Between 2012 and 2014 we posted a number of articles on contemporary affairs without giving them volume and issue numbers or dates. Often the date can be determined from internal evidence in the article, but sometimes not. We have decided retrospectively to list all of them as Volume 10, Issue 54 with a date of 2012 with the understanding that all were published between 2012 and 2014.
The Asahi Shimbun English edition is running a 10-part series titled “Relaying recollections of the battlefield” that originally ran in the vernacular Asahi. The first installment, appearing on January 1, was entitled “Unable to die until hell of war can be told.”
Here’s an excerpt:
“Take me back to Japan with you.”
The voice of a dying soldier clung to Tomoda’s back. The majority of his unit died of starvation and sickness. Only five or six of the original 200-strong unit returned home alive.
“Why did my fellow soldiers die, and why did I survive? I’ve asked myself that question ever since. We must never go to war again. Perhaps I survived to pass on that message to the next generation, on behalf of all those who died.”
