Memories of Hunger and Keiko Ochiai Dialogue - circa 1976

Memories of Hunger and Keiko Ochiai Dialogue - circa 1976

In tracing the memories of those who survived war and poverty, "hunger" is discussed with more weight than mere physiological suffering. One woman desperately sought food to protect her children during the war, and even after the war's defeat, she spent her days relying on rationing and the black market. In the midst of this suffering, the starvation of her child became an emotional trauma, and is etched as an unforgettable experience that will remain with her throughout her life. In her dialogue with Keiko Ochiai, she talks about how hunger affects a person's dignity and character, and how the memory of "having starved once" sometimes determines a person's sense of ethics and way of life. Furthermore, even among those who became wealthy after World War II, the experience of hunger in the past is said to be at the root of their bizarre obsession with food and their extreme attitude toward saving money. The memory of hunger is not only an individual experience, but also affect
s the mental structure of society as a whole, and has emerged as a factor that cannot be ignored in the formation of postwar Japan's sense of values. To talk about hunger is not just a memory, but also an activity that continues to question "what the war brought to human beings.