A FORMER solider in the Japanese Imperial Army, who hadn't been seen by his family since he went off to fight in the Second World War and was declared dead in 2000, has resurfaced in Ukraine and is returning to Japan to see his relatives after 60 years, the government said.
Ishinosuke Uwano, now 83, is expected to arrive in Japan tomorrow, accompanied by his Ukrainian son, to visit his surviving relatives in Iwate, about 290 miles north-east of Tokyo, said Suminori Arima, who is in charge of locating war veterans lost overseas for the health and welfare ministry.
"It's wonderful that Mr Uwano can make a homecoming visit in good health," Mr Arima said.
Mr Arima declined to say exactly where Mr Uwano had been for the past six decades, nor why he had not been in touch with his Japanese family in all that time.
Mr Uwano was on the island of Sakhalin in Russia's far east when the war ended in August 1945, and was last reported seen on the same Pacific island in 1958. Mr Arima did not say who reported seeing him there. Public broadcaster NHK said he was drafted in 1943 to fight in Sakhalin.
He failed to return to Japan and didn't contact any of his relatives there. In 2000, Mr Uwano's family agreed to register him as having died in the war.
But the ageing Mr Uwano, who now lives in Ukraine with his Ukrainian family, asked someone in his local community to help him track his Japanese relatives. Inquiries by his acquaintance, whom Mr Arima did not identify, eventually reached the health ministry, which sent staff to interview Mr Uwano at the Japanese Embassy in Kiev, Mr Arima said.
Kyodo News agency said Mr Uwano, who moved to Ukraine in 1965 and now has three children, is currently in Zhitomir, a city about 90 miles west of Kiev.
In Japan , the Iwate prefectural (state) government was working to restore the family registry - a record of all births, marriages, deaths and other information - to rerecord him as alive.
The ministry refused to provide any more information on the returning war veteran, and details of his Japanese and Ukrainian families were not disclosed.
The government believes about 400 former Japanese soldiers remain in the former Soviet Union, including 40 who have been identified.
Last year, Japanese officials went to a remote Philippines village after receiving information that two Japanese soldiers of the Second World War could be hiding out there - but it turned out to be a wild goose chase.
MARI YAMAGUCHI
Another Japanese soldier turns up!!
Moderator: Commissar D, the Evil
Another Japanese soldier turns up!!
Hitler...there was a painter! He could paint an entire apartment in ONE afternoon! TWO coats!! Mel Brooks, The Producers
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