80 Years On: 103-Yr-Old Cannot Forget Agony Caused by Soviet Attack

   Otaru, Hokkaido, Aug. 18 (Jiji Press)--A 103-year-old former soldier of the now-defunct Imperial Japanese Army still vividly remembers sufferings brought on him by a sudden Soviet attack on one of the Chishima Islands, also known as the Kuril Islands, he had been stationed three days after Japan's surrender in World War II.
   "I want no more war," says Shoichi Takahashi, also a former Soviet labor camp detainee in Siberia. "War is simply unacceptable."
   A native of the northeastern Japan city of Aomori, Takahashi moved to Otaru in the northernmost prefecture of Hokkaido when he was 19 and became a fisherman. Later, he joined the army.
   Initially, he was assigned for service on the Attu island, the westernmost isle of the Aleutian group stretching from the Alaska Peninsula. But as U.S. fighter planes prevented Japanese troops from landing there, he was sent to the Shumshu island of the Chishima chain in the North Pacific in March 1943.
   On the island, Takahashi was mainly digging trenches. Meanwhile, the Attu garrison he was to join ended with a banzai charge.

(2025/08/18-19:40)

To read a full story, please click here to find out how to subscribe.