At the entrance of the defunct lead and zinc mine in Kurihara, Miyagi Prefecture, earlier in October, American Henry Chamberlain, 95, had to lean on his cane to ease the fatigue linked to the beatings he received from Japanese soldiers during World War II.
In the months after Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941, besieged Allied forces stationed in the Philippines surrendered. Among them was Chamberlain, who was captured by the Imperial Japanese Army and held as a prisoner of war for 3½ years. For nearly a year until September 1945 he was a forced laborer at the Hosokura mine owned by Mitsubishi Mining Co., the predecessor of today's Mitsubishi Materials Corp.
His October visit was part of a Japan-POW reconciliation program run since 2010 that enables former American soldiers to explore their past and see for themselves how their legacy contributed to the situation in Japan and today's peace.