Chapter 11 before and after the armistice

Although the color of defeat is getting stronger and stronger, this remote village in North Korea where we are located has not been affected by it.The troops were simply tormented by the intense heat. I don't know the status of the frontline troops guarding the coast in the headquarters of the town of Jingyi.However, food shortages have been perceived to be severe.This area is known as the granary of South Korea, with continuous rice fields.Although there is no shortage of rice, non-staple food is very scarce.The troops in the coastal area probably ate wild vegetables, and beriberi patients appeared one after another.The Military Medical Department felt that it was necessary to give guidance on which wild vegetables could be eaten as food.The thick plant illustrations were brought to the Military Medical Department, and I was responsible for transcribing the edible wild vegetables in those pictures.Cover the drawing with a thin copy paper, trace the shape with a pencil, and write with a pencil on the steel plate.

This work is very pleasant, even if I draw a leaf, I have to trace it accurately, and I don't care if it takes a long time.At times like these, I don't feel like I'm a soldier. I described more than 20 kinds of wild vegetables, printed them on the transcription board, bound them into a booklet with about ten pages, and distributed them to the frontline troops. However, there is no color on this kind of picture, just a sketch, which is far from perfect.The chief of the military medical officer said that these were to be shown to the division commander and ordered me to paint them.I bought watercolor paints from the street, and focused on painting the original drawings. After finishing the two volumes, the military medical chief sent them to the division commanders, who were said to be very satisfied.I doubt that the things I painted will help the troops solve the food problem.The soldiers probably didn't even glance at the thin transcription!

That's how it is in the military.What is not useful at all should be treated as useful work.In the course of the war, countless things that were of no use at all were effectively accomplished.This phenomenon exists not only in the army, but also in those huge bureaucracies. The teacher is God.The Chief of Staff, the Minister of Weapons, and the Minister of Military Medicine tried their best for this old man who was raised from the reserve position.The toilet is specially installed for the use of "Your Excellency", and other senior officers and schools are not allowed to use it. "Your Excellency" had a toothache, and he specially transported dental medical equipment from the street and installed it in the corridor of the headquarters.A non-commissioned officer who is a dentist becomes a professional doctor who treats "Your Excellency".

The military medical office included the corporal dentist, six officers and the squad leader.In the small agricultural school where we lived, there was no room for a new general school.The pharmacy general was constantly reprimanded by the chief of the military medical officer, as I wrote earlier, and there was not much harmony between the warrant officer and this major.But the warrant officer has long-term experience and knowledge of military life, "Korean Army Command in Seoul" is just a report, which cannot be written without the warrant officer.The ability of the warrant officer is higher than that of the general, which makes him confront the chief of the military doctor, because he is highly skilled and has a lot of tedious letter writing in the army.The war is going on, but what is puzzling is that bureaucracy and paperwork are also prevailing.

The teacher's dormitory is scattered among the Japanese restaurants in this town.I don't know what his private life is like there.But apparently there were a lot of people there, geishas, ​​and maids.The soldiers couldn't even go out together, so of course they envied the division commander's privilege. The dormitory of the captain of the military doctor is in the private residence of the Japanese.There was a widow of a soldier who had died in battle and lived with his mother.I was sent to that house several times to handle errands.I still have an impression of that 32-year-old honest widow.

We took a bath collectively in the baths run by Japanese people on the street.The officers also entered the same bath.In terms of time, officers spend a long time in the bath.I heard that the proprietress of the bath is the concubine of some Japanese, and the officers often chat in the upper room.In the field near the bath was a large field of corn.The evening moon reflected on the corn leaves restored my spirits. If you always live like this, it makes you wonder where the war happened.The only little atmosphere of war is the air defense exercise of the North Koreans near the headquarters.A loudspeaker came: "Squad leader of the neighboring group, alert alert, alert alert!" However, no blackout was actually implemented once, and every time we saw the North Koreans' air defense drills, we lost the sense of reality of the war.

