The Miscellaneous Notes of a Repatriate Born in Korea (by Shinroku Hasegawa）

　
This record is reproduced in part from "The Miscellaneous Notes of a Repatriate Born in Koreathe" written by the late Mr. Shinroku Hasegawa with permission of his bereaved family.


The call and Enlistment

From September, 1941 to November, 1942

I received a Red Note for draft in September, I don't remember which day it was.　I think Mr. Toyoda, a pediatrician, also received the note, but I was alone when I went there, where I was told not to show I was drafted when I go out of home. The staff of hospital held a send-off party for me. The entertainment was the plate of cods. All of us sang When we go to the sea, for my departure, but I had no actual feeling that I myself might become a corpse which the grass grew on.

When we go to the sea, we dont mind to become corpse in the water,
If we go to the mountain, we dont mind to become corpse on which the
grass grew,

Since I had finished the first army surgeon training course carried out for the first time in January, 1938, I would serve as a sergeant of the reserved Army when I would be called for.
In the year I graduated from the college, I took a conscription test at Yongsan in Seoul, and passed it as a first B class man. The men passed the A class test would be almost regularly recruited within a year. The B class men were divided into two types and the next was the C class men. In those days, it was said that all the people would be soldiers, and we would be summoned whenever emergency happened. Because we did not know what time the draft notice (Red Paper) comes as for the tendency of the times, most of us in the first B class, received the military training.
After the World War II started on December 8, 1941, the call for draft spread through the C class men and boys who had thought the call would never come and had not received the training, were drafted as private and served as a regular soldier for a year and could not become a surgeon immediately.

My military career confirmation.
　 1938, March 9: Given a rank of the medical corporal. Entered the 78th infantry regiment as a candidate of the Army surgeon reserve.
Ditto 23: Promoted to the medical sergeant. Ordered to be a surgeon reserve.
Ditto 24: The period of my military service was ended to be discharged.

1941, September 16: Entered the 73rd infantry regiment as a medical sergeant, by an emergency call-up. Attached to the Ranam Army Hospital.
Ditto, October 15: Moved to the Hoeryong Army Hospital as attached.
1942, October 15: Promoted to a medical second lieutenant, attached to the Hoeryong Army Hospital.
Ditto, November 30: Discharged form the military service.

　 I had made this military career confirmation based on a certificate written by Takamaru (had been one of my college classmates, recruited and assigned to the Ranam Army Hospital with me) and another certificate written by Fujimoto (one of younger students of the same college, and had assigned as administration officer at Hoeryong Army Hospital), because I had planned to resign from the Yokohama prison in 1986 and thought the certificate would help to receive better pension later on.

(To be continued)