No Surrender Read Online Free

his overcoat. When we passed him, I stole a quick glance in his direction. He saw me; it was clear from the expression on his face that he was even more surprised than he had been at Hankow. He later told me that his second thought was, “This is going to cost money.”
    Our squad leader could administer a mean slap when he was angry, but most of the time he was laughing and in good spirits. He called me to him one day and told me that he had chosen me for his squad because he thought I would make a good soldier. He added that I had better make a good soldier.
    Our regiment had a reputation for having good legs, and we were constantly being ordered to march three and a half miles in an hour. Sometimes it was five miles, and when that happened, most of the recruits were resentful. Fortunately, my training in kendō had prepared me for this, and never once did I break ranks.
    I had kept on growing; now I stood five foot four. When I had my physical after basic training, my weight had increased to 132 pounds. which was twice the weight of the full pack we had to carry. I was considered to be just the right size, because anyone who did not weigh twice as much as the pack could not stand up under it in the long haul, and anyone who weighed much more was carrying around excess poundage.
    I first came under real fire just after I finished basic training. It was in a place called An-i, which is between Nan-ch’ang and Chiu-chiang, and we were assigned to clean out a troop of enemy guerrillas who had been causing trouble in the area. Our battalion worked out a plan whereby the guerrilla leader was captured alive. But during the operation I injured my right foot and was laid up for a few days, which was particularlyunfortunate because it prevented me from taking an examination for officers’ training school.
    Having said earlier that I wanted nothing grander than the rank of private first class, I must confess that after I went into the army, I changed my mind rather quickly. One reason was that I wanted to do something that would make the squad leader happy. The other was the idea that if I was going to go to war, I might just as well go in one of those flashy officer’s uniforms. The attire of a private first class is not inspiring.
    I was dejected at having missed the examination, and I suppose I looked glum when I went on my next day off to see my brother. When I told him the trouble, he directed me to stay put and immediately took off on his horse to see the commander of my unit. When the latter found out I was Tadao’s brother, he agreed to give me a special examination. I passed it, and on August 1, I was transferred to a preliminary officers’ training unit.
    Here the men who passed the course were divided into two groups: some went on to more advanced officers’ training, while the others remained noncoms. Fortunately, I came out in the first group. Since the regimental commander was in favor of more and better training for officers, he directed that the twelve successful candidates, myself included, be given extra training by Lieutenant Tsunenori Ōno, the regiment’s standard-bearer.
    Instead of going back to my company, I stayed with the training unit and was given two weeks of training each in machine guns and horsemanship. After that, I had another week of drill in firing the regimental artillery, and I ended up returning to my company for only one night. In the meantime, my brother was transferred from Nan-ch’ang to a new division being formed in Korea.

    As a rule, officer candidates who were in China were sent to the Reserve Officers’ Training School in Nanking, but in this year they were being sent back to Japan. My group was assigned to a school in Kurume, a port in Kyushu, where we arrived on January 13, 1944.
    â€œThe Devil’s Kurume,” as it was known among the students, was a very tough training camp, and the officer in charge of my class, Captain Shigeo