There are no drills or special training in a real army.Every morning at the morning meeting, the school students gathered to do exercises, followed by a small number of soldiers, who looked at the movements of the old men's hands and feet pitifully.Gentle hills can be seen from this campus.There is a road that goes up and over a mountain.I don't know where this road leads from.Every time I see that mountain, I always think, if I am not a soldier and can freely climb over that mountain alone... In the evening, every household in North Korea lit up their lamps.The clear blue sky after sunset floats in the sky, and the scenery is particularly beautiful.The details of the scenery gradually dissolve as the dark colors, and the lights become clearer.Finally, the aspen trees on the hillside were out of sight.At this time, it made me miss my hometown even more.

Daytime temperatures rise.When it is hot, it reaches nearly 378 degrees Celsius.Walking outside with a hat on, you will feel dizzy after a while.Putting his hands on the shoulders of his military uniform, his fingers burned like they were on fire.However, because the humidity is low, it is cool in the room and under the shade of trees, and the white clothes of Koreans look even cooler. One hot morning in August, the higher-ups informed that His Majesty the Emperor would be broadcasting a speech today, and asked all personnel to gather in the courtyard of the headquarters.No matter what kind of "basin" it is in, the air of defeat still flows.We think that probably the emperor wants to come out in person to boost morale and save the defeat.At that time, no matter what kind of encouragement the general gave, it would no longer be effective. In the end, the emperor would need to go out to supervise the battle, right?

All the soldiers below the generals gathered in the campus, and an old radio was placed in front of them.When the broadcast time approached, the division commander drew out his knife, and the soldiers got ready to raise their guns.But the radio was not so much a sound as it was a chaotic hum.In the gaps of the humming, human voices were monotonously mixed, and after all, it was impossible to hear what was being said.We are in the hot sun, holding guns and listening to the noise of the noise. The broadcast is finally over.In the end, I didn't figure out what was going on.The soldiers thought that the emperor's voice must be solemn and clear, and they showed surprised expressions after hearing it.After the broadcast, the chief of staff stood in front of the team instead of the division commander, as if he had received an imperial order from the wise emperor, and instructed in a lifeless tone that everyone should unite and deal with this unprecedented difficulty.My subjective impression is that the Chief of Staff's expression also showed confusion.

After the ceremony, I went back to the office.There was no sign of the Chief of Military Medical Officer.The corporals believed that the failure to hear the voice of the Emperor was due to being too far away from Tokyo, probably due to the influence of the Korean Strait.What nonsense!There is already a submarine cable directly connected to the Seoul Broadcasting Bureau from Japan through the Korean Strait. It is unreasonable to attribute the humming noise in the broadcast to the Korean Strait. For two hours after this, nothing happened.The corporals wrote complicated letters as usual.Soldiers are still doing laundry.Outside, the hot sun was setting wearily.The news of Japan's defeat and unconditional surrender to the United States and Britain came after three o'clock.The news came from the messenger.The strange thing is that the division commander and the chief of staff did not tell the soldiers in the next few days.

