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Life Onboard |
LAST UPDATE
July 19, 2005
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| April 14, 2004 |
No More War – Honda Ryutaro |
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| Honda Ryutaro |
Standing before an audience and speaking about his experiences during World War II for the 935th time (literally), 90 year old Honda Ryutaro still delivers his appeal for "No More War" with piercing clarity. Though formally introduced as a speaker of war experiences, Honda often feels the term is misleading as it implies it his duty to speak, when actually he speaks out of his own desire to share his story with others.
Despite his staggering number of lectures, it wasn't until 1986 that Honda began to speak publicly of his military service in China and time as a prisoner of war in Siberia. He says the motivation to talk was not out of "doing good" for society, but when he saw his grandson asleep on the sofa, and realized he wanted to pass on to his grandson something important. "History has been changed in the textbooks," challenges Honda, "and I want my grandson to know the simple facts about what really happened."
Born in 1914, and raised in a small town in Hokkaido, northern Japan, Honda led a wayward youth as street peddler and mah-jong player before his father sent him away to Tokyo, arranging a job for him with Asahi News and hoping his only son would make something better of himself in the city. Honda had already failed the medical exam for enlistment in the army after being diagnosed near-sighted and having flat feet, and from 1934 to 1939 worked in a newspaper office. Like everybody else in the country, he only heard the propaganda about Japan's success in China through the news. But soon, he would discover the reality himself. |
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| The connection between experiences in war and current issues such as the recent dispatch of Japanese troops to Iraq was a major theme of Honda Ryutaro 's talks |
Nearly 70 years after receiving the urgent telegram from his father that insisted he return home immediately, Honda clearly remembers the rainy day he was drafted into the army. When he walked into his local coffee shop to say farewell to his friends, the waitress he had become friends with saw him and screamed. As soon as a man received his draft notice he had to shave his head, and Honda's slicked black hair was now gone.
For five years he had been visiting the same coffee shop, and though he had always been attracted to the waitress, the two of them often laughing and having fun together, he had always been too shy to express his feelings to her directly. When they sat down together at the table for what would be the last time, they were both too upset to talk, and the waitress could only utter a tearful "Congratulations." |
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| Volunteer interpreters onboard helping to make Mr. Honda's stories accessible to those not fluent in Japanese |
A regular customer at the shop, Honda had always requested to listen to the Bolero whenever he visited. For one last time, the manager played Honda his favourite piece of music, as he broke down in tears before catching a train back to Hokkaido that evening. It wasn't until eight years later, after his time in China and release from a Siberian prisoner-of-war camp, that he found out the manager and his family had been killed in the Tokyo fire bombings.
On his return to Hokkaido he discovered that many of his friends had also received their military draft notice. It was considered an honor to fight for the Emperor, and hand delivered draft telegrams were celebrated with family parties and much flag waving. But Honda says the reality was crying behind closed doors and real emotions kept suppressed. Husbands and wives were separated, and fathers had to leave newborn babies behind without having the chance to see them grow up. No one could refuse the draft without being sent to prison, and if a draftee ran away, military police would impound the rest of their family. |
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Honda left home in uniform on a crowded train with his friends. No matter how much the relatives of the soldiers waved and cried their goodbyes during the farewell ceremony, none of the draftees dared to respond, as their strict orders were to remain silent and motionless. Honda remembers a mother and sister crying and screaming his friend's name before being knocked to the ground by the military police. Unable to wave to them, his friend, who would later die in battle, could only salute his last goodbye.
As a young soldier in China, Honda says he witnessed many deaths, and experienced first hand the "insanity of war." He tells of the death of another friend as "lucky" because a sniper killed him instantly, and he was also one of the few who were able to have their bodies sent back to Japan for a proper funeral. When the body of dead soldier couldn't be recovered, his closest friend would cut off the little finger and forward it to the family. It is the image of fingerless corpses and the seeming normalcy of washing rice in a river red with blood that Honda describes as "scarier than death." |
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But is not until after giving approximately 100 lectures that Honda could bring himself to share the experience that he will "die in shame of." His unit had taken prisoner a group of Chinese soldiers, and when they came under fire from another platoon, his commanding officer ordered him to "get rid of them." If Honda had disobeyed an order in front of the enemy his superior officer would have shot him. Although he could not refuse the command of bayoneting the prisoners into the river, he says that he is still a "criminal for committing a criminal act," and that everyone from the Emperor down to those who physically carried out the atrocities must be held responsible.
" War is about separation and death," says Honda, hoping that his powerfully honest story of war will help others work for peace. When he was a young man, people "were arrested for disagreeing." Now young people have the freedom and opportunity to make a difference and speak out. Honda proposes that by supporting Japan's pacifist constitution through the protection of Article 9, people can help to make sure Japan will never go to war again. Approaching nearly 1,000 lectures, and having addressed over 110,000 people, Honda Ryutaro is still a convincing voice for peace. |
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