The August 15 for the Recruits (by Shin)
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The August 15 for the Recruits (by Shin) (kousei3, 2007/8/3 7:55)
The August 15 for the Recruits (by Shin)
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Posted on 2007/8/3 7:55
kousei3
Posts: 42
Posts: 42
In the morning of this day, August 15, 20th year of Showa, under scorching sun beams, there came one order to us, the recruits of around 2,000 men, to get together on the training area of marine corps where had been the largest ground held here. So, we rushed there, putting up dust of ground and hearing cicadas chirp seemed never stop,.
The ground was officially owned by the Osaka Municipal University, located at Sugimoto-cho, Sumiyoshi-ku, Osaka City, but at that time, it had been requisitioned by the armed forces to be used as the training and education place for the newly established Osaka marine corps and used for the training of noncommissioned officers and recruits. We drafted were gathered here by the active call at the end of June, about one and a half month earlier for the regular three months of training, but because the war cloud seemed come sooner, we were to be ordered to finish the training and dispatched to each assigned squad on this day.
By the way, we recruits did not know anything, but there were rumors connected with special bombs [A-bomb] dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. And, when the USSR participated in the war, it was guessed that the Japanese military authorities of indeed strong posture seemingly lost to continue its posture and, with the Emperors judgment and decision, the military authorities seemingly decided to turn 180 degrees to the unconditional surrender on the date of August 15th. Following to the announcement which said the emperor would tell it to the nation on broadcast system, we all members of the marine corps gathered, but it was hard to understand what the so-called sweet-voice-broadcast on 1200 hour said because of interference of electric waves.
Followingly, in order to supplement this, the first person in charge of the company, a Rear-Admiral OKA, Arata, stood on a podium and gave a briefing to explain the circumstances which all of us faced to, then told us we would work to finish some remaining bushiness for a while to be sequentially freed from the military service, then to return to home where your wives and children were waiting. Then, he said if there were any chance to have war criminals here in this Osaka Marine Corps, it had to be only me, OKA, Arata, so he hoped we had better to feel safe and continue currently assigned duty for a while without moving to any rashness until the time of demobilization. When I heard this explanation, I felt relieved to be frank.
The senior soldiers and officers had ignored the human dignity of fresh recruits, treating them as if they were inferior than oxen or horses, calmly hitting and kicking them. Those unreasonable violence were not forgiven, but were often appeared, on the dark side of Japanese armed forces, by the mottoes of the loyalty to the emperor, the education to give suicide attack mind and thorough education. With the expectation of such acts would not gets by any longer and the feeling of the heavy load which always have felt on my shoulders "as a child of the Emperor, I have to work for the country," get lighter, I was just glad to be freed, as a young man of 19 years old with no spaces to think about hardships and heavy pressure which would come in the future.
When I reconsider, it happened approximately one week earlier to this, that one of the fellow men in my group could not bear the harsh training of the senior officers, tried to escape at the midnight by crossing the iron bridge of Japanese National Railways of the Hanwa-line, over the Yamato River flowed alongside of the barrack, and accidentally hit by the last train and died instantly.
Because the military discipline became loose around that time, we had several deserters, who might be afraid of rumor which said that the role of us, the recruits, were to dig spider holes along the shoreline of Kii and hide there with depth bombs to blow up enemy tanks when they came ashore and ran over heads. So, it had to be natural to see escape soldiers appear.
When I learned that the war was end, my honest thought at the time were that I was so glad being freed from the duty to die and from the restraints of recruit and I could not think of the hardness which might come in future.
This is all of my memory of the day of the defeat, but also of the memory of one young recruit who lived about 60 years ago. So, you might find some wrong memory which I do hope your generous forgiveness.
The ground was officially owned by the Osaka Municipal University, located at Sugimoto-cho, Sumiyoshi-ku, Osaka City, but at that time, it had been requisitioned by the armed forces to be used as the training and education place for the newly established Osaka marine corps and used for the training of noncommissioned officers and recruits. We drafted were gathered here by the active call at the end of June, about one and a half month earlier for the regular three months of training, but because the war cloud seemed come sooner, we were to be ordered to finish the training and dispatched to each assigned squad on this day.
By the way, we recruits did not know anything, but there were rumors connected with special bombs [A-bomb] dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. And, when the USSR participated in the war, it was guessed that the Japanese military authorities of indeed strong posture seemingly lost to continue its posture and, with the Emperors judgment and decision, the military authorities seemingly decided to turn 180 degrees to the unconditional surrender on the date of August 15th. Following to the announcement which said the emperor would tell it to the nation on broadcast system, we all members of the marine corps gathered, but it was hard to understand what the so-called sweet-voice-broadcast on 1200 hour said because of interference of electric waves.
Followingly, in order to supplement this, the first person in charge of the company, a Rear-Admiral OKA, Arata, stood on a podium and gave a briefing to explain the circumstances which all of us faced to, then told us we would work to finish some remaining bushiness for a while to be sequentially freed from the military service, then to return to home where your wives and children were waiting. Then, he said if there were any chance to have war criminals here in this Osaka Marine Corps, it had to be only me, OKA, Arata, so he hoped we had better to feel safe and continue currently assigned duty for a while without moving to any rashness until the time of demobilization. When I heard this explanation, I felt relieved to be frank.
The senior soldiers and officers had ignored the human dignity of fresh recruits, treating them as if they were inferior than oxen or horses, calmly hitting and kicking them. Those unreasonable violence were not forgiven, but were often appeared, on the dark side of Japanese armed forces, by the mottoes of the loyalty to the emperor, the education to give suicide attack mind and thorough education. With the expectation of such acts would not gets by any longer and the feeling of the heavy load which always have felt on my shoulders "as a child of the Emperor, I have to work for the country," get lighter, I was just glad to be freed, as a young man of 19 years old with no spaces to think about hardships and heavy pressure which would come in the future.
When I reconsider, it happened approximately one week earlier to this, that one of the fellow men in my group could not bear the harsh training of the senior officers, tried to escape at the midnight by crossing the iron bridge of Japanese National Railways of the Hanwa-line, over the Yamato River flowed alongside of the barrack, and accidentally hit by the last train and died instantly.
Because the military discipline became loose around that time, we had several deserters, who might be afraid of rumor which said that the role of us, the recruits, were to dig spider holes along the shoreline of Kii and hide there with depth bombs to blow up enemy tanks when they came ashore and ran over heads. So, it had to be natural to see escape soldiers appear.
When I learned that the war was end, my honest thought at the time were that I was so glad being freed from the duty to die and from the restraints of recruit and I could not think of the hardness which might come in future.
This is all of my memory of the day of the defeat, but also of the memory of one young recruit who lived about 60 years ago. So, you might find some wrong memory which I do hope your generous forgiveness.
