Interview with Anna: A Ukrainian Evacuee’s Story
GOJOplus, with support from The Nippon Foundation, has been working in partnership with Gyokuto Town Hall in Tamana-gun, Kumamoto Prefecture to implement the Ukrainian Evacuee Support Program known as the Orange Network Project (ONP). Through ONP, Gyokuto Town has welcomed 17 Ukrainian evacuees from 6 households since August 2022.
We sat down with Anna (not her real name), who arrived in Gyokuto as part of the second evacuee household and continues to call the town home, to hear about her life in Japan and what’s on her mind these days. The latter part of this article also shares some reflections from ONP members about Anna and the Ukrainian evacuees they’ve come to know.
Coming to Japan and Memories with ONP Members
I’ve been living in Gyokuto with my son since October 2022. The town is surrounded by nature, and the people here are warm and welcoming — I genuinely enjoy every day of life here.
The ONP members are close friends to us Ukrainian evacuees, and a true source of emotional support. They’ve taught us so much about living in Japan — not just practical help when we first arrived, but the language, the knowledge we need for everyday life, and how to enjoy Japanese culture through the seasons. We’ve shared so many adventures together: hiking in the autumn mountains, experiencing our first hot spring — “Suzume no Yu” — on a day trip to Aso, and going strawberry picking, which Kumamoto is famous for.
One memory that’s especially dear to me is when we cooked traditional Ukrainian dishes — borscht (a soup made with beets) and nalysnyky (Ukrainian-style crepes) — together with ONP members and served them at an event in Kumamoto City. The recipes and ingredients were suggested by us Ukrainian evacuees. The food was so popular that a long line formed, and everything sold out within a few hours. To help people feel a little of Ukraine’s culture, we wore the traditional Ukrainian embroidered dress called vyshyvanka — white with red stitching. Being able to share a piece of our homeland with people there truly made me happy.
What brought me to Japan was Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. I had taken refuge in Poland for a time, but as a neighboring country it was overwhelmed with people fleeing the war, and the situation was crowded and chaotic. My son had always been interested in Japan, and above all I wanted to keep him safe, so I began looking for another place to go. I found information about ONP online and decided to come to Japan.
When I arrived, I couldn’t speak any Japanese at all, and my son had only started studying the language a few months before we came. Very few people in the town spoke Ukrainian, or even English, and the language barrier was a real struggle at first. But through the support of so many people — via ONP, the town hall, orientations about Japanese culture and daily life held with interpreters, and events where we could experience Japanese culture firsthand — I can now communicate in Japanese without any trouble. I’ve grown very fond of the kind people here and the beautiful natural surroundings. I love Japanese food too — especially salmon and tuna sushi, seafood rice bowls, and dashimaki tamago (rolled omelette).
Life in Japan and Thoughts of Home
I currently work at a hotel in Kumamoto City. I find so much meaning in working alongside cheerful, friendly colleagues who support one another, and in meeting tourists from all over the world.
My son is still enrolled in a Ukrainian high school and attends classes online. There’s a six-hour time difference between Ukraine and Japan, so a class that starts at 9:00 AM in Ukraine begins at 3:00 PM here. Adjusting to that schedule was tough at first, but he’s gotten used to it now and even manages to balance it with a part-time job.
Even as life in Japan has started to feel natural, I still miss home deeply. I think often of my parents and my beloved dog, who are still in Ukraine.
I hope to spend my remaining time here peacefully, and I look forward to the day when I can be reunited with my family.
What Anna Means to the ONP Team
Anna is someone who approaches everything with strong determination and genuine enthusiasm. She is dedicated to learning Japanese — writing down words she doesn’t know, asking questions again and again until she understands — and we deeply respect her effort and positive attitude. When looking for work, she found a place she wanted to work at on her own and went directly to the shop to ask if they would hire her. Her initiative and drive never cease to amaze us. From what we hear, her hard work and warm personality have made her someone colleagues can truly rely on.
Anna is also an incredibly talented cook. She once made us her mother’s specialty — oven-baked mackerel stuffed with lemon and vegetables, topped with cheese and wrapped in foil — and it was absolutely delicious. When Ukrainian food was prepared and sold at the Kumamoto City event, Anna and the other Ukrainians worked with impressive efficiency, serving customers with big smiles and genuine warmth. It was a sight that stuck with us.
For us, the Ukrainian evacuees have become dear friends and cherished companions. Watching them approach their lives with such positivity, work so hard at learning Japanese, and make such genuine efforts to understand Japanese culture — if anything, they are the ones who encourage and inspire us. Getting together for a meal every now and then is something we all look forward to. The war is heartbreaking and inexcusable, but we are grateful for the connection it brought us.
We hope, always and above all, for a world where the people of Ukraine can live safely wherever they choose, and see whoever they love whenever they want. No matter how our lives and circumstances may change down the road, we hope to remain people who truly care for one another.
Article by: GOJOplus
