Modest Substitute, 1945

Modest Substitute, 1945


Someone started saying it’s your birthday, so they should all celebrate it with zenzai. Girls screamed

exultingly in the small evacuation house; a cold day in March at Kobe. Toko brought a pillow

that her mother has made for her. Another girl put a few beanbags on the table. You have

saccharine from your dad’s store, right? Toko asked you as she took out the beans from

her pillow. Others joined washing beans and started cooking; a dozen girls

in the tiny kitchen, looking into one pot. In the following day, we had a big

air raid, you tell me, and also that you saw Toko turning her head

for hours nervously, and that could be because her pillow was

flat, or perhaps she was hearing the siren foreknowingly.

＋＋＋

Zenzai is red bean soup made with azuki beans and sugar.