TOKYO: The issue of Japanese POWs is a raw one as thousands were left stranded in Soviet Russia and China after hostilities ended, writes David McNeill in Tokyo
A former solider with the Japanese army, long presumed dead, came home yesterday 63 years after he left to fight in the second World War.
Ishinosuke Uwano (83) arrived at Japan's main international airport with his eldest son, Anatoly, trailed by a swarm of reporters who bombarded him with questions about his mysterious past.
The white-haired former infantryman, who looked frail and overwhelmed by the media attention, smiled and said only that he "felt good but very tired" and wanted to say hello to the country he last saw in 1943.
"I haven't used Japanese in 60 years," he said, adding that he was looking forward to meeting his brothers and cousins.
Mr Uwano was still a teenager when he was drafted into the Imperial Army and sent to the Russian Far East. He ended the war on Sakhalin Island, which was occupied by the Russians, and later moved to the Ukraine where he apparently married a local and raised three children.
His last official sighting was in 1958. Six years ago his relatives gave up hope of finding him alive and officially removed his name from their family register.
A spokesman for the health ministry, which is in charge of relocating missing overseas veterans, said Mr Uwano was presumed dead until he contacted a Japanese embassy in the Ukraine last year to ask for help in searching for surviving relatives and friends. The spokesman said they had no idea why it took him so long to come forward.
"We're looking forward to hearing his story. We're just happy that he is able to return to Japan while he still has his health," said Yoji Kakihara.
Mr Uwano spent last night in Tokyo and will return to the town of Hirono, about 300 miles north of Tokyo, to meet his relatives today.
The health ministry said he would visit the graves of his parents during his nine-day trip and meet the local mayor, before speaking to the media.
The issue of war veterans is an emotional one in Japan, which left thousands of POWs stranded in Soviet Russia and China after the war, many of whom were lost to slave labour camps. Mr Uwano is one of an estimated 200 Japanese veterans still alive in the countries of the former Soviet Union. Little is known about how he got to the Ukraine.
Japan's most famous war veteran, Hiroo Onoda, astonished the world when he emerged in 1974 still in uniform from the Philippine island of Lubang, where he had fought alone for 29 years, unaware that the second World War had ended. He was later pardoned by the Philippine government for killing at least 30 Filipinos and wounding about 100 others during peacetime.
Mr Uwano apparently recollects little of his life in Japan and had given up hope of returning.
He told Russian TV that one of his most vivid memories is of Japanese cherry blossoms, ironically a wartime symbol of premature death.