I joined the platoon with confidence that I could handle considerable intensity due to years of hard work — delivering newspapers and farming, coupled with collecting empty bottles — that I did to help my family. But nothing could have prepared me for the intense training I faced in Kumagaya. Upon roll call and radio exercise starting at 6:00 AM, it was an endless barrage of continuous training that included pushups, medium distance running, shukendo, etc. Drill instructors were war survivors, and these former military men, who went through hell, were in no mood to make it easy for us. I know it’s inconceivable today, but physical punishment happened all the time.

For example, the number of pushups we had to do was one thousand. When we were given such orders, I thought it was impossible. If one of us had failed, it meant that the entire platoon of 100 men would have to do it all over. Even though I was forced to start over repeatedly at the beginning, I did it until my arms lost all feeling. I just did not want to be the one that failed, so I endured frantically.

We also had to learn old military songs, and there were almost 30 of them. A senior would sing a song one time before sleeping time at the dorm, and then ordered us to memorize it by next morning. There is no chance to memorize it immediately. If even one of us could not sing, all of us were punished with a 1.5 kilometer sprint run. If not running fast enough, orders for sprinting again were made. So in the beginning, we were practically forced to run at full speed 5 to 6 times. We were prohibited to drink water during training. So whenever one fainted, we would be splashed with water drained from mopping, and that tasted great at the time. Some of us even joked that the water was dark and black, just like chocolate.

These were days of constantly driving ourselves to the absolute limit. But a funny thing had happened. Strangely, after about a month had passed, all of us were able to do 1000 pushups. And we were able to run several tens of kilometers without much difficulty. That was surprising. We were still kids when joining, but after as little as a month of service, even our facial expressions had changed, and our bodies were much more muscular and masculine. We could even learn all 30 variations of the lyrics and melodies of military songs immediately just by hearing them once. By this I learned, that when pushed to the extreme, a person can actually bring out incredible abilities from within them. I think a great baseball hitter once said that he felt like the ball had stopped moving while in the air, and I quite think that might not be so farfetched.

<<Three Months Into Service, Reality Hits >>

Day after day, we kept doing pushups, running and training martial arts. After three months, when we started to get used to this extreme environment, a casual conversation with a senior drove us all to despair.
It was when I took the lead and asked when can we begin training to fly onboard in the round training cockpit. That was when our senior looked dumbfounded and told us the following.
“Oh, you guys didn’t know? You won’t be riding fighter jets. Because we are a part of the communication team.”
Everyone was shocked. Nobody said a word. When we joined, we were told by our drill instructors that if we worked hard, we will be able to pilot the newest F-104 fighter jets. That was what we were told. But the senior simply replied, “That’s what they all say to get you to join. We were told that, too.” And we never wavered.
I wasted my time pushing myself to the limit for what? I was about to collapse. We all looked at each other to talk about what we should do. It was then when we found that 15 classmates already knew we could not be pilots. Some of the trainees were angry they didn’t hear about this sooner.

This happened right before summer holidays when we were able to return home for the first time. Some of the classmates wondered what to do while others stated they will not return. I remember there were some farewells at that time. To desert the defense force at 16 years of age? It was with a heavy heart that I boarded my train.