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Last soldiers of Imperial Japanese Army have a warning for younger generations

Japan Times

11 hours ago

General
Japan Times

Last soldiers of Imperial Japanese Army have a warning for younger generations

Kunshiro Kiyozumi is a small man with gray hair and a stooped back who lives alone and still pedals his bicycle to the supermarket. At 97, he cuts an unprepossessing figure to the younger shoppers busy texting while filling their carts, unaware that his life contains a dramatic story shaped by history's deadliest war. At age 15, Kiyozumi became the youngest sailor aboard the I-58, an attack submarine of the Imperial Japanese navy. In the closing days of World War II, it prowled the Pacific Ocean, torpedoing six Allied ships, including the heavy cruiser USS Indianapolis, which it sank. He served in a military that committed atrocities in a march across Asia, as Japan fought in a brutal global conflict that was brought to an end with the atomic bombings of two of its cities. All told, World War II killed at least 60 million people worldwide. But the living veterans such as Kiyozumi were not the admirals or generals who directed Japan's imperial plans. They were young sailors and foot soldiers in a war that was not of their making. Most were still in their midteens when they were sent to far-flung battlefields from India to the South Pacific, where some were abandoned in jungles to starve or left bearing dark secrets when the empire fell. A photograph of Kenichi Ozaki when he enlisted in the Imperial Japanese Army at age 15 during World War II, at his home in Kyoto, on April 27. | Ko Sasaki / The New York Times After Japan surrendered on Aug. 15, 1945, they returned to a defeated nation that showed little interest in their sacrifices, eager to put aside both painful memories and uncomfortable questions about its wartime aggression. Kiyozumi lived a quiet life, working at a utility company installing the electrical wires that helped power Japan's reconstruction. Over time, his former crewmates died, but he rarely spoke about his wartime experiences. "I am the last one left,' Kiyozumi said in his home, showing fading photographs of the sub and himself as a young sailor. As the 80th anniversary of the war's end approaches, the number of veterans still alive is rapidly dwindling. There were only 792 Japanese war veterans still collecting government pensions as of March, half the number of a year earlier. Now in their upper 90s and 100s, they will take with them the last living memories of horrors and ordeals, but also of bravery and sacrifice — powerful accounts that hold extra meaning now, as Japan builds up its military after decades of pacifism. Here are some of their stories. Starved in the jungle Kenichi Ozaki was 15 when he enlisted in 1943, as most young men were expected to do as the tide of war turned against Japan. Told that it was a righteous cause, he joined the Imperial Japanese Army out of middle school in rural western Japan over his parents' objections. Less than halfway through his training to become a radio operator, Ozaki was rushed to the Philippines, where the Americans had arrived to try to reclaim their former colony from the Japanese. Poorly equipped and ill-prepared, the Japanese force was quickly routed. Ozaki, 97, who, after joining the Imperial Japanese Army out of middle school, was deployed to the Philippines, where he stayed until the end of World War II, at his home computer, on which he now does day trading, in Kyoto on April 27. | Ko Sasaki / The New York Times The demoralized survivors fled into the jungle, where they wandered for months. Ozaki watched those around him fall from attacks by Philippine guerrillas or starvation. While he survived on leaves and stolen crops, Ozaki saw soldiers eat what appeared to be the bodies of dead comrades. After the war, he returned to Japan, where he made a career at a company making electrical parts, rising to executive. For a half-century, he didn't speak of the war. He broke his silence when he realized how few people knew what his fallen comrades had endured. Now 97, Ozaki still dreams of those left behind, told they were dying for the glory of the empire, but sent into combat with no hope of victory. "In their last breaths, no one shouted for the long life of the emperor,' said Ozaki, who lives in Kyoto with his son, also retired. "They called out for their mothers, whom they would never see again.' Kept a dark secret For more than 70 years, Hideo Shimizu kept silent about the horrors that he experienced. Born in the village of Miyata in mountainous central Japan, he didn't know much about the war when he was forced to enlist in a youth brigade in 1945 at the age of 14. Because he was dexterous, a teacher recommended him for a special assignment. Hideo Shimizu, 95, who was part of the secretive Unit 731 developing new weapons for the Imperial Japanese Army, which he was told never to speak about after World War II, at his home in Miyata, Japan, May 15 | Ko Sasaki / The New York Times After days of travel by ship and train, Shimizu arrived in Harbin in Japanese-controlled Manchuria, where he learned he would be joining Unit 731, a secretive group developing new weapons. At first, Shimizu dissected rats. Then, he was taken to see the unit's real experiments. He never forgot the sight: Chinese civilians and captured Allied soldiers preserved in formaldehyde, their bodies flayed open or cut into pieces. They had been infected with bacteria and dissected alive to see the effects on living tissue. When the war ended, his unit escaped the advancing Soviets by rushing back to Japan, where he was told never to speak again about their work. Despite constant nightmares, Shimizu obeyed as he started a new life running a small construction company. In 2015, he accompanied a relative to a museum where a photograph of Unit 731's base was