Chapter 10 The scene in North Korea
On a hot morning in June, my father and I came to the gate of the barracks in Fukuoka.The barracks were set up in the city.The send-off people were stopped by the moat, and the recruits walked in along the narrow road.I wear my crumpled rayon national uniform and my rough utility bag.On the left is the former black city gate. I was just about to turn around the stone wall without looking back, when my father called me loudly from behind.I turned my head together, only to see the far away father holding a hand.I just nodded and walked through the black door.There, we couldn't see each other.Father's voice seemed to come out of his throat.
I can imagine what my father told my mother when he came home.My father was not a whiny man, but wept a lot.If he talked about something exciting, his nose would become clogged and his voice would change as he spoke.When I was a child, I heard this cry countless times in the words of my father.As for the mother, even if it was someone else's business, she would feel pitiful, pulled out the shirt from the cuff, wiped her tears, and said "really", "it's so pitiful".
As I lined up in the sweltering barracks square, I thought of my parents sitting on the tatami in the dark room and weeping.My father had runny nose and was smoking tobacco leaves.The mother put the towel on her face and buried her head.Compared with the aging parents, the figure of my wife holding the child is pale.
My enlistment order is for supplementary soldiers.An hour after enlisting, I figured it out.Where did you know it?Soldiers are sensitive and right about their fate.When recruiting for training three months ago, there was a bald man named Maeda and a bald man named Nakata who were in Kurume together, plus me, all three were in their thirties and fourteens.In Kurume, there are hundreds of young people, but this time there are only three of us, which is really inexplicable, let alone a big mobilization.Nakata is a craftsman in a glass shop, and Maeda is a vegetable seller in a coal mining town.It seems that he didn't take part in the military training of the military association in the village.
As soon as they knew they were going to New Guinea, the recruits fell into despair.Everyone knows the fierce fighting in the southern occupied areas and the defeat of the Japanese army.Newspapers do not make explicit reports, but also explain their authenticity.The veterans said: "It's probably over now." The older conscripts who wore the collar badges of military commanders and privates, the paler their faces.
I lived in the barracks in Fukuoka for five days. Because it was a temporary stay, everyone slept in a mess like an auditorium.There is no order, like a group of soldiers in the village, talking in "local dialect", there is no distinction between upper and lower, and there is no training.Sometimes we run in Ohori Park, and sometimes we pray for the longevity of martial arts and visit the local patron saint.I was discriminated against in the recruiting training, the situation is different.But I also just experienced a little bit of relaxation and a strong atmosphere of war, which gave me a premonition of death.
On the day of departure, it was still dark; the rain was pouring down.We walked from the barracks to the pier at Hakata Port, through deserted streets.When we walked to the street where we passed the tram, the people in the shop with the morning market were surprised and looked after our team.The soldiers said nothing.In the downpour, the shadows of women appeared, and they chased the team desperately, looking for their husbands.They cannot recognize in the dark.The women were immediately stopped by gendarmes on alert.In order not to lag behind the marching team, they kept trotting.The number of people is also increasing.It was originally forbidden for troops to meet with family members, but the secret of setting off before dawn was leaked out.
We boarded the ferry to go.To go to New Guinea, you have to go to Seoul first, where you join the conscripts from Tokyo and Osaka to form a corps.Looking out from the round window of the cabin, the mountains of Kyushu gradually disappeared, leaving only a vast ocean with a destroyer passing across it.At sea, I understood that I had been seized by a desperate fate.My father, mother, wife, children, and the newspaper office all flew to places where I had no chance.
In Busan, I saw the scenery of North Korea for the first time.We sat for a long time in the shaking train, and got off at a station called Yongsan in front of Seoul.It's raining here too.We walked through the muddy red soil on the gray street and came to the training ground.Every soldier had drops of water hanging from his chin.The corporals who had transported us from Fukuoka left, and our new superior took us to the barracks.I am in the No. 2 and No. 2 Troops of Longshan.
In the beginning, I joined the regular internal affairs squad, and the soldiers who were mixed together in a mess were also restored to the rank distinction here.I was beaten, and the one who beat me was the private first class who used to talk to each other in dialect.
By the time we arrived at this barracks, the required personnel scheduled to depart for New Guinea were already in daily training.They were all practicing how to jump into the sea after the transport ship was sunk.Climb to the high platform as high as the slide and jump into the sand.I don't have much confidence in swimming, and just looking at this kind of training makes me realize death.
In this group, there was a military chief of health who treated us very badly during the recruitment training in Kurume.Maeda came to tell me and took me to the auditorium. It turned out that the military commander named Tanaka had become a corps commander. When he was in Kurume, he was full of energy and sanctioned us all by himself. But when we met this time, he sat cross-legged , with a downcast look. "It's over this time. You guys are also ready to follow along." Corporal Tanaka smiled slightly, as if he was grateful for the addition of partners who would die together. "The military commander has also changed." The kind-hearted Maeda whispered when he came back.The supplementary corps, we don't know where we drove away when we were children.The corporal was really right. I heard the ship was sunk before reaching New Guinea.I don't think Corporal Tanaka will escape death.
