SFC Mark Merino 959020 <div class="images-v2-count-0"></div>Hitomi and I watched this on NHK (Japan TV). This article doesn&#39;t do the story justice. I pray this becomes a movie some day. <br /><br />A son stumbles across a stack of letters in his deceased father&#39;s &#39;war chest&#39; and since he knew nothing of his father&#39;s war experiences, he decided to run this mystery to ground, which would take him to the address on the envelope....in Japan. When he got to Japan the mystery was easily solved, as one of the poems sent in gratitude (some 30+ years prior) was etched in granite at the family&#39;s burial plot. The Japanese family was just as puzzled by this inscription in a foreign language (English) and everything had finally come full circle. <br /> The Englishman was a POW and the Japanese man was one of his jailors. But instead of a story of brutality, this was a (rare) story of friendship. This prison guard risked almost certain execution by his own countrymen if they discovered that he was secretly passing along his own food to the prisoners and spent his miniscule military allowance to purchase food for them as well. As best I can tell, neither of the war veterans shared any of their wartime experiences with their families after the war. There friendship continued for decades after the end of the war.<br /><br /><a target="_blank" href="http://sacratomatovillepost.com/2015/08/22/families-of-british-prisoner-and-japanese-guard-united-by-poem-70-years-on/">http://sacratomatovillepost.com/2015/08/22/families-of-british-prisoner-and-japanese-guard-united-by-poem-70-years-on/</a> <div class="pta-link-card answers-template-image type-default"> <div class="pta-link-card-picture"> <img src="https://d26horl2n8pviu.cloudfront.net/link_data_pictures/images/000/021/872/qrc/AJ201508140013M.jpg?1443054291"> </div> <div class="pta-link-card-content"> <p class="pta-link-card-title"> <a target="blank" href="http://sacratomatovillepost.com/2015/08/22/families-of-british-prisoner-and-japanese-guard-united-by-poem-70-years-on/">Families of British prisoner and Japanese guard united by poem 70 years on</a> </p> <p class="pta-link-card-description">Toby Norways travelled to Japan to research his father Bill’s friendship with Kameo Yamanaka, and found an ode in English next to Yamanaka’s grave Toby Norways with members of the Yamanaka family a...</p> </div> <div class="clearfix"></div> </div> 2015-09-11T12:44:31-04:00 SFC Mark Merino 959020

<div class="images-v2-count-0"></div>Hitomi and I watched this on NHK (Japan TV). This article doesn&#39;t do the story justice. I pray this becomes a movie some day. <br /><br />A son stumbles across a stack of letters in his deceased father&#39;s &#39;war chest&#39; and since he knew nothing of his father&#39;s war experiences, he decided to run this mystery to ground, which would take him to the address on the envelope....in Japan. When he got to Japan the mystery was easily solved, as one of the poems sent in gratitude (some 30+ years prior) was etched in granite at the family&#39;s burial plot. The Japanese family was just as puzzled by this inscription in a foreign language (English) and everything had finally come full circle. <br /> The Englishman was a POW and the Japanese man was one of his jailors. But instead of a story of brutality, this was a (rare) story of friendship. This prison guard risked almost certain execution by his own countrymen if they discovered that he was secretly passing along his own food to the prisoners and spent his miniscule military allowance to purchase food for them as well. As best I can tell, neither of the war veterans shared any of their wartime experiences with their families after the war. There friendship continued for decades after the end of the war.<br /><br /><a target="_blank" href="http://sacratomatovillepost.com/2015/08/22/families-of-british-prisoner-and-japanese-guard-united-by-poem-70-years-on/">http://sacratomatovillepost.com/2015/08/22/families-of-british-prisoner-and-japanese-guard-united-by-poem-70-years-on/</a> <div class="pta-link-card answers-template-image type-default"> <div class="pta-link-card-picture"> <img src="https://d26horl2n8pviu.cloudfront.net/link_data_pictures/images/000/021/872/qrc/AJ201508140013M.jpg?1443054291"> </div> <div class="pta-link-card-content"> <p class="pta-link-card-title"> <a target="blank" href="http://sacratomatovillepost.com/2015/08/22/families-of-british-prisoner-and-japanese-guard-united-by-poem-70-years-on/">Families of British prisoner and Japanese guard united by poem 70 years on</a> </p> <p class="pta-link-card-description">Toby Norways travelled to Japan to research his father Bill’s friendship with Kameo Yamanaka, and found an ode in English next to Yamanaka’s grave Toby Norways with members of the Yamanaka family a...</p> </div> <div class="clearfix"></div> </div>

2015-09-11T12:44:31-04:00 2015-09-11T12:44:31-04:00 SCPO David Lockwood 959022

<div class="images-v2-count-0"></div>Sounds like this would make an awesome movie. Thanks for sharing!

2015-09-11T12:45:41-04:00 2015-09-11T12:45:41-04:00 Maj Chris Nelson 959057

<div class="images-v2-count-0"></div>Awesome!!! Fantastic read. I would agree...this has great potential for a movie, but would need to be carefully crafted to honor this friendship appropriately! (I would hate to see this as one of "those movies" that are just completely crappy)

2015-09-11T12:55:23-04:00 2015-09-11T12:55:23-04:00 SSG Private RallyPoint Member 959379

<div class="images-v2-count-0"></div>This is a great story <a class="dark-link bold-link" role="profile-hover" data-qtip-container="body" data-id="313343" data-source-page-controller="question_response_contents" href="/profiles/313343-sfc-mark-merino">SFC Mark Merino</a> Thank you for sharing

2015-09-11T14:49:37-04:00 2015-09-11T14:49:37-04:00 SGT Scott Bell 959384

<div class="images-v2-count-0"></div>Man how cool

2015-09-11T14:50:53-04:00 2015-09-11T14:50:53-04:00 MAJ Ken Landgren 959493

<div class="images-v2-count-0"></div>Nice! Japan is expensive, are you both working?

2015-09-11T15:22:02-04:00 2015-09-11T15:22:02-04:00 SSG Private RallyPoint Member 959980

<div class="images-v2-count-0"></div>A beautiful read. Thank you for sharing!

2015-09-11T19:31:48-04:00 2015-09-11T19:31:48-04:00 2015-09-11T12:44:31-04:00