Teacher cared for hostage students

One night in June 1943 a government official suddently appeared at the Tokyo home of 24-year-old Hiroko Kadomo to give her an assignment described as important in helping to realize the Greather East Asia Coprosperity Sphere.

"You must know that you are being asked to contribute to the state," the official of the Greater East Asia Ministry peremptorily said.

But the woman, who had been teaching Japanese to Thai diplomats in tokyo, remained hesitant for several weeks even though she knew she would have no choice but to follow the order.

In late July of the same year, she went to a dormitory in Hongo-cho (now Himonya), Meguro Ward, where a group of 32 young students from the Philippines, Malay (now part of Malaysia) and Sumatra had just arrived.

A the sole lie-in woman teacher, Kadano's assignment was to teach Japanese language and culture to students aged between 15 and 21.

In the daytime, the students attended a special Japanese language school in Nakameguro. She took care of then for eight months until March 1944.

The youths were among 110 Southeast Asian students wartime government brought to Tokyo to train as future leaders of their own countries. The government assigned the live-in teacher to the Hongo-cho group because all its students were sons of leaders, such as Philipine President Jose P. Laurel.

Kadono recalled that the Ministry of War kept the students under tight surveillance, with ministry officials occasionally inspecting the dormitory.

"They became increasingly strained because food supplies were not adequate, while they faced a host of restrictions and were constantly being watched," she said.

Before she took the job, Kadono thought she would be able to act as an "older sister" to the students, to help them adjust to life in Japan. But she soon realized the children were being held hostage by the army.

"Some of the student late told me that if I had not been there, they would have mutinied," said Kadono, who now lives in Funabashi, Chiba Prefecture.

A book she wrote in 1985, titled "My Younger Brothers from Southeast Asia," included a letter from Benjamin F. Sanvictores, now deputy chief of mission at the Philippine Embassy.

"She was brought up in the spartan bushido tradition and quite unusual during her time," he writes. "She studied at Seijo Gakuen under Kuniyoshi Ohara, who was well known for his `humanist' education. She also studied at the Seichin (Sacred Heart) Women's College's Foreign Studies Department where all the classes were taught in English.

"We, who were privileged to heve been introduced to the beautiful basics of the Japanese way of life by Kadono, acknowledge with an abiding sense of gratitude, our indebtedness to her for the generosity and kindness she showed us."

While the students were attending the Japanese-language school, Imperial Japanese Army troops were taking control of their home countries in the name of pursuing the Greater East Asia Coprosperity Sphere.

The plan was advocated by wartime Prime Minister Hideki Tojo to free Southeast Asian countries from European colonial rule and realize regional coexistence and prosperity under Imperial Japanese rule.

"To enforce the concept and create firm ties among the nations, the Greater East Asia Ministry, with the help of the Education Ministry, pressed the leaders of the countries to send their sons to Japan for studies," Kadono said.

"Most of the Southeast Asian leaders were viry reluctant to comply with the demand because they know Japan was losing the war and might become a battle field," she said. "But they couldn't say no.

"It's beyond all imagination how they felt when they sent thier sons to Japan. They must have known that Japan wanted to take their sons as hostages," she said.

"In March 1944, after 10 months at the dormitory, all the students went elsewhere in Japan to take up additional course in the study program at either universities or military schools."

Kadono evacuated to a remote town to escape the air raids on Tokyo. "Of course, I was sad and worried about their future, but I felt we would be able to meet each other again," she said.

Shortly after returning to Tokyo following the end of the war, she was shocked and shaken with anger when she learned that two of her students had died as a result of the Aug. 6, 1945, atomic bombing of Hiroshima.

In 1974, Kadono held the first postwar reunion in Tokyo with four of her students, who were invited by Deputy Prime Minister Takeo Fukuda to visit Japan. She has also been in touch with other students who occasionally write to her.

"Our mutual trust never changes. Their wartime experiences in Japan were not pleasant at all, but they now understand Japan and have been trying to build better relations with this country," she said.

"Mutual understanding between countries should be fostered on a person-to person basis. Respecting and trusting each other can be the key to real friendship," she said.