Other stories tell of her mother bringing a large number of goods with them to the countryside, where they were bartered for food.
In one anecdote, her mother traded a German-made sewing machine for 60 kilograms (130 lb) of rice to feed the family.
When Ono later rejoined her family, she enrolled at nearby Sarah Lawrence College.
During this time, Ono's father, who had been in Hanoi, was believed to be in a prisoner of war camp in China.
However, unbeknownst the them, he remained in the city.
She received a Golden Lion Award for lifetime achievement from the Venice Biennale in 2009 and the 2012 Oskar Kokoschka Prize, Austria's highest award for applied contemporary art.
As Lennon's widow, Ono works to preserve his legacy.