This Hiroshi Suzuki guy and his whole posse are going to stick in your head. He was patriotic as a child, then became a supervillain, and then redeemed himself, all in one amazing story. I’d even go as far as to say that his story might be as legendary as Malcolm’s!
Once again, Hiroshi Suzuki was a Japanese soldier. Yeah, you heard me right. He fought for the Axis Powers. The fact that I have relatives who fought for the Axis is already wild enough. But it became even crazier when I discovered that he’s still alive today. No, I’m not kidding. He lived more than a hundred years and I was able to track him down and get a video call with him. It was pretty awkward because I didn’t speak enough Japanese (I still don’t know enough as I’m writing this) but I learned loads of things about my Japanese heritage.
Hiroshi and his family in general have a history of fighting for the Japanese Empire. Once again, my ancestors’ complicated stories require me to go into another history lesson. This time, about the Japanese Empire.
Let’s rewind the time to the mid-1800s. This time is a period of internationalization and connectedness. More and more, the greedy European colonial powers were sending scouts all over the world to plant flags in territories, hoping to gain more land for themselves. In the 1850s, one of the colonial powers showed up in Japan to negotiate these “unequal treaties” with the Japanese. Surprisingly, the colonial power that negotiated these treaties was America. (Yes, they had a colonial empire. I didn’t know that either)
To keep up with the European colonial powers, Japan decided to start doing some colonizing of their own. They started small by absorbing the nearby islands of Okinawa but then became increasingly ambitious with their claims. They went to war with China and won, gaining the island of Taiwan from them and becoming increasingly respected on the world stage. Then they tried to advance into nearby Korea where they ran into some issues.
The nearby Empire of Russia was also interested in controlling this region and they quickly were on the brink of war. Japan attempted to negotiate a compromise about control in Korea and China, but the Russians disregarded them. Japan then decided to strike first, beginning the Russo-Japanese War. To everyone’s surprise, Russia was humiliated in the war and Japan won. Korea ended up becoming a Japanese puppet state and would become part of Japan proper five years later.
Hiroshi Suzuki’s father, Haru Suzuki, would begin the military history of the family here. Haru participated in the first battle of the Russo-Japanese War in which they attacked a Russian outpost called Port Arthur completely by surprise. Immediately after this, Japan began an invasion of Korea which Haru participated in. From my research and interviews, the Japanese invasion of Korea was basically a disaster for the Russians. It was certainly dangerous for Haru, but also an activity in which he showed great enthusiasm. He was also far from the nicest guy to the local populations, having discriminated against many of the local Koreans. This discrimination towards other ethnicities would later be a sentiment passed down to his child, Hiroshi.
The war wasn’t a close one. Japan had taken the crown in just a few months. And pretty quickly, the frontlines fell silent. Korea became a Japanese Puppet state of Japan. As a soldier in the Japanese Army, Haru was tasked with keeping the sometimes rowdy population of Korea under control. There, he did some unspeakable things… things which I’m surprised are even part of my family history. Even today, I regret exploring this as an eleven-year-old. I was too young. I seriously think I should’ve just waited until I was older.
He committed countless acts of murder against the Korean people who even dared to cross him. He as well as other family members.
He raped several girls who were far from prepared for that kind of ordeal, bearing a few illegitimate children along the way.
He, as well as his fellow soldiers, all denied even basic living things to the Koreans, such as food, housing, and water.
Even small things, like that one time he took away a little Korean child’s candy was hard for me to hear or read about.
And the most bizarre part of it all… the man who murdered, raped, and abused innocent people is my great-grandfather. When I first learned about it in an interview with grandma Hana, I tried so hard to argue against it, to deny it… it couldn’t be true.
From the Interview in Vietnam
Me: You’re joking… you must be… he can’t be…
Grandma Hana: We really did, Mary.
Me: Did I really have someone this bad in the family? This guy’s a monster… did he really do this? Is he really my family? Is he really one of my ancestors?
Grandma Hana: No one likes to admit it… but he is.
She told me so many of the things he did, as well as what he admitted to doing in our interview, and I walked out of that zoom call with cold feet for the next three days. To be in Haru or Hiroshi’s positions, and to do something this brutal… I can’t even begin to imagine what the guilt of doing that would feel like… or worse… the traumatizing memories of having someone do these things to you…
And this wasn’t just something he did against the Korean people.
He went on to do the same thing later on during the First World War, this time against the citizens of the German colonies in the Pacific when he occupied them.
And then he passed all of these brutal traditions to his son.