The last samurai of the Russian Federation

[Мишина Татьяна]

Officer, kamikaze pilot of the Japanese army. Since 1941, he fought against the United States in the Philippines, from January 1945 against the Soviet Union on Sakhalin, shot down 18 enemy enemy planes ......

The last World War II prisoner of war, samurai uncle Sasha Nakagawa from the Kalmyk village of Yuzhny, 60 years later, will again see his homeland “I, Nakagawa Sadao, a former officer, a kamikaze pilot of the Japanese army. Since 1941, he fought against the United States in the Philippines, from January 1945 against the Soviet Union on Sakhalin, shot down 18 enemy enemy aircraft, and was awarded the state awards of Japan. In August 1945, he was captured by Soviet soldiers, released in 1949. After his release, he remained to live in the Soviet Union. I am 85 years old, in Japan I have not been more than 60 years. I do not consider myself to be “heroes” in the military sense of the word. But to endure years in inhuman trials behind barbed wire in Soviet prison camps, to preserve human dignity and loyalty to the motherland - even to me, a surviving kamikaze pilot, seems to be the limit of the possible ... ”This letter was sent by an 85-year-old resident of the village of Yuzhny in Iki-Burulsky district of Kalmykia, Kalmykia to the organization "War Memorials", which is engaged in the arrangement of cemeteries and the search for native Germans, Hungarians, Japanese - allies of Germany during World War II, who died in Russia. Esiteru remembered the names of all his relatives — father, mother, three brothers and three sisters, who had lived in the Japanese city of Yamagata before the war. And he asked to find them and give him the opportunity to visit his homeland. The answer was not soon, but it came ... JAPANESE FROM YUZHNOGOOn appeared in Yuzhny 33 years ago, when the village also had no name. He came to build the Chograisk reservoir, seduced not so much with money as with fishing: carp, pike perch, grass carp ... The contract was for two years, during which the former livestock farm received the status of a village and its own name - Yuzhny. And when the contract was over, Uncle Sasha asked to register him in the village. It turned out that in fact his name was Esiteru Nakagawa and he was "almost a samurai." The news, as usual, was discussed vigorously at first in the village, and then everyone calmed down: a man as a man. Nakagawa remained in the South. Overgrown with friends from among the fishermen of Kalmykia and the Stavropol Territory. The latter are still trying to find time to sit with Nakagawa by the night fire and behind a triple ear under Russian vodka to look into the past of the taciturn and therefore mysterious Japanese. "Uncle Sasha, do you remember? .." He remembers. Excerpts from the life of a child in Tokyo, moving to Hokkaido Island, then to South Sakhalin

Here it is, that bridge that connected the two south poles of his life: there, on South Sakhalin, his youth remained, here, in the Kalmyk village of Yuzhny, he met his old age. There he had a big family: dad Kisado, mother Mie, seven children and seven more adoptive. There was enough bread for everyone, because my father had a large herd of horses and his own store. Then the war began, and the second of the sons of Nakagawa in 1940 went to fulfill a duty to his homeland. - Uncle Sasha, were you a pilot? Uncle Sasha, is it true that you made hara-kiri? - simple-minded fishermen climb into the soul of Esiter, without ceremony at all. “I was,” Nakagawa sparingly drops. - It was ... - And he survived?! - Terentyev Oleg Pavlovich, military surgeon, will take anyone from the other world! - In the voice of Nakagawa, you first hear admiration for the art of a Russian surgeon, followed by a dull regret: - It was not necessary ... - Why? - Honour. Dignity: A soldier of the emperor, a combat pilot, he tried to do what was then the only true thing for the Japanese, accustomed not to back down and not give up: say goodbye to life in connection with the inability to continue to fulfill his duty. Fortunately, the Russian medical battalion turned out to be nearby, and Oleg Pavlovich Terentyev, who had his own duty, to pull people out of the other world even in spite of their earthly desires. Then, 60 years ago, Terentyev Nakagawa won. “Uncle Sasha, did you wear a kamikaze bandage on your head?”

Is it true that kamikaze was allowed everything: to take any goods for free, to love the girl you liked? - No. We could not. Honor and dignity. “Uncle Sasha, why did you call Sadao when you were to Esiter?” “He served in the Philippines. Transferred to South Sakhalin. Captivity. I did not know Russian, the translator was a Korean who did not really understand Japanese. So it happened: Sadao, born in 1926. Then they transported: Yesiteru Nakagawa, 1922. But actually, I was born in 1919 ... LIFE AND MEMORY Nakagawa kept his memory tight from everyone. A terrible scar on the body from an unsuccessful attempt to fulfill the duty of honor from people not to hide, but memory is a completely different matter. He had not forgotten anything for all these years, but decided to open himself, or rather, to open himself only in 2001. Then he wrote a letter asking him to allow him to look at his old age at his homeland, which he had not seen almost all his life. Did he regret it later - does not say. Although he complains that the procedure was unexpectedly long - first Russian, then Japanese. The questions he had to answer, although they sounded correct, were still reminiscent of interrogations. Why wasn’t deported in 1949, why did he accept Soviet citizenship in 1953? .. His first “Soviet” family remained in Uzbekistan.

In 1953, when Japanese prisoners were deported to their homeland, Esiter refused to return, did not want to leave his wife pregnant with their firstborn - Alexei. In 1956, the daughter of Galya was born. How are they now, where? Each has its own life for a long time, including Nakagawa. The answer came four years later. “The Japanese will take away our uncle Sasha” - this message spread with lightning speed all over Kalmykia and spread to the neighboring Stavropol Territory. A small, two-room house in the village of Yuzhny became a place of pilgrimage: Japanese diplomats came here, acquaintances and friends visit the “path”, causing sadness in the eyes of Luba, his wife, Esiter. “Luba, will you let him go home?” - the villagers are curious in their own way. “They call home, but this is sacred,” Luba sighs. - It will be hard. Crying here. But if he decided something, you can’t argue. They lived together for 19 years. Yesiter helped Lyuba raise four children to her feet. “Galya and Ivan immediately called me dad. “This is what Nakagawa remembered for his first day in a new family. Riders from Elista arrived in Yuzhny in late November:“ They are waiting for you in Japan in December. They’ve already found a car. ” - Why do I need a car? - answered Uncle Sasha. - Why wheels when all bones are aching? I will die on the road, kicked out. And then ... they’ll even bury him as a person. The last four years seem to have been too long for Nakagawa, almost an eternity. He is very sick, and it is just hard for him to wait. He warms only one thing: he was told that his sisters were waiting for him in Japan. There is memory - there is life

 

[Матушкин Андрей Николаевич]

Tatyana, thanks for the interesting article.

 

[BEOWULF. Москва.]

This Japanese deserves all respect. But Japan will not receive either Sakhalin or the Kuril Islands.