displayed. When he started explaining the buildings in detail, the museum's curator happened to overhear and persuaded him to speak in public. Now 95, Shimizu tries to combat the denials proliferating online about atrocities committed by Unit 731. "Only the very youngest of us are left,' Shimizu said. "When we are gone, will people forget the terrible things that happened?' Marched into a trap Sitting in the living room of his wooden home in the rice-growing village of Osonogo in mountainous Niigata Prefecture, Tetsuo Sato, 105, still seethes with anger over a battle fought long ago. After growing up as one of 12 children who didn't always have enough to eat, Sato left this village in 1940 to join the army. He ended up in Japanese-occupied Burma (now Myanmar) just as Japan was planning an offensive against the city of Imphal, across a mountain range in British-ruled India. Tetsuo Sato, 105, who belonged to the 58th Infantry Regiment of the 31st Division of the Imperial Japanese Army in World War II, outside his home with his daughter-in-law, Kuniko Sato, and his dog in Osonogo, a village in Niigata Prefecture, on June 10. | Ko Sasaki / The New York Times Proclaiming that their soldiers' fighting spirit would prevail, the Japanese generals sent them without adequate weapons or supply lines, ordering them never to retreat. At first, the enemy troops appeared to flee, but it was a trap. When the British surrounded them, Sato escaped only because his commander disobeyed the orders and pulled back. Even then, many died from starvation and disease as they fled back to Burma. "They wasted our lives like pieces of scrap paper,' Sato said. "Never die for emperor or country.' Enlisted at 14 Tadanori Suzuki was also keen to help his country when he enlisted in the Imperial Japanese Navy at age 14. He regretted it right away when the officers regularly struck the new recruits. The beatings stopped only when he was sent to the tropical island of Sulawesi, now in Indonesia, which the Japanese had seized from the Dutch. Tadanori Suzuki, 96, who enlisted in the Imperial Japanese Navy at age 14 during World War II and was deployed to what is now Indonesia, holds a photograph of himself at age 16 before his deployment, at his home in Tokyo on April 17. | Ko Sasaki / The New York Times There, he trained on a small torpedo boat, spending sleepy weeks in the heat and tasting bananas for the first time. The idyll ended when a U.S. destroyer was spotted. His boat was one of eight sent to intercept it. As they sped toward the gray enemy vessel, Suzuki heard the "bam-bam-bam' of its guns. When he pulled a lever to launch a torpedo, he saw a pillar of flame rise from the U.S. ship. "A hit! A hit!' he yelled. But three of the Japanese boats never returned. Lacking fuel and ammunition, his squadron never forayed out again. Captured at the war's end, it took him six months to get home. When he knocked on his door, his mother burst into tears. "I thought you were dead,' she said, then prepared him a bath. After retiring from his job as a carpenter, he started speaking to elementary schools near his home in Tokyo, warning them that there is no romanticism in war. "I tell the younger generations, 'A long time ago, we did something really stupid,'' says Suzuki, 96. "Don't go to war. Stay home with your parents and families.' Fought for the empire One sunny April day, Masao Go, 97, was at a Buddhist temple near his home in Yokohama to watch the placement of a stone with calligraphy etched into its face: "Taiwan our fatherland, Japan our motherland.' Go was born in Taiwan when it was a Japanese colony. His parents sent him to school in Tokyo, where he learned to be a proud citizen of the Japanese empire. In 1944, he joined the Imperial Japanese Army, eager to fight for a cause that he embraced as his own. Trained as a radio operator on a bomber, he was assigned to an air base in Japanese-occupied Korea. His unit was told to prepare for a final attack against U.S. forces on Okinawa, but Japan surrendered before the order came. Captured by Soviet troops, he was sent to a prison camp in Kazakhstan. By the time of his release two years later, Taiwan was part of China. Go went instead to Japan, where he became a banker in Yokohama's vibrant Chinatown. After hiding his military service for years, he now talks about it, concerned that Japan and Taiwan face a new threat, this time from China seeking to expand its dominance in Asia. He erected the stone, which honors the 30,000 Taiwanese who died fighting for Japan in World War II, to remind Japan of its connection to Taiwan, now a self-governing island that China vows to reclaim by force. "A threat to Taiwan is a threat to Japan,' Go said. "We are bound by history.' Forgotten by his nation Kiyozumi, the youngest sailor aboard the I-58, still vividly remembers the day in July 1945 when the I-58's lookouts spotted an approaching U.S. warship. The submarine dived to fire its torpedoes. The captain watched through the periscope as the enemy vessel capsized and sank. Kiyozumi at a restaurant in Matsuyama, Japan, on April 29 | Ko Sasaki / The New York Times Years later, Kiyozumi learned that their target had been the USS Indianapolis, which had just delivered parts of the atomic bombs to the island of Tinian for use against Japanese cities to end the war. Of the U.S. ship's 1,200 sailors, only 300 survived. "It was war,' Kiyozumi said, expressing sorrow but not regret. "We killed hundreds of theirs, but they had just transported the atomic bomb.' Although Kiyozumi once corresponded with a survivor of the U.S. warship, he feels forgotten and alone. His wife died three decades ago; his best friend on the I-58 died in 2020. No one in his town asks about the war. "Young people don't know what we went through,' he said. "They are more interested in their smartphones.' This article originally appeared in The New York Times © 2025 The New York Times Company

