Ishinosuke Uwano
Ishinosuke Uwano | |
|---|---|
| Born | October 1922 (age 101) |
| Nationality (legal) |  Japanese Ukrainian |
| Children | 3[1] |
Ishinosuke Uwano (上野 石之助, Uwano Ishinosuke, October 1922) is a former soldier in the Japanese Imperial Army and a prisoner of war in the Soviet labour camps, who came to media prominence in April 2006 after it was found that he had been living voluntarily in Ukraine for six decades after the end of World War II. He had been recorded as dead in official Japanese records.
Background
Uwano was stationed in the Japanese half of Sakhalin Island at the end of the war, and had been in contact with his family as late as 1958.[2] According to Japanese media he moved to Ukraine in 1965.[2] He subsequently married a Ukrainian woman and settled in Zhytomyr, where he had three children.[2][3] However, his lack of contact with his family led to the declaration that he was legally dead in 2000; as a result, when he returned to Japan to visit family in 2006, he had to enter his homeland on a Ukrainian passport.[1]
Disappearance
The last time that Uwano's family saw him was in Sakhalin in 1958. After that, they lost all contact with him. He reappeared in Ukraine in 2006.[3]
See also
References
- ^ a b "Missing WWII vet returns to Japan". BBC News. April 19, 2006. Retrieved 20 March 2019.
- ^ a b c "Japanese WWII veteran found in Ukraine has reunion with family". USA Today. April 20, 2006. Retrieved 20 March 2019.
- ^ a b "Japanese WWII soldier found alive". BBC News. April 18, 2006. Retrieved 20 March 2019.
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- 1922 births
- Formerly missing people
- Living people
- Japanese expatriates in the Soviet Union
- Japanese military personnel of World War II
- Missing person cases in Ukraine
- People declared dead in absentia
- People from Zhytomyr
- Ukrainian people of Japanese descent
- World War II prisoners of war held by the Soviet Union
- Japanese military personnel stubs