Diary+Entry+4MPJH

August 17, 1939

It's been a while since I have last written in my diary. Many things have happened. Kyouta has disappeared off the face of this earth and is basically causing my mother to fall ill to her death. She's very weak, and almost refuses to eat food. It's almost as if she doesn't have the will to live. We don't know if Kyouta is dead or alive, but we know that the army doesn't really know where Kyouta is at the moment.

I tried writing to Mitsuo Suzuki san, the military official in charge of my brother's squad. I talked about my brother and my family's desperate situation and I asked for his help in finding my brother. I don't think he got my letters because there have been no replies so far. I'm not sure if he would really bother to reply anyway because I'm sure a lot of other people are also asking him about their relatives and loved ones.

My father has been pretty strong since we've received notice that Kyouta is missing, or even could be dead. He was originally in a state of despair too, but after seeing Mother weaken everyday and grow frailer, he has assumed a strong position in our household. He now goes regularly to the family shop to try to encourage the sales to go up, since Haru and Hana have taken up the shop, the sales have slowly started to decrease. We're not at the stage where food is scarce and we're starving, but father says that that situation is more than possible in the future.

There is word that another war is coming. I'm worried, because rumor says that this war will be a global war and many countries worldwide will be involved. If this happens, I'm only worried that Japan will go down. This shouldn't happen. We have sacrificed so much, yet we might lose as much as we gained.

May the Gods be with us,

Signed, Tokieda Airi