Last Soldiers of an Imperial Army Have a Warning for Young Generations

New York Times

2 days ago

General
New York Times

Last Soldiers of an Imperial Army Have a Warning for Young Generations

Today in History: Trinity nuclear weapon test

Boston Globe

16-07-2025

Boston Globe

Today in History: Trinity nuclear weapon test

Advertisement In 1862, Flag Officer David G. Farragut became the first rear admiral in the US Navy. In 1945, the United States exploded its first experimental atomic bomb in the desert of Alamogordo, N.M.; the same day, the heavy cruiser USS Indianapolis left Mare Island Naval Shipyard in California on a secret mission to deliver atomic bomb components to Tinian Island in the Marianas. In 1951, the novel 'The Catcher in the Rye' by J.D. Salinger was first published by Little, Brown and Co. In 1957, Marine Corps Major John Glenn set a transcontinental speed record by flying a Vought F8U Crusader jet from California to New York in 3 hours, 23 minutes and 8.4 seconds. In 1964, as he accepted the Republican presidential nomination in San Francisco, Barry M. Goldwater declared that 'extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice' and that 'moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue.' Advertisement In 1969, Apollo 11 launched from Cape Kennedy in Florida on the first manned mission to the surface of the moon. In 1999, John F. Kennedy Jr., his wife, Carolyn, and her sister, Lauren Bessette, died when their single-engine plane, piloted by Kennedy, plunged into the Atlantic Ocean near Martha's Vineyard. In 2004, Martha Stewart was sentenced to five months in prison and five months of home confinement by a federal judge in New York for lying about a stock sale. In 2008, Florida resident Casey Anthony, whose 2-year-old daughter, Caylee, had been missing a month, was arrested on charges of child neglect, making false official statements and obstructing a criminal investigation. (Casey Anthony was later acquitted at trial of murdering Caylee, whose skeletal remains were found in December 2008; Casey was convicted of lying to police.) In 2015, a jury in Centennial, Colo., convicted James Holmes of 165 counts of murder, attempted murder and other charges in the 2012 Aurora movie theater rampage that left 12 people dead. In 2017, 10 people died at a popular swimming hole in Arizona's Tonto National Forest after a rainstorm unleashed a flash flood. In 2018, after meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Helsinki, President Trump openly questioned the finding of his own intelligence agencies that Russia had meddled in the 2016 U.S. election to his benefit. (Trump said a day later that he misspoke.)

