Let me share a story I heard from my grandma a long time ago. During World War II, when my grandma (Sano) was about 10 years old, she and her older sister left their parents for safety and were sent to live with a distant relative in a rural village. However, bombs were eventually dropped on this village as well. Many people died, including their relative. Unable to stay there any longer, Sano and her sister decided to head to another relative's house in the neighboring prefecture that very day. Because the air raids had destroyed the train tracks, they had to go on foot. The journey was treacherous, and due to food shortages, public safety was at its worst. Choosing deserted mountain paths to stay safe, it was bitterly cold. Whenever she felt freezing, her sister would gently protect Sano, saying, "If you stuff newspapers inside your clothes, it keeps you warm." They somehow managed to cross the prefectural border and took a bus toward their relatives' house. Sano fell asleep on the bus without realizing it, and when she woke up, she was being shaken awake by her relative's aunt. "You did so well coming all this way by yourself, Sano. You're such a brave girl," the aunt told her. When she woke up, her sister was gone. In fact, her sister had already passed away from pneumonia back home when Sano was 9 years old. The older sister who had spent this past year traveling and living alongside her was no longer of this world.
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