I found a job immediately after graduation in 1934 and worked overseas for a while. Just as the war was winding down in 1944, I was unexpectedly recruited oto fight as I was moving on business from Shanghai to Hankou and was forced to fight on the front lines near Shanghai. Although I had been rejected during the draft because of my nearsightedness and astigmatism, it was assumed that I would make an adquate human barricade, so I suddenly became an enlisted man at the age of 34. It was quite a shock.
After that I was forced into absurd hard labor that defies all description. We didn't get enough to fill our stomachs, but had more than our share of cruelty and wretchedness. The year the war ended, 1945, my luck had it that I was transferred for three months to Manchuria, which was later invaded by the Soviets. I was only a human barricade for a breif time before being taken prisoner and spending two months traveling in freight trains that ordinarily carried domesticated animals to Siberia. During my stint in prisoner-of-war camps, I moved from one end of Siberia to the other--to the border of Kazakhstan and China to the Pamir plateau. We were forced into hard labor for two winters and three summers.
I passed the four years after my consicription in this way. I was often beaten up and barely managed to survive life-threatening situations a number of times. I returned to a bombed-out Tokyo in 1947, a shadow of my former self as mere skin and bones. The immediate postwar period was a terrible time with food extremely scarce. I made every effort to live my life anew. Fortunately, I was able to get proper nutrition and my wight went up to 70 kilograms during a stay in the Unite States from 1952-1956. At that point, I thought my bad luck was behind me.
But unfortunately it wasn't. -omission-
After that I was forced into absurd hard labor that defies all description. We didn't get enough to fill our stomachs, but had more than our share of cruelty and wretchedness. The year the war ended, 1945, my luck had it that I was transferred for three months to Manchuria, which was later invaded by the Soviets. I was only a human barricade for a breif time before being taken prisoner and spending two months traveling in freight trains that ordinarily carried domesticated animals to Siberia. During my stint in prisoner-of-war camps, I moved from one end of Siberia to the other--to the border of Kazakhstan and China to the Pamir plateau. We were forced into hard labor for two winters and three summers.
I passed the four years after my consicription in this way. I was often beaten up and barely managed to survive life-threatening situations a number of times. I returned to a bombed-out Tokyo in 1947, a shadow of my former self as mere skin and bones. The immediate postwar period was a terrible time with food extremely scarce. I made every effort to live my life anew. Fortunately, I was able to get proper nutrition and my wight went up to 70 kilograms during a stay in the Unite States from 1952-1956. At that point, I thought my bad luck was behind me.
But unfortunately it wasn't. -omission-