In an attempt to enlighten foreign residents of Tokyo about Japan's World War II experience, the Minato International Association has published an English translation of the first-person war accounts of 50 Minato Ward residents.
The anthology, "Memoirs on War -- Aspirations for Lasting Peace," contains vivid portrayals of wartime struggles with everything from firebombs and food shortages to growing disillusionment with the Imperial government.
In the essay "The Fire and My Baby on My Back," a woman recalls her desperate attempts to save herself and her child during the heavy firebombing raids at the end of the war. "A man told me that my padded dressing gown had caught on fire, so I stripped it off me and hurried onward. Soon I caught fire on my back again," wrote Riyo Komiya, an 81-year-old Minato resident. "So I held my baby to me and kept pouring water from the river over myself to quench the fire ... Before long I realized that my baby had stopped breathing."