Talk:Paul Maruyama

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https://www.coloradocollege.edu/newsevents/newsroom/paul-maruyama-honored-with-japanese-imperial-decoration#.WHisa7mtGhc The Order of the Rising Sun, Gold Rays with Rosette https://www.stripes.com/news/former-air-force-officer-s-book-details-japanese-ouster-from-manchuria-1.311328 Former Air Force officer's book details Japanese ouster from Manchuria Yokota Air Base, Japan-Paul Maruyama can talk your ear off about his days as a U.S. Air Force officer in Vietnam or his judo bouts at the Tokyo Olympics.

On a recent visit to promote his book “Escape from Manchuria,” he said he would rather focus on the efforts of his father and two other men to bring home 1.7 million Japanese nationals from Manchuria at the end of the World War II.

Japanese settled in Manchuria in large numbers after the Japanese Imperial Army invaded the territory in 1931.

However, they found themselves in a crisis after the U.S. dropped the atom bomb on Hiroshima and the Soviet Union declared war and invaded Manchuria in August 1945.

As a boy, Maruyama was among the stranded settlers. His father, Kunio, had gone to the Manchurian town of Dalian as an employee of the Showa Seitetsu steel company. His mother was a second-generation Japanese-American. Escape from Manchuria, by retired U.S. Air Force officer and Olympian Paul Maruyama, tells the story of three men's efforts to repatriate Japanese from Manchuria after World War II. Eric Guzman/Stars and Stripes

“The Japanese in Manchuria didn’t know what was happening,” he said, referring to the Soviet invasion.

Many of the male settlers were drafted into a makeshift force that was quickly overrun by the Russians. Those captured were sent to work camps in Siberia; many were never seen again.

Their families, including elderly, women and children, were left without food or money and faced retribution from the Chinese. Soon they were dying at a rate of 2,500 a day, Maruyama said.

“There was no communication with Japan, and even the U.S. didn’t know what was going on,” he said. “Many relatives in Japan wondered what had happened to their loved ones.”

In desperation, Kunio Maruyama and two other civilians, aided by the Catholic Church, decided to escape from Manchuria and seek help to evacuate others.

The three made their way to the port of Koroto, which was controlled by Chiang Kai-shek’s Nationalist forces, and boarded a ship for Japan.

“When my dad made it to Japan he started a campaign to tell the Japanese people about those left behind in Manchuria,” Maruyama said.

Back in Dalian, the family, protected by the Catholic Church, got word that he was safe when an acquaintance picked up an NHK radio broadcast of him speaking about the situation, he said.

Carrying letters and documents from the Catholic Church, the trio visited Gen. Douglas MacArthur, the supreme commander for the Allied Powers in Japan.

MacArthur was already planning to repatriate Japanese in China but lacked details on the situation in Manchuria. The three escapees suggested any evacuation take place from Koroko, Maruyama said.

“These three filled in the intelligence that the U.S. needed to begin repatriation,” he said.

Kunio Maruyama met his wife before the war while studying for a business degree from Columbia University, so he spoke to MacArthur in English.

“The fact that he could speak English directly to him played a role in having him trust my dad,” Paul Maruyama said.

In May 1946, MacArthur ordered evacuations. More than a million people were picked up at Koroko.

“Many Japanese think their own government repatriated their citizens, but it was MacArthur who sent American ships” with Japanese crews, Maruyama said. “I want Americans to realize the role that MacArthur played. It is one of the things that caused the relationship between the U.S. and Japan to endure all this time.”

Maruyama, his mother and siblings were reunited with their father at Sasebo in December 1946.

Estimates say 1.3 million Japanese made it home from Manchuria. Others died, and some blended in with the local population. The Zanryo Koji (left behind children) are Japanese whose parents were forced to leave them with Chinese families as they fled after the war. Many only discovered their origins years later, Maruyama said. Paul Maruyama teaches Japanese language. Born in Japan, he is fluent in both English and Japanese. He taught at the U.S.A.F. Academy from 1974-1987. He published Escape from Manchuria in 2010.

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http://asianavemag.com/2013/japan-imperial-decoration-paul-maruyama/