Yamane Keiko was born in Ishigaki Island in 1924. Because her parents passed away when she was small, she and her elder sister were raised by their grandparents. After graduating from Ishigaki Primary School, she migrated to Taiwan with her good friend. Her sister was already in Taiwan and working in a university professor's house. Thus, she went to Taiwan intending to rely on her sister.

Author: What options did pupils have after graduating from a primary school?

Yamane: As for my friend, I guess most people went to Taiwan.

Author: It sounds like people yearned to go to Taiwan.

Yamane: Yes, I wanted to go to Taiwan because…the reason why I wanted to go there was the fact that there was electricity and water supply. It was very attractive to me. Well, here we had to draw water from a well in this way, didn’t we? We had to draw water and use a lamp. Thinking of it, I thought the [Taipei] city was great and so convenient.