06-07-2025
Memory of detention in Mongolia still fresh for 107-year-old Japanese man
As Emperor Naruhito and Empress Masako departed Japan for an official visit to Mongolia on Sunday, Shuzo Yamada recalls his internment experience in the country nearly 80 years ago, a memory that remains vivid for the 107-year-old Japanese man.
The imperial couple will offer flowers Tuesday at a memorial for Japanese who were captured by the Soviet Union after World War II and died while detained in Mongolia.
"Without water or food, I had an unimaginable experience," says Yamada, who heads the national association for former detainees and now lives in Nanto, Toyama Prefecture.
In July 1941, at age 23, Yamada received his draft notice, just six months after getting married. He was sent to Manchuria, now northeastern China, where he was assigned to guard aviation fuel at an airfield, among other duties. While in Manchuria, he learned of the birth of his first son. But the baby died when he was 3 months old without ever meeting his father.
Yamada was at an airfield near Dalian, China, when World War II ended.
He thought he could return home, but he was captured by Soviet personnel and forced into labor for the demolition of a coal-fired power plant in Manchuria. That lasted for about three months from September 1945.
In December that year, he was transported to Mongolia. At Harbin railway station, he saw three young soldiers being shot dead while attempting to escape.
In Mongolia, Yamada initially lived in a cave in a meadow and then moved to a camp near the Mongolian capital of Ulaanbaatar in April 1946. He endured extreme cold, with nighttime temperatures dropping to minus 30 degrees Celsius. Even in July, he burned a stove fueled by animal feces.
"It's an unthinkable life for Japanese people today," Yamada says.
He returned to Japan in November 1947. Since then, he has dedicated his life to preserving the memory of the detentions and commemorating the victims. In 2005, he spearheaded a project to install a memorial in Takaoka, Toyama Prefecture, inscribed with the names of people who were born in the prefecture and died during detention in Mongolia. He attends a related memorial service every September.
Having witnessed a fellow detainee express despair the night before he died, Yamada never lost his determination to 'definitely go home.'
Citing Russia's invasion of Ukraine and the situation in Gaza, he stresses, "War should never be started."
