The U.S. military interrogation record that the man signed is seen in this partially modified image. Among its contents, it requires the signatory to confirm they were "informed not to discuss this trip with anyone." (Mainichi/Noriko Tokuno)
KITAKYUSHU -- "That's certainly my handwriting," the 93-year-old man said, staring at a signature on a U.S. military interrogation record at his home in collective housing in east Japan's Kanagawa Prefecture.
The highly classified documents detail how 60 Japanese people, including individuals stationed at U.S. military bases in Japan, went with American forces to the Korean Peninsula during the Korean War (1950-1953), with 18 of them joining the fighting. The man was one of those 18.
After the Mainichi Shimbun obtained the documents, it decided to track down the surviving man described in it. The interrogation record states that the individuals involved cannot talk to third parties about them going to the Korean Peninsula; their signatures mean the documents are also written oaths.
Seventy-one years have passed since the Korean War broke out. "A lot of what happened at the time I can't talk about, because I promised my (U.S. military) regiment," the man stressed before carefully providing the living testimony of a Japanese person who fought as part of a military in the postwar Japan years, when the country had followed a path of peace.
The interrogation record was included among highly classified documents concerning the unauthorized transport and use of Japanese people in South Korea. In late March this year, the man spoke to the Mainichi Shimbun.
He was born in 1928, in the southwest Japan city of Oita. He did not join the conflict during the Pacific War, and began work after the war at a U.S. military base in Oita Prefecture. Later, after the regiment moved, he worked in the kitchen for the canteen at Camp Chickamauga in the prefectural city of Beppu.
In June 1950 the Korean War began, and it seemed a matter of course that he would accompany the U.S. military on their journey to the peninsula. "I wanted to go with those American soldiers I got on well with. I thought, if the absolute worst happens then that's just how it is. If I didn't accept that, I couldn't go." As is written in the interrogation document, he said that he took part of his own volition.
The man who worked as a cook for the U.S. military and later traveled with them to the Korean Peninsula is seen headed to the hospital in this image taken in Kanagawa Prefecture in on March 25, 2021. He parted with the Mainichi Shimbun's reporter by saying: "War is not a good thing." (Mainichi/Akira Iida)
According to the interrogation document and other sources, the man went to the Korean Peninsula on July 3, 1950. He went with the U.S. Army's 19th Infantry Regiment of the 24th Infantry Division. In mid-July the regiment suffered disastrous losses in the Battle of Taejon's fierce fighting. "I don't really remember, but at any rate, I escaped from the gunfire," he said. He was made to carry a carbine, but didn't fire it.
In the middle of the chaos, he lost sight of the other Japanese man in the regiment. He was Minefumi Yoshiwara, then 21 and from Beppu. His safety could not be confirmed, according to classified U.S. military files and diplomatic papers kept in the Diplomatic Archives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan.
The man reflected on his friendship 71 years ago, saying, "I knew Yoshiwara really well. We were about the same age. I didn't know we worked on the same base until we left Japan, but we became friends really quickly. 'Let's do our best together,' we'd say."
A majority of the 60 Japanese people described in the documents went to the Korean Peninsula immediately after war broke out, in around July 1950, and returned home about seven months later in January and February 1951.
Many of them were from the major southwestern Japan island of Kyushu, and mostly workers on military bases around age 20. The man who spoke to the Mainichi Shimbun was 22 when he came back to Japan. "I hadn't realized there were so many Japanese people like me. I only knew about my own regiment," he said with surprise.
His time on the Korean Peninsula ended after just over six months. The interrogation record dated Feb. 17, 1951, says that he told the U.S. military he had been well treated, but that even if he had the opportunity he would not want to return to South Korea.
In the over 70 years since signing that document, he has never spoken about the terrible events he experienced. "I promised the U.S. military I would never speak about what I went through on the Korean Peninsula. They told me it cannot become public knowledge."
These days he lives with his wife, who needs care. He also has underlying conditions, and must frequently attend hospital. I asked him what he thinks now about his part in the Korean War. He just said, "War is not a good thing. There are things I can't forget even if I want to. Let me leave it at that. I've not long left."
The then Defense Facilities Administration Agency, an organization active during the allied occupation of Japan, kept records of Japanese casualties in the Korean War. According to its records, 57 of the country's citizens died while engaging in logistics support for the U.S. military, such as port services.
But when comparing the highly classified U.S. military documents obtained by the Mainichi Shimbun with the diplomatic papers kept at the Diplomatic Archives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan, it was found that two Japanese nationals working on U.S. military bases and staying with their forces were confirmed to have died in the Korean War -- one aboard a U.S. Navy minesweeper, the other in a land battle. When added to the totals from the records from the Defense Facilities Administration Agency, it shows that 59 Japanese people died in the Korean War.
(Japanese original by Akira Iida, Kyushu News Department)
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