Kurasuno, a small izakaya bar-restaurant near Taisho Station on the Osaka Loop Line and beloved neighborhood treasure in the hearts and minds of residents since it opened in 1949, is celebrating its 70th anniversary this year.
The restaurant's founder, Toyokazu Matsubara, was born in Tawaramotocho, Nara Prefecture, in 1916. In 1942, Matsubara joined the Imperial Japanese Army and was sent to Manchuria. When the war ended in 1945, he was captured by Soviet troops and sent to a prison camp in Krasnoyarsk, a city in Eastern Siberia, where he was forced to perform hard labor for two years in temperatures that often fell to minus 50 degrees Celsius.
In Krasnoyarsk, Matsubara's task was to grow tomato seedlings, but he wasn't allowed to enjoy the fruits of his labor. He was given only one meal a day — 300 grams of bread — and spent most days in near starvation.
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