70 years after WWII / Young girl detained at own former school

The Yomiuri Shimbun HAKODATE, Hokkaido — Saeko Buninai vividly remembers the days she spent with little food at a repatriation camp that used to be her school in Maoka, South Sakhalin.

“Those who died just before being able to leave [the camp] must have been filled with despair,” Buninai said, her eyes cast down. She now lives in Hokuto, Hokkaido.

Buninai, 84, was born the eldest daughter of a fishing family with eight children in Maoka. In 1943, she entered the Maoka girls’ middle/high school, which was turned into a repatriation camp after the war.

On the morning of Aug. 20, 1945, immediately after the end of the war, Soviet forces landed in the city after a fierce naval bombardment. Soviet soldiers took over the second floor of her house, forcing her family to live with them for more than two years, Buninai said.

more..http://the-japan-news.com/news/article/0002105015