Veteran calls for Japan war reflection
Former soldier hopes youth will learn truth about invasion
TOKYO — A Japanese man who joined the Chinese Eighth Route Army during World War II has called for reflection on history ahead of the 72nd anniversary of Japan’s unconditional surrender in the war.
Mitsushige Maeda, who celebrated his 100th birthday last year, was taken captive by the Chinese Eighth Route Army in 1938, and during several months as a “prisoner of war”, he gradually learned about the injustices of Japan’s invasion of China and the truth about the conflict.
Maeda was born in 1916 in Kyoto. Coming from a family of limited means, he worked as an apprentice at a store after graduating from a primary school. In June 1937, he went to the city of Shenyang in northeastern China, then under colonial rule of Japan, to work for the Southern Manchuria Railways Co.
The company, also known as Mantetsu, was founded by the Japanese in 1906. The company was not only in charge of the railway but was also involved in intelligence collecting and colonial activities in northeastern China.
One incident in particular that shocked Maeda happened when he saw a village being plundered by the Japanese army, with villagers killed and houses burned to the ground.
“As a Japanese citizen, I felt ashamed and angry (when I saw what Japan had done),” he said.
The incident precipitated Mitsushige’s awakening, and in January 1939, he volunda teered to join the Chinese Eighth Route Army, an army under the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party to fight against Japan’s invasion of China.
Preaching peace
“The Chinese Eighth Route Army is a great army with strict disciplines,” Maeda said, adding that he felt honored to be part of it.
His role was to preach peace to soldiers of the Imperial Japanese Army and tell them the truth about the invasion war Japan had launched against China.
In November 1939, he and seven other Japanese soldiers founded the “Alliance of the Awakened Japanese Soldiers”, which was the first anti-war group formed by Japanese citizens in the Eighth Route Army.
After Japan’s unconditional surrender to the Allied Forces in 1945, Maeda worked in an aviation school in northeastern China for several years and returned to Japan in 1958.
However, due to his experiences in China, Maeda was considered pro-Communist and could not find a proper job. He had to work part-time to support his family.
Despite the hardship, Mae-- continued to educate people about his experiences in China and about the atrocities Japan had committed, recounting his story in articles in newspapers.
In 1984, he and another Japanese war veteran, Takashi Kagawa, coauthored and published a book titled Japanese Soldiers of the Eighth Route Army.
Maeda now lives in a nursing home. A couple of years ago, he donated over 10 boxes of books and materials about the history of China’s War of Resistance Against Japan to a civil group formed by Japanese veterans of China’s Eighth Route Army and the New Fourth Army.
“I hope these historical materials will be well preserved and will help the younger generations in Japan to know more about the history,” he said.
1939 the year Mitsushige Maeda joined China’s Eighth Route Army