Today in History: Martha Stewart sentenced

Chicago Tribune

16-07-2025

Chicago Tribune

Today in History: Martha Stewart sentenced

Today is Wednesday, July 16, the 197th day of 2025. There are 168 days left in the year. Today in History: On July 16, 2004, Martha Stewart was sentenced to five months in prison and five months of home confinement by a federal judge in New York for lying about a stock sale. Also on this date: In 1790, a site along the Potomac River was designated the permanent seat of the United States government; the area became Washington, D.C. In 1862, Flag Officer David G. Farragut became the first rear admiral in the United States Navy. In 1945, the United States exploded its first experimental atomic bomb in the desert of Alamogordo, New Mexico; the same day, the heavy cruiser USS Indianapolis left Mare Island Naval Shipyard in California on a secret mission to deliver atomic bomb components to Tinian Island in the Marianas. In 1951, the novel 'The Catcher in the Rye' by J.D. Salinger was first published by Little, Brown and Co. In 1957, Marine Corps Maj. John Glenn set a transcontinental speed record by flying a Vought F8U Crusader jet from California to New York in 3 hours, 23 minutes and 8.4 seconds. In 1964, as he accepted the Republican presidential nomination in San Francisco, Barry M. Goldwater declared that 'extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice' and that 'moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue.' In 1969, Apollo 11 launched from Cape Kennedy in Florida on the first manned mission to the surface of the moon. In 1999, John F. Kennedy Jr., his wife, Carolyn, and her sister, Lauren Bessette, died when their single-engine plane, piloted by Kennedy, plunged into the Atlantic Ocean near Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts. In 2008, Florida resident Casey Anthony, whose 2-year-old daughter, Caylee, had been missing a month, was arrested on charges of child neglect, making false official statements and obstructing a criminal investigation. (Casey Anthony was later acquitted at trial of murdering Caylee, whose skeletal remains were found in December 2008; Casey was convicted of lying to police.) In 2015, a jury in Centennial, Colorado, convicted James Holmes of 165 counts of murder, attempted murder and other charges in the 2012 Aurora movie theater rampage that left 12 people dead. In 2017, 10 people died at a popular swimming hole in Arizona's Tonto National Forest after a rainstorm unleashed a flash flood. In 2018, after meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Helsinki, President Donald Trump openly questioned the finding of his own intelligence agencies that Russia had meddled in the 2016 U.S. election to his benefit. (Trump said a day later that he misspoke.) Today's Birthdays: International Tennis Hall of Famer Margaret Court is 83. Violinist Pinchas Zukerman is 77. Actor-singer Ruben Blades is 77. Rock composer-musician Stewart Copeland is 73. Playwright Tony Kushner is 69. Dancer Michael Flatley is 67. Former actor and teen model Phoebe Cates is 62. Actor Daryl 'Chill' Mitchell is 60. Actor-comedian Will Ferrell is 58. Football Hall of Famer Barry Sanders is 57. Actor Corey Feldman is 54. Actor Jayma Mays is 46. Retired soccer star Carli Lloyd is 43. Actor AnnaLynne McCord is 38. Actor-singer James Maslow (Big Time Rush) is 35. Actor Mark Indelicato is 31. Pop singer-musician Luke Hemmings (5 Seconds to Summer) is 29.

