I interved my grandfather

I interviewed my grandparents. My grandparents lived in “Hokkaido” which is located in the north of Japan in the 1930s. At that time, they were teenagers. My grandfather lived in a small village between the mountains.

There was no water service. Water was gathered by a hand-operated pump and a well.

There was electricity. At that time, power generation was mainly hydroelectric. My grandfather saw three small hydroelectric power plants in his village. But not all families could use electricity. They used oil lamps.

They used mainly coal and firewood, not oil. Because oil was very expensive. In those days, there was a coal shop. Firewood was gathered in the mountains.

There was no car but there was a bus. Even that was powered by firewood! The firewood was burned behind the bus and the carbon monoxide was sent by a pipe to the front of the bus where it powered the engine for gasoline. My grandfather walked to school for an hour because there was no bus in his village. However he could go to school on skis in winter.

I think my grandparent’s life was very hard as I had expected. But its technology was higher than my original impression. This interview gives me a lot of new knowledge!