In the headquarters, in the name of being attached to the army, some North Koreans were hired to do odd jobs.From the second day on, the men were clearly defiant.Surprisingly, the streets of North Koreans who had conducted air defense drills were changed the next morning, and the Taiji flag transformed from the Sun Flag was hung out at once. We were not told of any defeat, and our guns and swords were taken over by the North Koreans.Since it was summer, bathing continued.The swords taken from us were worn on the waists of North Korean youths, and our guns were carried on their shoulders.They lined up and marched down the street.Even the sentry at the headquarters didn't dare to wear a knife anymore. We don't know what the air in Seoul is like.It's just that a corporal came to convey information that the commander of the Xiangyue Army and the Kwantung Army cooperated, and only the Korean Army fought against Russia.Then it was finally possible to return to Japan, and the soldiers were overjoyed and impatient. The hearts of the senior officers of the command were floating.In the town of Jingyi, where the Japanese are the majority, people are frequently sent to the headquarters to petition.They said that if the North Koreans rioted, they hoped to escape to the headquarters for protection.In fact, some of our camps in the countryside were attacked by North Koreans, and the policemen and their families were killed there. The officers were uncertain about their destination, and the unarmed military medical minister met the president of the Japanese Association and said that his Excellency was about to commit suicide.At that time, we had not heard of the suicide of the Minister of War. Judging from the precedent of the United Nations sentencing the German head of state, the senior Japanese military officers thought that they could not escape the death penalty!Regardless of the death penalty, the military medical minister probably realized that he would be thrown into prison by the United States. At this time, American military officers came from Seoul and spread the word that all the weapons of the Japanese army would be confiscated.The guns and ammunition commanded by our division continued to gather in the town of Jingyi. One day, the generals met with the president of the Japanese Association to discuss serving in the American Military Corps.They said that Japanese women must be provided.It is difficult to find a girl, and they asked the president to find a suitable one among the wives of the common people. The words are only here, but the content has been generally inferred.Senior military officers probably have an impression in their minds that this is what Japanese military officers demanded when they went to China in the past.This incident makes people think that this group of senior military officers is trying to reduce their responsibility for war crimes.I am reminded of Mopassant's novel. The American military officers came to receive the weapons and returned to Seoul, but they did not hear of a similar scene taking place.The actions of American military officers are gentlemanly.But what the truth is, I still don't know. The frontline troops were the first to board the repatriation train to return home.The train of the headquarters was the last one, returning home with the Japanese civilians living in Jingyi.The impression left on me at that time was that before the train was about to leave the station, the proprietress of the bath was running, looking at the long windows of the connected carriages, as if looking for someone.I think the young widow of the family where the military doctor captain stayed was also on this train, but I never met her. After a while, the train crossed the mountain ridge.The parking station is called "Qiufengling", which I think is a good name. At that time, of course, I didn't think about writing a novel.Among the soldiers, I just cook, wash and sleep.All thinking is dead.The mind has become animalized.However, when I was finally liberated and could share my hometown, I felt the burden of life as a family of seven again. After dawn, the train passed the station in Daegu.Along the road by the river, young Japanese mothers with their babies in their arms ran towards the train, waving the sun flag as they did when sending off soldiers. At a station two stations ahead of Busan, the train stopped for a day and a night. The train in front happened to meet the US military inspection and was blocked there.In the carriage, because there were no empty seats, it was extremely stuffy.Soldiers got off the train, climbed up the bare hill beside the railway, and dug a lot of pits with shovels to deal with the urine and feces of the passengers on our train. On the brown slope, the pits, big and small, looked like honeycombs. .For the convenience of women, try to choose a dark place with trees to dig holes for them. The train finally started, and it was late at night when it arrived in Busan, and there were American soldiers on guard at the station.Americans in suits, pistols slung from their waists, looked out at our long line.The destroyer's searchlight illuminated the sky like daylight. Here, I reunited with my comrade-in-arms H.He is a second-class soldier in the front-line army, and since they are both members of the "Asahi Shimbun" agency, he once came to see me affectionately.He was a staff member of the foreign newspaper department in the newspaper office, and his English was very good, so he was left here as a translator.He probably felt that he hadn't used his strengths for a long time, and smiled happily. He was a tall man, and his face was very dark because of his big beard. ——This person later died in a plane crash over the Indian Ocean on his way to the United Arab Emirates as a special commissioner because he could speak English.His happy face is still in my mind. The ferry I took crossed the straits of night.On the boat ride from Bodo to North Korea, the formidable enemy submarines were gone, but the American mines were floating everywhere on the water. At dawn, our ship approached the beautiful port.Rocky islands jutting out of the sea, dotted with dots.It's just like Qinghai Island. The original port is Senzaki in Yamaguchi Prefecture. We landed there and the troops did not disband immediately.Soldiers camped with officers in civilian homes.Surprisingly, the warrant officer was still drafting papers for division headquarters.I don't think it hurts to just take the train to my hometown.But I still don't have that courage.The three-day camp was as boring as the one-year North Korean barracks, and it made me feel restless.There, I still cook for the officers and corporals. Some of the soldiers also sent a telegram to the family immediately, but I didn't have this thought.I put a backpack with a new military uniform, blanket, and military boots on my back, and boarded a train full of passengers and headed for Kyushu.I didn't think about anything.