Worst shark attack ever as 300 men are eaten alive after being stranded at sea

Irish Daily Mirror

29-06-2025

General
Irish Daily Mirror

Worst shark attack ever as 300 men are eaten alive after being stranded at sea

In the summer of 1945, the USS Indianapolis embarked on a fateful voyage from San Francisco to the small island of Tinian in the Northern Mariana Islands, carrying crucial components for 'Little Boy', the nuclear bomb that would devastate the Japanese city of Hiroshima on August 6 of that year. The explosion would be a catastrophic event unlike any other, striking fear into the hearts of those who learned about it, a sentiment that endures 80 years on. However, the crew of the USS Indianapolis would face further unimaginable horror, falling victim to what is widely regarded as the worst shark attack in recorded history. After delivering uranium and other materials to the Tinian Naval Base as part of a top-secret mission, the Portland-class heavy cruiser continued on its high-speed journey towards the Philippines. Disaster struck at 00:15 on July 30, when the Japanese submarine I-58 launched two Type 95 torpedoes into the starboard side of the prized US vessel. In a mere 12 minutes, the USS Indianapolis, a ship spanning "two football fields in length", slipped beneath the waves, claiming the lives of approximately 300 crewmen. Of the nearly 1,200 men on board, around 900 were left stranded on the surface, with only a handful of life jackets and life rafts to shield them from the unforgiving ocean. Unfortunately, the powerless men could do nothing as ravenous sharks began to circle in a bloody frenzy that left an indelible mark on the survivors, reports the Mirror. Believed to be a mixture of oceanic whitetips and possibly tiger sharks, the creatures ravaged the corpses of the drowned sailors before turning their attention to those still alive. Speaking to BBC News in 2013, survivor Loel Dean Cox, who was only 19 during the harrowing incident, recalled how he and his mates initially thought they could "hold out for a couple of days" until rescue arrived. Sadly, because of communication blunders and additional problems, the USS Indianapolis was not reported missing when it failed to show up at Leyte Gulf on July 31 as expected. No one on shore was aware that the crew, many mere lads, were adrift in the open sea, clinging together and thrashing in a futile effort to fend off the relentless bite of the sharks. Initially, the men tried to shoo away the deceased amongst them, believing that this might deter the sharks temporarily from attacking the living. Alas, the predators were too shrewd, leaving no reprieve from their enhanced senses. Loel has memories of some creatures measuring a colossal "15ft long", and he witnessed them picking off "three or four each night and day". He shared, "You were constantly in fear because you'd see 'em all the time. Every few minutes, you'd see their fins - a dozen to two dozen fins in the water. "They would come up and bump you. I was bumped a few times - you never know when they are going to attack you." Harold Eck, another seaman who was just 18 at the time, recounted the first terrifying assault he saw, divulging: 'The first attack I saw was on a sailor who had drifted away from the group. I heard yelling and screaming and saw him thrashing... then I just saw red, foamy water.' It became clear that the sharks targeted those straying from the main group, prompting the men to stay as close as possible. The World War II Museum records how Harlan Twible, fresh out of the US Naval Academy, coordinated "shark watches" to keep survivors in sizeable groups, repelling the incessant onslaughts by kicking and striking the predators. Those who succumbed were severed from the collective and consigned to the open sea. In desperate hunger, any man daring to open a tin of spam was swiftly snatched by the beasts, whilst others were paralysed by fear and chose not to eat. Under the scorching sun, some succumbed to thirst and drank seawater, falling into hallucinations amidst the perilous, shark-ridden waters, becoming even more susceptible. US Marine Corporal Edgar Harrell vividly detailed the harrowing experiences in his 2014 memoir, 'Out Of The Depths': "With our minds becoming unhinged, our tongues swollen and our throats squeezing shut, it's easy to understand why some of the survivors began drinking the saltwater. "The boys who fell into this trap soon had violent fits, whooping and hollering and twisting around in the water with flailing arms. Suddenly, as if an explosion had taken place, they would fall into a coma and go limp. Sometimes this would happen in the middle of a ring of sharks." He went on to recount his personal ordeal amidst the chaos, saying: 'On numerous occasions, I recall seeing a large fin coming straight at me. In horror, I would take what I thought would be my last breath and bend my knees up to my chest. "Sometimes I could feel a fin brush my body. Other times, I would merely feel the wake of the massive beast streaking through the water just underneath me." Harrell reflected on how these terrifying moments left him in continuous fear: "These gut-wrenching encounters caused me to feel as though I was constantly tied up in a knot, and my abdominal muscles became completely exhausted, leaving my legs to dangle helplessly in the path of the mighty marauders." After an agonising four days and five nights adrift, the sailors were fortuitously spotted by a passing U.S. naval aircraft, entirely by chance. By then, their numbers had tragically fallen to just 316. The US government chose to postpone the announcement of the incident until August 15, 1945, coinciding with the day the world learned of Japan's surrender, signalling the end of the grim era of World War II. Decades on, the harrowing tale continues to shock. In 2016, the saga was retold for modern audiences in the film USS Indianapolis: Men of Courage, featuring Nicolas Cage. In 2017, the final resting place of the USS Indianapolis was located at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean, over three-and-a-half miles beneath the waves, by an expedition led by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen. At that time, the entrepreneur remarked: "To be able to honour the brave men of the USS Indianapolis and their families through the discovery of a ship that played such a significant role in ending [the war] is truly humbling."