By Fumitaka Sato
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On April 19, 83-year-old Ishinosuke Uwano, a former-Japanese soldier, returned temporarily to Japan for the first time in 63 years.
In 1943, when he was 20 years old, he was drafted into the Japanese Imperial Army and was stationed in Sakhalin during World War . After the war ended he stayed there. However, in 1958 all contact with him was lost and in 2000 the Japanese government pronounced him a casualty of war.
However, last December it was confirmed that he was living in Zhitomir, Ukraine with his Ukrainian wife, a son and two daughters. Finally, his dream to reunite with his family living in Japan came true. Because he had lived in Ukraine for 60 years, he had forgotten most of his Japanese. He said in Russian that this homecoming is his destiny. He was delighted to add, "Japan became a beautiful and wonderful country. I'm really, really happy." When he met with his family, they embraced him and joy seemed to fill their hearts.
According to the files of the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare research division, the number of Japanese soldiers stationed in Soviet Russia before and during the war who were reported missing and were later pronounced dead number over 2,000. Out of this number no one had been confirmed as alive for the last five years, so UwanoĠs case is very rare.
The reason Uwano ended up living in Soviet Russia originated at the Yalta Conference held in February 1945, where the Allied Powers promised Soviet Russia that they could control interests in Manchuria and have dominion the over Kuril Islands in compensation for Russia's entry into World War against Germany and Japan.
During their time in Siberia, about 650,000 soldiers and noncombatants stationed in Manchuria and Sakhalin were interned as prisoners of war and about 60,000 of them died during captivity. However, a total of about 473,000 prisoners have been released since 1947, but some were not able to come back for a variety of reasons. Some chose to stay in Soviet Russia and others were simply forgotten by the Soviet authorities and came back home later.
Life in the internment camps was terrible. Some prisoners had to empty the coal from train cars within a limited time while the train was stopped. Because they were always in a haste to do that, they did not have enough time to wipe their own sweat. It is said that many of them lost their hands and feet to frostbite because they had to work outdoors in the Siberian winter in temperatures of -30 degrees to -40 degrees centigrade. To make matter worse, Soviet Russia authorities used the slogan, "Idlers can't eat anything." Therefore, workers were always given heavy workloads and they were rationed to differently according to their achievements.
Though many prisoners tried in vain to escape from such terrible conditions, most of them were unable to escape and were shot to death by guards. However, some of them succeeded in escaping from the camp by hiding under the floor of the train and came home to Japan. (see:Runaway from Siberia, Kokushokankoukai,1984).
Today, Japanese understand that Japan fought World War as a historical fact only, but unfortunately, people who donĠt know how miserable and barbarous the war was are increasing. In addition to this, memories of the war are fading because people who experienced the war are passing away.
Uwano was one of those prisoners who survived sever hardships. His homecoming reminds us of one bitter scene from history; the interment in Siberia. Hopefully, Uwano's homecoming will help the Japanese to remember what the war was like and we can only hope that Uwano is the last Japanese soldier to be found.
However, unfortunately another prisoner, 79-year-old Yoshiteru Nakagawa, returned home from Russia on July 2. He wants to live in Japan permanently, and it is hoped that the Japanese government fulfills his desire as soon as possible.