Tragic stories of post-war Japan

As Japan marks the 65th anniversary of its surrender in World War II recently, newspapers in Japan have been featuring articles and stories about life shortly after the war and the tragedies of the time. Some have a happy ending, some are more tragic. There are too many to post individually, so I decided to collect the articles here I felt were the most moving, and let people read.

The first story features a 75-year old Yamaha piano found in Russia recently, and was thought to the one comfort Japanese POWs in the Soviet Union could enjoy after the war. The mystery remains now who found it:

http://www.asahi.com/english/TKY201008120282.html

The second story was more tragic, and pretty hard to read at times for me. This is a story about a nurse in Japan who was the last survivor of an abortion clinic setup after the war to treat Japanese women who had been violated by soldiers from the Soviet Union. The statue of Jizo Bodhisattva was hard to see, knowing that it was probably setup in hopes that Jizo would guide and protect the unfortunate children to a better rebirth. Being a father myself, knowing what it’s like to cradle one’s own baby in their arms, this was a hard read and shows how tragic war can be:

http://www.asahi.com/english/TKY201008160271.html

Finally, the last article I wanted to post was about a former soldier in the Imperial Army who recently began to talk open about his regrets and some of the atrocities he witnessed or even took part in. The story about the mother and baby, as above, was pretty wrenching to read, as was the tragedy of the Battle of Okinawa from his view:

http://www.asahi.com/english/TKY201008170202.html

This is somewhat of an atypical post here, but I just felt these stories were really worth sharing. It’s almost mind-boggling what some people around us have lived through.