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Dr. Shigeyoshi Ozeki
(Dr. Ozeki was a Japanese doctor in the Pacific Theatre during World War II)
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November 25, 1998
Miami Beach, Florida
Interview with Dr. Shigeyoshi Ozeki in
New Orleans, La. on May 31, 1998 as
told to Bruce Lamberto
Invited as a guest to the home of Mr. & Mrs. Ed Borne Jr. in May of 1998, I had the honor and pleasure of speaking with two veterans of World War II, both of whom were participants on opposite sides at the Battle of Wake Island. They are Mr. Edwin Joseph Borne Sr., a U.S. Marine Corp private and Lt. Shigeyoshi Ozeki, an Imperial Japanese Navy doctor at the time they participated in the battle of Wake Island.
This battle, which took place from December 8th thru December 23rd, 1941, involved the invasion of Wake Island atoll, a small island group in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, by a Japanese naval landing force. The specifics of this battle have been extensively covered and well documented in numerous books by various authors. What is not known to myself, and the reason for this interview, is what were Dr. Ozeki's other wartime experiences and how he came to meet Mr. Borne on that fateful day in December, 1941.
Dr. Ozeki was born on December 15, 1918 in Gifu City (Gifu Prefecture) , which is approximately 350 km (220 miles) from Tokyo, Japan. He was raised in Nishibijima, Aichi prefecture, which borders the City of Nagoya. At the age of 22, he enlisted in the Imperial Japanese Navy on September 15, 1940. He completed his basic training at Yokosuka Naval Base in approximately one month and was transferred to Tokyo for 3 months of additional medical training, finishing on January 15, 1941. He received an additional six months of training in Shokaku, Japan, aboard the cruiser Takao and the destroyer Harusame, which were both assigned to the Second Fleet. In August, 1941, he received orders assigning him to the Japanese Naval Base located at Truk, an island group in the South Pacific. He traveled there aboard the liner Argentina Maru.
On December 5, 1941, he was ordered to board the freighter/troopship Kongo Maru. Onboard ship, he was told by Capt. Uchida, commander of the Special Naval Landing Force (the Japanese equivalent to the U.S. Marines contingent onboard), that Japan would be going to war with the United States within the next few days and that they were going to be involved in one of the initial operations of the war. The Kongo Maru traveled to Kwajelain, a Japanese Naval Base located in the Marshall Islands, where she joined up with other naval elements of the Japanese fleet. The Kongo Maru left Kwajelain atoll on December 8th and arrived off Wake Island in the early morning hours of December 11th. As the ship hove to off Wake, an attempt to launch several landing craft from the ship met with failure as the seas were very rough, making it impossible for the Special naval landing Force troops to board the pitching landing barges. He witnessed one Special Naval Landing Force Marine get crushed between the pitching barge and the side of the ship as he attempted to board the landing craft.
As several naval ships were subsequently sunk or damaged by U.S. Marine shore-based artillery and fighter aircraft in the ensuing operation, the plan to invade Wake Island during this operation was canceled and the remaining ships returned to Kwajelain.
A few days later, another naval invasion force was assembled in Kwajelain and left port there bound for Wake on December 21st. He was assigned to Patrol Craft 32. This small naval ship, along with another, were loaded with troops of the Special Naval Landing Force and was run aground on the West shore of Wake island in the early morning hours of December 23rd 1941.
Coming under intense shell and gunfire from the defending U.S. Marine defense force, the ship was hit numerous times and many of his shipmates were wounded or killed. He was able to climb down the side of the beached ship and make his way to shore. After several hours of heavy fighting, the island was surrendered to the Japanese by the U.S. Naval commander of Wake.
After the United States Marines, sailors, and civilians were rounded up and placed in the vicinity of the airport, it was during the next few hours that Private Ed Borne Jr. and Lt. Shigeyoshi Ozeki met for the first time. Lt. Ozeki requested a driver from the prisoners to drive a captured American all-wheel drive truck to drive him around the island to gather the wounded Japanese troops so that he may treat them. It was during this time that Pvt. Borne requested that they also collect the American wounded so that they also may be treated. Lt. Ozeki agreed to this and Pvt. Borne credits him with saving the lives of several of the Americans by providing the medical care they required. The U.S. prisoners were subsequently taken off the island in mid-January, 1942.
