In December 1906(Meiji 39), after a year of student-teacher life, having been recommended by an acquaintance, I was appointed to Ishibe Girls’ Industrial Vocational School in Shiga prefecture as the sewing course teacher. The monthly salary was twenty yen. Finally, I had fulfilled a long-desired dream of becoming a teacher and making my mother proud. It was the spring of my twenty-fifth year.

After I had been working for two years at Ishibe, Ms. Hiroyo Kozuka, one of my closest friends from my alma mater, Watanabe School, suddenly came calling. She wanted to arrange my marriage. Ms. Kozuka herself was already married to a navy officer. In those days, a military man — particularly a navy man — of the Empire of Japan, proud of its recent victory in the Russo-Japanese War, was considered a real catch for a young woman. Being nothing exceptional, I was introduced by Ms. Kozuka to a navy associate officer. There could be no objection. Upon my mother’s advice, I married that man without hesitation. Now, in a corner of the school ground, watching over Anjo Gakuen forever, there is a stone statue of Sanzō Terabe, that very man.

After that, I left the school, having been there for two years, and moved to Etajima in the city of Kure where my husband, Shimizu(birth name), worked. That year, my husband shipped out on a long-distance deployment charged with preparing fifty cadets for graduation, having been their naval school signals trainer for five hours a week.

During his absence, I went back to my hometown, Sakurai Village, to live with my mother. In December 1910(Meiji 43), our first son was born. I was exultant when word came that my husband, after the long voyage, had arrived safely back at Kure. As soon as he came back, he was promoted to naval officer, so I had dreams of living my life to the fullest as the wife of a naval officer.

However, all of a sudden, my husband declared that he wanted to resign his commission. Although I begged and pleaded, he would not change his mind, so with no alternative, I allowed my husband to do as he wished.