I wandered aimlessly around the barracks.The fence is very low, and a little further on, there is a road, and North Koreans in white clothes are walking slowly on the road.Between the fence and the road is a ditch about five feet wide.The ditch is not too deep, even I seem to be able to jump over it.For several days I visually surveyed the ditch.Because there are no houses nearby, there are no pedestrians on the road at night.Judging by the position of the railing, it was also a long way from the outpost.
I didn't field research those places out of definite awareness.Just want to figure out its possibility, also have some hope.If I add a little more conditions, maybe I will become a deserter.However, even if I saw fences and ditches that could be crossed, I lost interest.The existence of the Korean Strait and the living security of the family members who stayed in the country, all these made me give up.
Until I entered the newspaper office, in order to obtain a stable life, I did my best.The reason why I gave up my profitable income and became a clerk was also because I had a presentiment that the war would definitely draw me into the army.But even without the war, I would certainly be a newspaper clerk.Although there is income for the month from odd jobs, she is still worried about the insecure life.Having many family members has become my "hysteria" and made me lose my courage.Now that I am in the army, the newspaper office can always pay my family members wages. Although this is the minimum cost of living, it makes me feel at ease.Loss of this guarantee is inadmissible.
What have I done during my two full years in the army?
The family members were evacuated to his wife's hometown in the countryside.According to a letter from my father, they do farm work every day.I don't know how difficult it is to rely on helping the common people to do farm work to make up for the shortage of remittances from the newspaper office!
Fortunately, going to New Guinea stopped going.The troop transport ships are gone.
In the barracks in Seoul, there are often conscripts from Tokyo.There are also student soldiers who are candidates for cadres.One night, on the blanket of the internal affairs squad, they talked with their partners; "I am writing "Traveling" silently!"
I can barely read novels and the like, and don't want to. I don't have any knowledge about what kind of work "Travelling" is, but a sentence from the student soldier made me feel a little red in the gray barracks.
In the barracks, if you want to read novels, you can't read them.Of course, there are no such magazines among the things that can be brought in from outside.However, since I am a health soldier, I can get a public certificate and go out alone.I can go to the company office and tell the sergeant: "The company is short of medicines, so I have to go to the wholesale medicine store in the city to buy some medicines for emergency treatment."
Among the student soldiers in Tokyo, one is the young master of the Kanda Pharmaceutical Wholesale Store. He told me that he knew a wholesale store in Seoul because of his business relationship. If you encounter difficulties in purchasing medicines, you can go there. Will provide some convenience.He said this, probably out of the flattery of recruits to veterans.I didn't treat him differently, nor did I have a close relationship with him.
Thinking about it now, I was often given a public armband because of these things.The relevant wholesale store is located on a busy street.As soon as I mentioned the student soldier's name, they filled the big bottle with dark iodine, and they didn't charge for it. Originally, the company wouldn't pay a penny for the medicine.
The battle situation became tense, and the troops banned all outings on Sundays.Only non-commissioned officers had the privilege of being allowed to go out, and everyone else was guarded in the name of resting in the barracks. On the way to get medicine, I often went to the second-hand bookstore to look.If you want to buy novels, it is not impossible to buy second-hand books, but reading such books will make you miss society very much.Therefore, although there were such books on the shelves in the store, I didn't bother to get them.
I wear a community armband, so I'm free to walk anywhere in the city.I wandered more in areas populated by North Koreans than in Japanese streets.The alleys near Jongno made me feel exotic.However, if a person is always wandering on such roads, he is likely to be questioned by the military police.
The duties of the health soldiers in the company do not know whether they belong to the company or the infirmary of the wing.This is very similar to amphibians.Receive roll call after waking up, and go to the infirmary after dinner.There, you have to accept roll call in the infirmary.Then start working, the infirmary is divided into medicines, diagnosis, and supply units.In the diagnosis room, I wrote the diagnosis book next to the examining military doctor, and wrote down the names of the medicines that were transferred to the medicine room.
This job is easy.Diagnosis starts at nine o'clock in the morning and ends almost in the morning, and then I just sort out the diagnosis book.But when I didn't want to go back to the company, I just found an excuse and didn't go back to the internal affairs squad until roll call.
Autumn in North Korea is beautiful.The infirmary is located on a high place, surrounded by tall and straight poplar trees, which are beautiful when the branches and leaves are lush, and also beautiful when there are only bare branches left.In autumn, magpies build nests here.Magpies are called Korean crows in Korea, and there are many in the Saga Plain in Japan.
In winter, the big rivers and rivers are all frozen into snow white.In the bathroom, water droplets falling from the roof of the stripping shop freeze into blocks of ice between the planks.There was no fuel, and the huge Russian fireplace in the corner of the room smoked only a little at the bottom.Only when people lean their backs against it can they be sure that it is a heating device.
A student soldier from the Seoul Medical College became a trainee military doctor and non-commissioned officer. He was in his twenties, with a long, thin face, and a very handsome boy.I often took the letter from him, got the public certificate, and went to the affiliated hospital next to the Governor's Mansion.The recipient was a woman from the pharmacy.I, a thirty-five-year-old man, became the young man's servant delivering the love letter.
