#未来へ向けた挑戦(16)# 戦争を聞いて(6) 残高ゼロの通帳　- (英語版) ー　At a subway station, my cousin’s sister-in-law began to cry.

“Tomoko, listen… I finally found my mother’s bankbook, in all that trash. The balance is zero.”

She spoke in a voice that trembled.

Why had she served her mother-in-law all those years?
She had not truly devoted herself; my aunt lived as she pleased.
Yet those left behind had to deal with the aftermath.

The house was overflowing with things.
The bankbook had been hidden among them.

Upon closer inspection, it turned out that my aunt had, during the years when she was still capable, sent all her savings to her daughter.

In the end, she chose her daughter.

A woman who had been bullied by a strict mother-in-law,
who worked endlessly and had little time for her children,
yet loved her own daughter fiercely.

Did she break under the weight of such harsh family relationships?
Or was she simply a woman swept along by the tides of war?

I do not really know.

All that remains is the empty bankbook,
quietly telling the story of her choices.



#StoriesIHeardAboutTheWar
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