Death March on Mount Hakkoda by Jiro Nitta (.ePUB)
File Size: 2.3 MB
Death March on Mount Hakkōda by Jirō Nitta, James N. Westerhoven (translator)
Requirements: .ePUB reader, 2.3mb
Overview: Set in the far north of the Japanese island of Honshu in 1902, and based on an actual incident, Death March on Mount Hakkōda is the fictionalized account of a military training mission gone tragically wrong. Against a backdrop of mounting political tension with Russia, two platoons of Japanese soldiers are ordered to cross snowbound Mount Hakkōda in January to test their ability to withstand a winter campaign. As a result of poor planning, bureaucratic interference, and plain bad luck, the men are soon frozen, starved, and lost in the deepening drifts and blizzards on the mountain. Of the original 210 soldiers, 199 die.
When word of this disaster leaked out, the Japanese citizenry rose up and condemned the military for wasting precious young lives. But in two years Japan was at war with Russia, and all was forgotten. One generation later, Japan was at war with the world.
Author Jirō Nitta details all aspects of the Hakkōda Incident, from the preparations to the men’s clothing and provisions and the route of their march. Trained as a meteorologist, he precisely conveys the brutality of winter and the terror of freezing to death. By examining the past, he sends an important message to readers in modern times. With compassion for the tenacious soldier in pursuit of a lost cause, he condemns the arrogant leader who sends him to his death. To this the earth, in the guise of hulking Mount Hakkōda, bears a silent and unforgiving witness.
Genre: Fiction > General Fiction/Classics
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