Kobayashi hated publicity about the school and its unconventionality, and this in a way kept it protected. Tetsuko recounts “Even as I write I realise how many episodes that just seem happy childhood memories to me, were in fact, activities carefully thought out by him to achieve certain results.” Readers may wonder how the authorities in wartime Japan allowed such a free school to exist. On sports day he gave away carrots and cabbages so that children could earn a meal for their family. He also wanted the handicapped children in the school to be more accepting of their bodies. He allowed young children to swim naked in the pool so that they get over the curiosity of their bodies. Everyday for lunch he asked the children to bring something from the hills and something from the ocean - to have a balance in what they ate.
Some of the methods in his school were very unusual. Kobayashi believed in freedom of expression and activity.
She attributes it to the headmaster, his love for children and his educational philosophy. In the book, she recounts the story of her own life and the lives of many children and how each one of them who survived, created a future for themselves and their country during the darkest of times. Totto Chan - The Little girl at the window written by Tetsuko Kuroyanagi is a recollection of the author’s formative experiences at this wonderful school. Sosaku Kobayashi kept these children protected from the war outside, until the day each child went on to meet his/her own destiny. But it existed in Japan during the Second World War when just outside the horrors of war unfolded. The school sounds idyllic and almost out of a fairytale. The school was called Tomoe Gakuen and its extraordinary founder and headmaster was Sosaku Kobayashi.
They came to school and camped there at night. Where bogeys were converted to class rooms where each child had his/her own tree where they worked all morning on subjects of their choice and then went on long walks, by the stream in the afternoon. The headmaster was from a school situated in an abandoned railroad car, in a large ground. He also added, “children you may not understand it now, but someday when you grow up you will understand these words”. If you ask children what they are frightened of, they may well say they fear darkness or ghosts, or bullies, or tigers…And what would you respond to that?Ī headmaster of a school asked this question of children and then told them, “Having eyes but not seeing beauty having ears but not hearing music having minds, but not perceiving the truth having hearts that are never moved and therefore never set on fire.
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