98-Yr-Old Calls for Remembering 3.1 M. Japanese Lives Lost in War

Tokyo, Aug. 16 (Jiji Press)–Kazuhiko Takahashi, 98, who was the oldest war-bereaved relative to attend Saturday’s war-end anniversary ceremony in Tokyo, calls for remembering the fact that some 3.1 million Japanese people died in World War II. With the horrors of the war becoming a distant memory for many, Takahashi decided to attend the ceremony to mark the 81st anniversary of the end of the war, with a pledge to pursue peace. Takahashi, who currently lives in the city of Kawasaki, Kanagawa Prefecture, south of Tokyo, lost his 11-year-older brother in the Philippines. The brother, Tomihiko, graduated from Waseda University and joined the now-defunct Imperial Japanese Navy in 1942. Tasked with fighter jet maintenance, Tomihiko traveled across the Marshall Islands, the Philippines and Taiwan. “He was the scariest person after my father,” Takahashi recalls. Still, he said that he has fond memories of Tomihiko playing with a toy steam locomotive and going to bookstores with him. Before the war situation worsened, Tomihiko often returned to the family home in Tokyo, once bringing bamboo crafts from the Marshall Islands. Takahashi said that he found Tomihiko outside a train station at the end of 1944, which became the last time he saw his brother. Early in the following year, Tomihiko was sent to the Philippines. He died in Luzon in April that year, at the age of 27. On Aug. 15 of the same year, the 17-year-old Takahashi, together with a couple who were taking care of him in Tokyo at the time, listened to the radio as Emperor Showa declared Japan’s surrender in the war. “My first thought was about the lives lost in the war,” Takahashi said. He also said that he still remembers the couple crying for the loss of their only son in the war. A few years later, Takahashi was finally informed of his brother’s death in the Philippines. He then went to Kaneji Temple in the Japanese capital’s Ueno district with his brother’s urn, which he recalls feeling empty. His brother was laid to rest in a grave at the temple. After the war, Takahashi met with those who had fought in the navy during the war. He also launched a group of bereaved families. He visited the Philippines twice to pray for the souls of those who died. Pinning hopes on the Japanese government’s project to recover the remains of those who died in the war, Takahashi registered his DNA data. Despite feeling unwell this year, Takahashi attended Saturday’s ceremony with a walking stick to pay his respects to his brother and others who lost their lives in the war. “Everyone wants to live, but war drags them in, even if they don’t want to be involved,” Takahashi said. “We should never wage war,” he said. “I hope (future generations) will cultivate wisdom and choose to live in order to make the world a peaceful place.” END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]