The Poetry of War Sonnets: Going Home

愛し国
親、妻、子供
いざ帰国

Itoshi kuni
Oya tsuma kodomo
Iza kikoku

Beloved homeland
Parents, dear wife, and children,
I return to you!

Home! Going home! I’m going home today.
War’s brutal horrors past, I’ve lived to see
The happy faces of my family;
But I am not the boy you sent away.
I am a well-trained killer; I have seen
Men die in fearful agony, while I
Have killed in turn, so that I might not die.
I am a killer. I am just nineteen.
I have no other marketable skill.
I went from high school straight into the war.
Now I am going home, to fight no more.
Now I must learn the work of shop and mill.
And leave behind the bayonet and gun.
A killer, yes; but I am still your son.

On July 5, 1945, General Douglas MacArthur declared the Philippines liberated. But that did not end Leo’s and Tadashi’s service to their respective countries. Leo continued to train recruits for the planned invasion of Japan in the fall of that year. Tadashi struggled to rejoin his army which had reportedly fled to northern Luzon. Both were determined to make it home. Only one did.