A Letter to Newspaper
A 90-years old woman wrote a letter to a newspaper as I read it around Tokyo.
Two months before the Pearl Harbor Attack, she married. And, next year her husband was drafted to be sent to the South Pacific Ocean area. It was one year after the end of the Second World War that she was informed that her husband died in New Guinea Island.
New Guinea was strategically important because it was a major landmass to the immediate north of Australia. Its large land area provided locations for large land, air and naval bases.
Fighting between Allied and Japanese forces commenced with the Japanese assault on Rabaul on 23 January 1942. Rabaul became the forward base for the Japanese campaigns in mainland New Guinea, including the pivotal Kokoda Track campaign of July 1942–January 1943, and the Battle of Buna-Gona. Fighting in some parts of New Guinea continued until the war ended in August 1945.
General Douglas MacArthur as Supreme Commander in the South West Pacific Area, led the Allied forces. MacArthur was based in Melbourne, Brisbane and Manila. The Japanese 8th Area Army, under General Hitoshi Imamura, was responsible for both the New Guinea and Solomon Islands campaigns. Imamura was based at Rabaul. The Japanese 18th Army, under Lieutenant General Hatazō Adachi, was responsible for Japanese operations on mainland New Guinea.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Guinea_campaign
A series of battles in New Guinea became one of the tragic campaigns for the Imperial Military. In and around New Guinea 200,000 Japanese soldiers were killed in WWII. Only the deaths of Japanese soldiers in the mainland China and in the Philippines surpassed this number in New Guinea.
It is unknown forever how the husband of the old woman died in New Guinea. But, before leaving his home forever, he painted a picture of roses as he was good at painting. The picture she has kept to date has helped her spiritually all through her life in the post-war society of Japan. She now feels so happy to live with her son's family. So, just to tell how one picture has supported her for decades after 1945, she wrote a letter to a newspaper company in Tokyo.
World War II is yet to be closed for some old people in Japan if they become 90-years old.
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APPENDIX. Operation by the Imperial Military during WWII
Indeed, it is crazy to have tried to drive out all the Western powers from East Asia and establish a further greater empire under Japanese hegemony.
Yet, it was not 100% impossible in 1941 to our surprise, even if the US had then 10 times more GDP than the Japanese Empire had...
Mat 11:9 But what went ye out for to see? A prophet? yea, I say unto you, and more than a prophet.
Mat 11:10 For this is he, of whom it is written, Behold, I send my messenger before thy face, which shall prepare thy way before thee.