DREAM OF JUJUBE TREES - RECOLLECTION OF SINO-JAPANESE WAR (English, Second Edition, with photos) -“What did Dad Do, Feel and Learn in the War?”
In July, 1938, about one year after Sino-Japanese War (the Second, 1937-1945) started, Harutaro was called up by the Japanese army and dispatched to the Chinese front as a squad leader in Second Platoon, Fourth Company of Fukuchiyama Infantry Regiment 120.
His troop landed at Shanghai and arrived at Anqing in November 1938. The previous month, the Japanese army had succeeded in occupying Wuhan district and just entered into tightening the security measures along the Yangtze River. The Chinese soldiers strongly resisted the Japanese army and frequently attacked and annoyed them.
In the first battle, he ran desperately in the moon light across rice paddies, soaked deep in muddy water. Machine gun bullets, making tearing sounds, splashed water all around him. He saw fellow soldiers right and left shot down. In another battle, almost no place to take cover inside the forest, one of his men frantically dug a hole in the ground and got his head stuck into it. In fierce battles over four years, he was hit three times in the body and eight more on a duffle bag, canteen, shovel and other things.
Strange to say, what impressed him most on the battlefield of China was grandiose nature of China and people living there. Despite the wartime, he felt interested in Chinese language and learned it from the women in the vicinity of the outpost. He also enjoyed galloping a horse along the Yangtze River - an exciting memory which remained long in his heart.
In April, 2001, he passed away in the hospital near Lake Biwa at the age of 88. After the incineration of his body in the crematory, a piece of lead shot having lurked near his heart was found in the funeral ashes.
In July, 1938, about one year after Sino-Japanese War (the Second, 1937-1945) started, Harutaro was called up by the Japanese army and dispatched to the Chinese front as a squad leader in Second Platoon, Fourth Company of Fukuchiyama Infantry Regiment 120.
His troop landed at Shanghai and arrived at Anqing in November 1938. The previous month, the Japanese army had succeeded in occupying Wuhan district and just entered into tightening the security measures along the Yangtze River. The Chinese soldiers strongly resisted the Japanese army and frequently attacked and annoyed them.
In the first battle, he ran desperately in the moon light across rice paddies, soaked deep in muddy water. Machine gun bullets, making tearing sounds, splashed water all around him. He saw fellow soldiers right and left shot down. In another battle, almost no place to take cover inside the forest, one of his men frantically dug a hole in the ground and got his head stuck into it. In fierce battles over four years, he was hit three times in the body and eight more on a duffle bag, canteen, shovel and other things.
Strange to say, what impressed him most on the battlefield of China was grandiose nature of China and people living there. Despite the wartime, he felt interested in Chinese language and learned it from the women in the vicinity of the outpost. He also enjoyed galloping a horse along the Yangtze River - an exciting memory which remained long in his heart.
In April, 2001, he passed away in the hospital near Lake Biwa at the age of 88. After the incineration of his body in the crematory, a piece of lead shot having lurked near his heart was found in the funeral ashes.
