Heritage paper

World War II Experience
Kyle Tanaka
Feb 8st, 2007
Ms. Shigemitsu

Long ago in the far reaches of Asia in Kyoto, Japan. There was a young man still going through his senior year in high school. He was a star athlete in ice hockey and hardly anyone could beat him or even stop the shots that he would execute to make a goal. But during this time, a tragic war was starting throughout the world. The war was taking away the young man’s hockey teammates, friends, and classmates. This young man was Kenichiro Tanaka who was 18 years old during 1938, the start of World War 2 when Japan decided to invade China. Already, the war is starting to call for all able-bodied men to enlist into the army to go fight overseas for the country. But like America, those who have good grades and keep it above a B, do not have to fight in the war. The reason being that the smart students graduate from college then become an officer in the army, or use their mind to engineer new weapons. But education was important to young Kenichiro’s family and his father made sure that his grades were always A’s and made sure he did not slack off in school.
Finally Kenichiro graduated from college with great grades but he was forced into joining the army because the war against America had started and the demand for soldiers was greater then ever. Kenichiro was drafted into the army as a private, but because of his educational background he was easily promoted and pulled up in the ranks. He was the Ittio Rikui or the American equivalent of a Staff Sergeant, which was a very high rank for someone who came fresh out of college. The higher command promoted college graduates before the rest of the regular army because of the knowledge and background to make commands for his squad and platoon. Because he was a Staff Sergeant, Kenichiro was assigned his own squad consisting of about 10-12 soldiers under his command. For basic training and post basic training.
One day after running with his squad through some drills, Kenichiro was ordered to go in and see the Colonel. The Colonel was stout intimidating man my grandfather said, he was short but very muscular and could take on men twice his size. Kenichiro went into the room to speak to the Colonel who reassigned my grandfather to a different division of the army. Kenichiro’s educational background made him a good candidate of becoming a secret spy for Japan. It was a difficult task to become a spy; being dropped behind enemy lines to send valuable information that will affect the way battles would be fought. Kenichiro accepted the daunting task and hoped for the best because he was not feeling very strongly to take on this difficult task. He enrolled into the Japan Spy School for basic spy training, and specialized training, and language courses. After long hours of tedious training he was ready as a fully trained spy, and waited for orders to deploy. To Kenichiro’s horror it was one day that the American’s dropped a atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki where his family was. And then the following days the Japanese signed the official declaration of surrender to the American’s. Kenichiro’s family was luckily safe from the effects of the bomb. Kenichiro did not have to deploy to enemy territory, because the war was over.
Until this day, my grandfather mentions this story, he always credits that it was because of his education from high school to college that he was able to avoid going into war and losing his life because of spy school. If my grandfather were to still follow the path of being a regular soldier, his life would be different and probably he would be dead. My grandfather later discovered where his squad in the army journey to and the results were horrific. The squad was deployed to Okinawa and the Pacific Islands where the battle was fiercest and bloodiest. Most of the soldiers died in battle, and some others were captured and badly injured. The outcome by choosing a different path to becoming a spy was a hard one. But my grandfather is glad that the war ended before he would be deployed. All of his life was saved through the choice of studying and persuing a solid education. This story helps my family follow his way on how he studied, and have a enriching life.