Long-lost soldier reunited with kin
Published: April 21, 2006
A former Imperial Japanese Army soldier who recently surfaced in Ukraine had a tearful reunion with relatives here Thursday after seeing them for the first time since he went off to fight for the emperor 63 years ago.
Ishinosuke Uwano, 83, and his brother Ushitaro Sadate, 80, looked at each other for a few seconds and then hugged tightly, patting each other’s backs.
Uwano and his Ukrainian son arrived in Tokyo a day earlier for a 10-day visit. He was part of an Imperial army force occupying eastern Sakhalin island when the war ended in August 1945 and was last reported seen there in 1958.
On Wednesday, Uwano said he hadn’t been able to return to Japan earlier “due to the former Soviet regime” in Ukraine. He did not elaborate.
On Thursday, five other relatives wiped away tears as Uwano hugged his brother in a reunion sponsored by the Iwate Prefectural Government.
“We are filled with emotion. We just can’t express anything in words now,” Sadate said. Uwano was so overcome that he could not speak.
Uwano then hugged each of his two younger sisters, aged 75 and 70, in his first meeting with them since leaving Japan in 1943 to go off to war, and met his four nephews, ages 52 to 62, for the first time.
The government believes about 400 former soldiers from the war are living in the former Soviet Union, and says 40 of them have been identified.
Uwano reportedly moved to Ukraine in 1965 and also has two daughters. He lives in Zhitomyr, a city about 145 km west of Kiev, according to Kyodo News.
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