Tadashi Yoshida, composer (1.20.1921-6.10.1998 born in the city of Hitachi, Ibaragi prefecture)
Tadashi Yoshida was conscripted into the Mito regiment in Manchuria (Northern China) in 1942,
and was taken by the Russian Army at the end of the WWII, and was sent to Siberia. After walking 75
miles on foot, he was first taken to the area known as the Far East, Artyom, Voroshilov, Soviet
Harbor, Suchyan, and then to Nakhodka. While he was forced to labor cutting wood and mining coal,
he wrote music on the bark of the white birch tree. Close to death himself, and in physical
exhaustion, he mustered all his strength to teach this song to his fellow comrades in order to
encourage them to keep on going. After he made it back to Japan, he became an exclusive composer
for Victor Records, and composed songs for famous popular singers such as Koji Tsuruta, Koichi
Miura, Frank Nakai, Yukio Hashi, Sayuri Yoshinaga, Hiroshi Wada and Mahina Stars. The total
number of his compositions was 2400 pieces. In 1998, he received the Honorable Award as a
Citizen of Japan. Yoshida’s songs kept encouraging the Japanese citizens as they emerged from the difficulties after the war, working on the new challenges. However, during his second life as a
composer, he never talked about his days of anguish in Siberia. His musical works includes “Let’s
Meet at Yurakucho,” “I Love You More Than Anybody Else,” “A Boy with a Coolie Hat from Itako,”
“In a Cold Morning,” and “Have a Dream Anytime.” In commemoration of his accomplishments,
the Tadashi Yoshida Memorial Museum of Music was established in the city of Hitachi,
his hometown in 2004.
http://www.yoshidatadashiongakukinenkan.org/