Small plate(s)

Kurozuro
  Common cranes

Kyōdai
  Kyōto University nickname (Kyōto + Daigaku)

Manazuru
  White-napped cranes

Manyōshu
  First anthology of Japanese poetry; compiled in the 7th–8th century

Meboso mushikui
  Arctic warbler

Meiji
  Name of the Japanese era from 1868–1912

Mikan
  Japanese mandarin oranges; sometimes marked in the U.S. as “Satsuma” oranges

Miso
  Soybean paste; staple of Japanese cuisine

Momotaro
  Literally “peach boy”; a fairy tale that every Japanese knows

Mompe
  Pants made of simple fabric, typically worn by farmwives

Mugicha
  Barley tea

Ne-san
  Literally, “Big (older) sister”

Nihon katta, Rosha maketa
  “Japan won; Russia lost”

Nisei
  Second-generation Japanese-American(s)

Ōaka-gera
  White-backed woodpecker

Obasan
  Literally “aunt”; used as an honorific title (in lieu of a family name) for an adult woman

Obi
  Belt for a woman's
kimono

Ochazuke
  Japanese snack: green tea poured over rice to make a porridge

Odori
  Traditional Japanese dance

Ojiisan
  Literally “grandfather”; used as an honorific title (in lieu of a family name) for older men

Ohayo gozaimasu
  Good morning

Ōkaidō
  Literally, “Big Shopping Street”; Matsuyama's principal commercial street

Okusan
  Honorific term for “wife”

Omiai
  Meeting in advance of an arranged marriage

Omiyage
  A souvenir; a hostess gift

Ronin
  Literally, “masterless
samurai
”; used to describe students who take time off from school to prepare for entrance exams for the next educational level

Saikeirei
  Deepest bow

Sake
  Japanese rice wine

Sakura
  Cherry blossoms

Samazama
  First word of a Bashō
haiku

Samurai
  Japanese warrior

-san
  Honorific title used in lieu of Mr., Mrs., or Ms. Appended to family names as a suffix

Sashiko
  Japanese traditional craft stitch

Sembazuru
  Literally, “A Thousand Cranes”; title of the 1952 novel by Yasunari Kawabata, winner of the 1968 Nobel Prize for Literature

Sembei
  Japanese rice crackers

Senninbari
  “Thousand stitch belt;” scarf-like white cloths hand-stitched with red crosses, typically made for men serving in the Japanese military by their wives, sweethearts, or female relatives. In order to have stitches made by a “thousand” different hands, those making
senninbari
for their loved ones asked friends, neighbors, and even strangers in public places to add stitches.

Sensei
  Literally, “teacher.” Honorary title for teachers, doctors, etc. Can replace the honorific
“san”
as the suffix used with family names

Seto no Hanayome
  Literally “Seto Bride.”
Seto Naikai
is Japan's Seto Inland Sea, between the main island of Honshu and Shikoku, the smallest of Japan's four main islands.

Shamisen
  Three-stringed musical instrument; somewhat similar in sound to a banjo

Shinkansen
  Literally, “New trunk line”; Japan's bullet train

Shiso
  Perilla; beefsteak plant leaf

Shitamachi
  Tōkyō's traditional “downtown”; Asakusa and other neighborhoods in the eastern, older part of the city, near the Sumida River

Shōchū
  Alcoholic drink made from potatoes

Showa
  Name of the Japanese era from 1925–1989; name of the reign of Emperor Hirohito

Soba
  Japanese buckwheat noodles

Sokaijin
  Evacuee from the city to the countryside

Sukiyaki
  Japanese beef stew dish prepared at the table fondue-style

Sumo
  Japanese wrestling

Sumi
  Black calligraphy ink made from charcoal

Suribachi
  Mortar

Surikogi
  Pestle

Sushi
  Raw fish and/or vegetables served atop canapés of rice or wrapped in rice and seaweed rolls that are then sliced into individual pieces

Takuan
  Japanese pickle made from
daikon
white radish; typically yellow in color

Tanchōzuru
  Japanese crane

Tatami
  Woven straw mats used for flooring

Tenno Heika Banzai
  “Long Live the Emperor”

Tōdai
  Tokyo University nickname (Tōkyo + Daigaku)

Tokkō
  Wartime civilian secret police; “thought” police

Tokonoma
  Alcove in a traditional Japanese room, typically used to display a hanging scroll and a flower arrangement

Tsubame
  Swallow

Tsutusdori
  Oriental cuckoo

Umeboshi
  Picked plum

Yakyu
  Baseball game, a term that replaced the foreign word
besuboru
during the war

Yasukuni
  Tokyo Shinto Shrine famous for its cherry blossoms; place where those killed in service to Japan are enshrined. In that respect, comparable to Arlington Cemetery, but controversial, especially with Japan's neighbors because individuals adjudged war criminals after World War II are among those enshrined there

Yokaren
  Japanese naval recruits—often teenage farm boys—trained as aviators for suicide missions

Yuzu
  Japanese citrus

Suggestions for further reading

Axell, Albert & Hideaki Kase (2002).
Kamikaze: Japan's Suicide Gods
. London: Pearson Education.

