When Tomee Takahashi, 81, remembers being evacuated from Tokyo to the countryside as a child during World War II, food is all that comes to mind.
Starting in the summer of 1944, an estimated 670,000 schoolchildren were sent in groups to the countryside from Tokyo and other cities when Japan was facing the prospect of defeat in the war and preparing for U.S. air raids.
"I was able to return home safe after the war," Takahashi said. "Possibly because I was so hungry then, nothing but food occurs to me whenever I remember it."