Even if you have relatives who can tell you about the roots of your family in detail, it's rather hard to hand down the stories you've heard to future generations. With the help of his father, for example, Art Spiegelman succeeded in completing his masterpiece Maus, but it was obviously nothing but agony for him to draw the graphic novel dealing with the memories of the Holocaust which not only affected his family, but almost all Jewish families during WWII.
More or less, memories of the 20th century are connected with wars. It's painful for children or grandchildren to relive the horrors of war, but the narrators often look happy to share their experiences. I remember my maternal grandma joyfully talked about the past in the northeastern part of China with her husband who passed away not so long after the end of WWII.
While I have no memories of my grandparents on my paternal side, my father has repeatedly talked about his family since I was a very young child. Honestly speaking, I was bored with them because I thought they were his memories not mine. Recently, however, my father published his autobiography, which his grandchildren can read, and I found myself really wanting to know about my roots and what happened in my family.
The book tells how my grandpa, who neither my father nor I remember, lived with my grandma, who I also never met, on a small island in the Inland Sea of Japan. I'd like to thank my father for writing his autobiography, and I hope to write about my maternal grandparents myself someday.