Batty, David (2004).
Japan at War in Color.
London: Carlton Books.

Blyth, R.H. (1963).
A History of Haiku
(Volumes One and Two). Tokyo: Hokuseido.

Brines, Russell (1944).
Until They Eat Stones.
New York: Lippincott.

Briscoe, Susan (2005).
The Ultimate Sashiko Sourcebook.
Devon, UK: David & Charles.

Cook, Haruko Taya & Theodore F. Cook (1992).
Japan at War: An Oral History.
New York: New Press.

Crew, Quentin (1962).
Japan: Portrait of Paradox.
New York: Thomas Nelson & Sons.

Dower, John W. (1993).
Japan in War & Peace: Selected Essays
. New York: New Press.

Dower, John W. (1999).
Embracing Defeat: Japan in the Wake of World War II.
New York: Norton/New Press.

Frédéric, Louis (Kathe Roth trans.) (2002).
Japan: Encyclopedia.
Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

Guillain, Robert (William Byron, trans.) (1981).
I Saw Tokyo Burning.
Garden City: Doubleday.

Havens, Thomas R. H. (1978).
Valley of Darkness: The Japanese People and World War Two.
New York: Norton.

Ienaga, Saburo (1978).
The Pacific War, 1931–1945.
New York: Pantheon Books.

Imamura, Shigeo. (2001).
Shig: The True Story of an American Kamikaze.
Baltimore: American Literary Press.

Jansen, Marius B. (2000).
The Making of Modern Japan.
Cambridge: Belknap Press/Harvard.

Kuwahara, Yasuo & Gordon T. Allred (2007).
Kamikaze: A Japanese pilot's Own Spectacular Story of the Famous Suicide Squadrons.
Clearfield, UT: American Legacy Media.

Mikesh, Robert C. (1993).
Japanese Aircraft Code Names & Designations.
Atglen, PA: Schiffer Military/Aviation History.

Mikesh, Robert C. (1994).
Zero: Combat & Development History of Japan's Legendary Mitsubishi A6M Zero Fighter.
Osceola, WI: Motorbooks International.

Ohnuki-Tierney, Emiko (2002).
Kamikaze, Cherry Blossoms, and Nationalisms: The Militarization of Aesthetics in Japanese History.
Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.

Ohnuki-Tierney, Emiko (2006).
Kamikaze Diaries: Reflections of Japanese Student Soldiers.
Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.

Peter, Carolyn (2006).
A Letter from Japan: The Photographs of John Swope.
Los Angeles: The UCLA Grunwald Center for the Graphic Arts and the Armand Hammer Museum of Art and Cultural Center.

Reichhold, Jane (2008).
Basho: The Complete Haiku.
Tokyo: Kodansha International.

Saito, Takafumi & William R. Nelson (2006).
102 Haiku in Translation: The Heart of Basho, Buson and Issa
. North Charleston: BookSurge.

Senoh, Kappa (2002).
A Boy Called H: A Childhood in Wartime Japan.
Tokyo: Kodansha International.

Sheftall, M.G. (2005).
Blossoms in the Wind: Human Legacies of the Kamikaze.
New York: New American Library.

Spector, Ronald H. (1955).
Eagle Against the Sun: The American War With Japan.
New York: The Free Press.

Skulski, Janusz (2004).
The Battleship Yamato: Anatomy of the Ship.
Annapolis: The Naval Institute Press.

Terasaki, Gwen (1954).
Bridge to the Sun.
Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press.

Ueda, Makoto (1992).
Basho and his Interpreters: Selected Hokku with Commentary
. Stanford: Stanford University Press.

Warner, Dennis & Peggy Warner, with Seno, Sadao (1982).
The Sacred Warriors: Japan's Suicide Legions.
New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold.

Wild Bird Society of Japan & Shinji Takano (1982).
A Field Guide to the Birds of Japan.
Tokyo: Kodansha International.

Wright, Harold (1979).
Ten Thousand Leaves. Love Poems from the
Manyoshu.
Translated from the Japanese by Harold Wright.
Woodstock, NY: The Overlook Press.

Yamashita, Samuel Hideo (2005).
Leaves from an Autumn of Emergencies: Selections from the Wartime Diaries of Ordinary Japanese.
Honolulu: The University of Hawai'i Press.

Yoshikawa, Eiji (Charles S. Terry, trans; Edwin O. Reischauer, forward)(1981).
Musashi.
Tokyo: Kodansha International. (Original work published 1935–1939).

Yoshimura, Akira (Vincent Murphy, trans.) (1999).
Battleship Musashi: The Making and Sinking of the World's Biggest Battleship
. Tokyo: ­Kodansha International.