A tribute

[STEBALIN]

My former girlfriend´s grandfather, Shin'ichiro Kuguhara, passed away yesterday.
He joined the IJA in July 1945, at age 15.
Altough he did not engage in combat since just the day after the end of his training Japan surrendered, I think that any person who had the will to give his life for his country -especially at such early age- deserves respect regardless of the sides he took, so I pay this small tribute to him and thought it´d be good to share this with you.

May his soul rest in peace forever.


Here is a picture of him during his training.

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[blinky]

Sad indeed but he had a full life and lived to see enemies become friends. It's difficult to imagine being 15 years old realizing you are going to fight a battle you most likely won't survive and at the last minute having your life given back to you.

Eric

[STEBALIN]

Sad indeed but he had a full life and lived to see enemies become friends. It's difficult to imagine being 15 years old realizing you are going to fight a battle you most likely won't survive and at the last minute having your life given back to you.

Eric

Yes, I do recall he considered himself lucky till the last day we talked because of finally getting along with foreigners (not only Americans) and not going to war. As almost all of you know, most Japanese consider a serious taboo to talk about the "China incident" and WWII (and dissuaded me lots of times to ask), but he had no problem to answer all of my questions in detail. He told me about his Arisaka rifle, gear, training, Korean recruits of his same age beaten to death by officers, bombings on his hometown, post-war daily life, goods´ shortages and all that. I think he will definitely earn a special place in Heaven -just like many others like him- after all he had to go through.

Thanks for your comment!