戦中、釜石にあった２つの連合軍捕虜収容所跡を訪ねて

Yesterday, I visited two sites of POW camp in Kamaishi and Iron mine POWs used to work during WWII, in a small local group. An old man aged 91 took part in the short field work trip. He, named Enjiro Sano, was working for Kamaishi Iron Mine corporation during the war, and saw POWs working in the machine maintenance. He told us that he hardly ever had communications with POWs.

But, this is the one of the most impressive episodes from him; when Mr. Sano informed his boss of his enlistment in the spring of 1945, a British POW came to him and said in Japanese, “Mr.Sano, you shouldn’t join the army now, because Japan will lose the war soon”. It was after his demobilization, it means after the war, when he knew that POWs had obtained necessary parts from their work place secretly and assembled the radio.

These camps interned around 700 American, British, and Dutch POWs during the war. The one, near a port and iron works, was bombed out by the US's naval gunfire on 9 August 1945, and the other, near the iron mine, was pulled down soon after the war.

昨日は、戦中、釜石にあった二つの連合国捕虜収容所跡と、捕虜たちが働いていた釜石鉱山を見に行ってきました。この見学ツアーには、当時釜石鉱山（釜石鉱業所）の職員だった佐野圓次郎さんも特別参加。大正13年生まれの佐野さんはとても矍鑠（かくしゃく）としておられ、参加者とともに歩きながら、当時のお話をしてくださいました。

中でも印象的だったのは次のエピソード。昭和20年の春に佐野さんが入隊することになり、このことを上司に報告に行くと、近くにいた英国の捕虜が佐野さんに近づいてきて「佐野さん、今頃兵隊には行かないほうがいいですよ。日本はもうすぐ負けますよ」と日本語で語りかけたというのです。戦後、佐野さんが復職すると、捕虜たちは密かに部品を集めてラジオをつくっていたことを知ったのだそうです。