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1September, 1937, I received a draft order signed by the Japanese emperor, and I was recruited to join the 3rd Squadron of the 20th Wing of Kyoto Division 16 to participate in the Japan-China War. Japan preaches that this is a war for "building a paradise for kings" and "peace in the East". I am convinced of this and joined this front. At that time, I didn't think it was a war of aggression.
But I witnessed the tragic situation of farmers in China with my own eyes. I was deeply saddened and wrote a diary. If I die, my diary will certainly burn with my body, but it records the horror of the battlefield I have seen. After returning home, I copied some battlefield notes. The reason why I want to copy it is not for public publication, but as my own life record for future generations.
Fifty years later, on 1987, civic movement groups in Kyoto held the "Reflection on War for Peace Exhibition". I was invited to attend and lent my diary for the first time.
My diary from August 1937 to September 1938 has been published by the Memorial Hall for Victims of the Nanjing Massacre. That's what I copied from my diary when I came back from the hospital due to illness between 1940 and 194 1.
This book contains the original records I wrote in the battlefield from June 1938 to September 1939. Because some words are scrawled and not copied, they seem a bit miscellaneous.
On July 7th, 1987, my comrades and I. ...