WWII Japanese Veterans

choi

In the posting "high-sSpeed Rail" I added : In the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz, Judy Garland (then 17 years old) played Dorothy Gale living black-an-white Kansas. A cyclone blew her and the dog to technicolor wonderland of Oz. And she told the dog: "Toto, I've a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore.”

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Martin Fackler, '绝不要为天皇或国家而死'：日本 '二战' 老兵最后的警告. 纽约时报中文网, July 29, 2025
https://cn.nytimes.com/asia-paci ... -world-war-ii/dual/

, which was translated from

Martin Fackler (photographs by Ko Sasaki), The Last Living Memories of Japan at War; Now in their 90s and 100s, veterans have a warning for younger generations. New York Times, Aug 5, 2025, at page A6.


Note:
(a)
(i) The 写真家 is Kō SASAKI 佐々木 康 (1972- ), not to be confused with movie director Yasushi SASAKI 佐々木 康 (1908-1993) The kanji 康 has Chinese pronunciation kō and, when used in (place or human) name (this is not considered Japanese pronunciation), yasu (eg Ieyasu TOKUGAWA 徳川 家康).
(ii) In print, the lede at the front-page top photos of three old Japanese veterans in civilian clothes -- they were unidentified at the front page, but page A6 shows they are: Kunshiro Kiyozumi, Tadanori Susuki and Masao Go, left to right -- has the caption: "As the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II nears, only a few Japanese veterans remains. Some are speaking up after decades of silence. "Never die for emperor or country," one advised. Page A6.
(iii) The print article indicates it was dispatched from "Matsuyama, Japan" where Kunshiro Kiyozumi resides.

Matsuyama  (愛媛県) 松山(市)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matsuyama
(iv) The top photo in print and online shows the submarine, which is I-58 in English and "イ-58" in Japanese, where Kun-shi-rō KIYOZUMI 清積 勲四郎 served.
(v) The PRINT article is divided into sections; introduction without a heading, followed by sectional heading in that order: Fight for the Emperor (Masao GO); Marched into a Trap (Tetsuo SATO); Starved in Jungle (Kenichi OZAKI), Enlisted at 14 (Tadanori SUZUKI); Kept a Dark Secret (Hideo SHIMIZU); Forgotten by His Nation (Kunshiro KIYOZUMI).

(b) Masao GO  吴 正男

一個曾為日本兵的臺灣人. Nippon.com, May 17, 2017
https://www.nippon.com/hk/features/c03305/
("遣返時蘇聯將吳先生當作日本人送到舞鶴港。如果被認為是臺灣人的話，很可能就被引渡給中國軍隊，但吳先生當時使用自己的日本名「大山正男」，也申告自己日本親戚的地址之故，才被送到日本。回到日本之後，終於見到以往懷有好感的少女，生活也再次重獲和平")
(i) Japan Echo
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japan_Echo
(print magazine 1974-2010 in English only; "today has its own online magazine Nippon.com" whose own website said it was "launched in October 2011")   
(ii) Maizuru  (京都府) 舞鶴(市)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maizuru
("Maizuru is located in northern Kyoto Prefecture, facing scenic Maizuru Bay [舞鶴湾, where 舞鶴港 (mostly 軍港) is located] on the Sea of Japan to the north * * * In the Russo-Japanese War, many warships were based there, due to its proximity to the Sea of Japan. * * * After the Second World War, Maizuru was a key port for returning Japanese servicemen and detainees from continental Asia for over 13 years.[7] Today, JMSDF Maizuru Naval Base [舞鶴基地] is a key district headquarters for the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force"
(iii) The city has kanji 舞 in Chinese pronunciation and kanji 鶴 in Japanese pronunciation.
(iv) The ja.wikipedia.org for 舞鶴市 says that the name of the city came from the nickname 舞鶴城 of the castle 田辺城 (so named because it was built at 丹後国田辺郷). The nickname came from the castle, when viewed from its east at White-Bird Mountain Pass 白鳥峠, was elongated in the south-north axis as if a crane ws dancing ("田辺城が「舞鶴城」の別名を得たのは、城型が南北に長く、東の白鳥峠から眺めるとあたかも鶴が舞っている姿のように見えるからであるとされている[2]").
However, the castle map does not comport with this description. See 京都府舞鶴市  ＊参考資料　『日本城郭体系』
http://mizuki.my.coocan.jp/kyoto/maidurusi.htm
[The attached map should be here]
Japanese-English dictionary:
* honmaru 本丸 本丸 【ほんまる】 (n): "(1) inner citadel; (2) core; center; focus; crux"
* ninomaru   二の丸/ 二ノ丸 (の is hiragana; ノ is katakana) 【にのまる】: "second citadel"
   ^ 丸 maru is "an enclosure inside a castle's walls."


(c) "Sitting in the living room of his wooden home in the rice-growing village of Osonogo[, Murakani City 村上市 遅郷, where kanji 遅 has Japanese pronunciation oso in adjective 遅い oso-i, and kanji 郷 has Chinese pronunciation gō] in mountainous Niigata Prefecture [新潟県], Tetsuo SATŌ [佐藤 哲雄], 105, still seethes with anger over a battle fought long ago."

Why cn.mytimes.com translated Osonogo to 大曾根 is unfathomable. Where is 根 where Japanese pronunciation is ne?

(d)
(i) Ken-ichi OZAKI 尾崎 健一 appeared in page 7 (that page nas no page number, but page 5 has, at the center of the footer) of
但馬 弘, 兵戈無用. 真宗大谷派 東本願寺, 第17回非戦•平和展 (2017)
https://jodo-shinshu.info/wp-con ... 2017_peace_show.pdf
(ii) With him is a photo who caption in print reads: "US troops -- hoping to retake the Philippines, a former American colony -- taking aim at Japanese positions on Leyte Island in 1944."

Leyte
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leyte
(e) "Tadanori SUZUKI [鈴木 忠典] * * * on a small torpedo boat [魚雷艇]"  
(f) Hideo SHIMIZU  清水 英男