Training in the Freezing Weather
January in Manchuria is extremely cold. Under such conditions as sixty degrees centigrade below zero, everything becomes frozen. The training we had to carry out in a blizzard was as if we were marching to death.
Our suffering in this march was beyond description. Those carrying munitions went first, and then those carrying food followed, directed by hand signals to the left or right given by the leader in front. However, the blizzard blocked the view of people who were toward the end of the line. The only way to keep up was to follow our own horses. In the blizzard, the reins became loose. That almost made a left turn become a right turn. The horses must have been struggling just like us, but they had no words. They stopped, and they often did not want to listen to us. In addition, the ferocity of the wind in the freezing cold air blew our words away. This awful experience was way beyond what we could describe in words. I don't even want to think about it again.
January in 1945