The woman was about twenty-three or twenty-four years old, and she was a very attractive girl with a round face.For outpatients, the hospital has set up a small shop, which also sells some children's toys.My second son was three years old at the time, and I begged her to send toys to my family's evacuation site.
When I went to the affiliated hospital of the pharmacy college, I passed the museum of the Governor’s Mansion. Although I had a public certificate, I still didn’t have the courage to enter the museum.At the entrance of the museum is the Lou Gate of the magnificent Joseon Palace.While looking at the vermilion gate, I went back and forth in vain.Soon, the trainee non-commissioned officer went to the south, and his life and death were uncertain, and my temporary outings were also reduced.
When I was out, I went to the branch of the newspaper two or three times.The branch sent out conscripts one after another, and there was not enough manpower, probably only three or four people to do business.During this period, two people from Tokyo told me about the internal situation of the newspaper.In the dreary army, I breathed the air of the work unit for the first time.But when exactly can I regain my past identity?Every time I go back to the barracks, I am very depressed.
There is a newspaper reading board at the entrance and exit of the company, where the "Seoul Daily", which was a day late, is posted.Of course, what was published was all war news, and the word "retreat" was added to the report on the southern war situation.In the corner of the newspaper was a newsletter about General Ugaki's flight to Shanghai.A short message with only one column and a headline in incompatible headlines.
This news only said that General Ugaki went to Shanghai, but the black font of the title showed the editor's intention, that is, as a politician and strategist, Kazusei Gaki went to Shanghai. What does it mean?I imagined according to my own ideas, thinking that he was doing the armistice work, and I was secretly happy in my heart.
Soon, Tojo's cabinet announced his resignation.His successor was General Koiso Kunisaki.I believe Ugaki's truce work has succeeded.But when Xiaoji talked, he declared: "Jihad will continue forever", which made me very depressed.I quietly paid attention to the movements and reactions of the company affairs office, and didn't notice any abnormal changes.
In North Korea, I never encountered an air strike.In spring, sometimes there are clouds of enemy planes flying in the blue sky, but it's just a burst of anti-aircraft guns in vain.No air raid sirens were issued.During this period, all the elderly soldiers who came in from Tokyo and Osaka were housed in another barracks.From their mouths, I learned for the first time that Tokyo and Osaka were in ruins.Those soldiers squatted silently in the barracks with gloomy faces.
A year later, I left the barracks in Seoul to participate in the defense of the west coast of Korea and was incorporated into a new regiment.It is divided into the military medical department of the division, led by the captain who was once a professor of Osaka University.
The Xinbing Corps was stationed in Jeongeup, Jeollabuk-do, South Korea, and its defense range was from the mountains in the north to Mokpo and Baeju Island in the south.Nakata, a comrade from Kurume, and a glass shop, went to Jeju Island, and Maeda went to build a position near the coast, and we parted.
The composition of the military medical department is as follows: the head is a major, there is a captain under him, there is an old pharmacy lieutenant who opened a large pharmacy in Shinsaibashi, Osaka, and then there is a warrant officer, a dental doctor, two corporal chiefs, and only soldiers As a private and a private first class, I always do some chores such as cooking, washing dishes, washing and so on.
Our station is the local agricultural school that has been taken over.Cadres above the captain can live outside, and those below the lieutenant live in student dormitories.The dormitory is a slender house, because it is a heated kang, and oil paper is pasted on the bed.However, a good kang is useless because it has no fuel and is icy cold.
The chief of the military medical officer is an active soldier, and he looks very proud.He was a fat man with sleepy eyes all the time.There is only a screen in the house to separate the minister's office from the so-called office.Minister Shao Zuo rode from the dormitory and went back at night.He mostly went to the division commander's office, and when he came back, he would loudly reprimand the military doctors under his command.He reprimanded him reasonably, so I think he is a very good brain.When talking about himself, he always speaks in dialect: "I, I..."
At that time, I didn't think about anything, I had no other work except cooking, serving, washing, and sweeping.In this animal life the mind grows duller.
Earlier, I wrote about visiting a used bookstore in Seoul.I bought old English textbooks for the third grade of junior high school there, and I hid them under my military uniform and took them back to the internal affairs class.In an unoccupied place in the infirmary yard, I quietly opened the book.It's not because I'm eager to learn, but because I feel that if I don't even read these, I simply can't live.Reading novels will make my hopeless yearning for a free society darken, so I close my eyes to those books.If it were an English book, it wouldn't have that sense of reality.Like a person living in a single cell, he has a desire to learn a language.
However, if someone finds out that they are secretly flipping through books in this "enemy language", they don't know what kind of punishment they will receive.There are some things in this textbook that I don't understand. A North Korean soldier taught me.The student soldier suddenly disappeared one day.Some people said that he was engaged in the anti-war movement and independence movement. He was kidnapped by the gendarmerie along with several other North Korean volunteers.
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