From Totto-Chan by Tetsuko Kuroyanagi

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From Totto-Chan by Tetsuko Kuroyanagi

Totto-Chan, which seems at first to be a simple recollection of childhood memories, becomes much deeper very quickly. “Totto-chan” is the nickname of young Tetsuko Kuroyanagi, and through the first short story, “Amateur Drama”, we see how vibrant and strong her personality is. In the second story, “Chalk”, the reader sees insight into the experiential, progressive learning methods at Tomoe, which must have influenced Totto-chan’s personality greatly. When describing the children at Tomoe, Tetsuko states, “they loved doing things they’d never done before” (474). The tone for the first and second passages is so lighthearted and nostalgic that it reads like a children’s novel.

The third passage, “The Tea Party”, is where the tone starts the shift. The children and kind headmaster of Tomoe give a farewell party to the janitor, Ryo-chan, who “could do anything” and is a “guardian angel” (474). While reading, you can feel the love and admiration Totto-chan has for him. This party, although a fond memory for everyone, makes the reader silently wonder why the janitor must leave. Once you apply context and finish the passage, you understand that Ryo-chan must leave to fight in the war, and most likely, never return home (746). The tone immediately changes and the reader must now picture an older Tetsuko writing about her past rather than little Totto-chan happily recounting her present. 

“The ‘tea-party’ was a wonderful farewell gift that Ryo-chan left the children. And although none of them had the faintest idea then, it was in fact the last game they were to play at Tomoe before the children parted and went their separate ways” (476). I think one of the reasons Totto-Chan reads like a children’s book is because Tetsuko’s time at Tomoe was so unique that it seems fictional. Life for Totto-chan was forever altered by the war and Tomoe was destroyed. Perhaps her past also seemed foreign to her, and the only way to remember and look back on those short, precious moments was writing this book.