Efforts to Examine War Trauma of Former Japanese Soldiers Grow; Medical Records Provide Vital Insight

Yomiuri Shimbun

2 days ago

A move has been growing to examine the psychological distress and emotional suffering experienced by former Japanese soldiers as a result of exposure to traumatic events during World War II.
War trauma has long been considered a personal issue although there have been many cases where former soldiers' mental anguish has made it difficult for them to perform their daily activities.
In recent years, however, the public's understanding of the issue has grown, and efforts have been made to share the suffering of the soldiers among their families. The government is also planning to hold its first exhibition on war trauma later this month.
Charts of 8,002 people
Medical records called 'bedside logs' of 8,002 soldiers who stayed at Konodai army hospital in Ichikawa, Chiba Prefecture, for mental illnesses during the war are stored at Asai Hospital in Togane, Chiba Prefecture.
One such record contains graphic descriptions of how a private of the Imperial Japanese Army from Yamagata Prefecture is tormented by a sense of guilt. The soldier seems to have suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder.
'He killed six innocent civilians in Shandong Province [in China], and this haunts him in his dreams,' the record reads.
Immediately after the war, the army ordered the hospital to destroy the charts. However, Toshio Asai, who served as a military doctor at the hospital, and then the hospital director put them in a drum can and buried it underground, believing that the records must be preserved for future generations. The records were unearthed several years later and photocopied — a process that took more than five years.
Since then, the records have been stored at Asai Hospital – which was founded by Asai, who passed away in 2000.
The records are now considered important materials by experts studying war trauma. 'We want to continue safeguarding these valuable records,' said Yoshinobu Naganuma, 71, a hospital staff member who assisted with the preservation efforts.
Father's experienceAccording to Shigeyuki Mori, professor emeritus of clinical psychology at Konan University, many former Japanese soldiers who had experienced harsh battles or the deaths of comrades exhibited symptoms such as hyperarousal, a state of heightened stress for prolonged periods of time, and emotional numbness.
But the issue was never considered a social problem. Instead of focusing on the war trauma itself, society tended to focus on issues of alcohol dependency and domestic violence, which were caused by the trauma, according to Mori.
The Vietnam War, which ended in 1975, played a significant role in raising awareness of war trauma. Comprehensive research on the matter was conducted after similar symptoms were observed in the United States among returning soldiers.
The American Psychiatric Association officially certified PTSD as a mental disorder in 1980. PTSD among returning soldiers became a visible issue in the 2000s during and after the United States' military intervention in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Efforts to examine war trauma began to emerge in Japan, too, as society's understanding of PTSD grew.
Akio Kuroi, 76, of Musashimurayama, Tokyo, founded an organization in 2018 where relatives of former Japanese soldiers and others discuss war trauma.
Kuroi's father, Keijiro, was sent to China during the war. Keijiro did not secure steady employment after the war and led a life of apathy. After his father's death in 1990, Kuroi saw video footage of U.S. military veterans suffering from PTSD after serving in the Vietnam War. Kuroi said he realized his father might have been in the same situation.
His organization holds an annual gathering and organizes monthly meetings for those with similar circumstances to himself to connect with one another.
Similar activities have also taken place in Osaka and Chiba prefectures.
'I want to convey the feelings of frustration of people like my father who suffered psychological wounds from the war,' Kuroi said.
Government efforts
In response to these efforts, the Health, Labor, and Welfare Ministry began a study on war trauma in fiscal 2024. It has collected analysis results of medical records stored at Asai Hospital and accounts written by the family about former Japanese soldiers' lives and feelings.
The government will also start a panel exhibition on war trauma later this month at Shokei-kan, a national archive that houses information about sick and wounded servicemen in Chiyoda Ward, Tokyo. The exhibition is scheduled to run for about three months, but plans are underway to expand the content and make it a permanent exhibition next year.