JAPAN: Change of Residence

JAPAN Change of Residence

There was a notable vacancy this week among the ghosts of Bushido warriors who circle endlessly above Tokyo's Yasukuni shrine. The AWOL god was Naval Warrant Officer Magoshichi Sugino, who was racked up among the immortals 42 years ago when (supposedly) he lost his life in Admiral Heihachiro Togo's crippling attack on the Russian Far Eastern fleet at Port Arthur.

Unlike the discharged marine in Hail the Conquering Hero, who posed as a hero to save his mother disappointment, Warrant Officer Sugino had behaved courageously enough. But he had fallen...

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