National News Lost soldier returns to Japan

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A former Imperial Japanese Army soldier, who was recently confirmed to be alive in Ukraine after going missing in Russia's Far East after World War II, returned to Japan on April 19 for the first time in 63 years

Ishinosuke Uwano, 83, and his son, Anatoly, 37, arrived at Narita International Airport aboard an Aeroflot plane and will stay in Japan through April 28.

Uwano was on the Russian Far Eastern island of Sakhalin at the end of the war and was last seen there around 1958 by an acquaintance. In 2000, the Morioka Family Court in Iwate Prefecture declared him dead, according to the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare.

Last October, however, the Japanese government obtained information that he may be alive in Ukraine and staff at the Japanese Embassy in Kiev met him, ministry officials said.

His family in the town of Ono, which changed its name to Hirono in January, confirmed his identity with photos, they said

He has been living in Ukraine since around 1965, according to the ministry officials. He married a local woman and has a son and two daughters and currently lives in Zhytomyr, west of the Ukranian capital, Kiev. (Kyodo)

元兵士が63年ぶりの帰国

ウクライナで生活していることが確認された元日本陸軍兵士の上野石之助さんが19日、63年ぶりに帰国した。

Shukan ST: April 28, 2006

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