Shortly thereafter, at the end of January, Lt. Ozeki was ordered to Truk Island, the main anchorage of the Japanese fleet in the South Pacific. He left Wake Island, never to return, via seaplane, taking off from Wake's lagoon. This is the same place the Pan American clipper ships (seaplanes) departed from prior to the start of the war.
At the end of February, 1942, he left Truk in a convoy of ships and arrived off the coast of New Guinea. He boarded a landing craft to get to shore and landed near the town of Lae, New Guinea. During the time he was stationed there, he witnessed an airfield constructed utilizing Korean laborers.
Around the end of May or the beginning of June, he returned to Truk via airplane stopping at Rabaul on his way there. He remained at Truk until August, 1942 and returned to Kure, Japan, via transport aircraft. After about six months at Kure, he received orders to go to Bougainville, New Guinea. However, he came down with a reoccurrence of malaria and was unable to go there. At the end of his year at Kure, on September 20, 1943, he was sent to Kai Island, near Tanibar, in Indonesia, via a fleet of ships, and arrived there on October 1, 1943.
Upon arriving there, he was promoted to Captain , where he remained until the end of the war approximately two years later. There were approximately 1000 naval troops and approximately 10,000 army soldiers stationed at Kai and a smaller contingent on the other two islands in his assignment area. His assignment was to provide medical care for all Japanese forces assigned to the area. An airfield was built on Little Kia Island as Big Kai Island was very mountainous and did not have room for an airfield. There was very little delivery of food or supplies after the end of 1943 due to the changing tide of the war situation.
In February, 1944, while on Kai Island visiting the villages on the island with a group of 5 or 6 petty officers, he decided to stay at one of the villages for the night. The village chief came and asked him to examine a young teenage girl who was very sick. He examined her carefully and diagnosed a slight liver problem. He assured the village chief that the young girl would be fine in a short while and for him not to worry about her.
 About 6 months later, he happened to visit the same village where the village chief (a Muslim Indonesian) requested his presence at his home for a celebration. That night, when he visited the chiefs house, he was shown to his seat by a young girl about twenty years old. Capt. Ozeki asked the girl what the celebration was all about and she replied that she was the girl who he had examined several months ago and that she was now perfectly healthy. She went on to tell him that she had visited a Javan doctor who told her family that there was no hope for her and that due to Dr. Ozeki's treatment, her health improved day after day to where she was now perfectly recovered from her ailment.
Around October, 1944, approximately 1400 of the 2000 troops assigned to Capt. Ozeki's unit were transferred to Singapore. One of the 600 soldiers remaining stated to him that he did not fear dying in battle should the war come to Kai Island due to the fact that Capt. Ozeki was there to take care of him should he be wounded. Although they were bombed on a daily basis, not one soldier waskilled before the end of the war.
On August 16, 1945, (one day after the official Japanese surrender) he received word from one of his fellow officers that the war had ended. He had just arrived on Aru island via a small motor launch when he was told of the surrender by one of his fellow petty officers who had heard a speech by the Emperor on the radio. He stated to the petty officer that this was impossible, because even in death Japan would never surrender. After finally realizing that this was in fact the truth, he accepted it. This was one of the saddest days in Capt. Ozeki's memory. He recalls having his first meal of rice in over a year on that day, and that instead of tasting wonderful, it was in fact, tasteless. He felt that Japan's surrender was even more painful than his own fathers death. Several of the troops could not accept the surrender. Approximately 20 Japanese troops fabricated a boat and set off for New Guinea, however he never received word if they actually made it there.
About fifteen days later, approximately fifty Australian troops arrived on Big Kai Island to formally accept the surrender of the islands in the group. Here, 15,000 Japanese soldiers and sailors gathered to await their return to Japan which was to be done by the Japanese government. Due to the condition of the Japanese transport forces at the end of the war, it took approximately 6 months for the first ships to arrive at Kai.
During this time period, he kept busy tending to patients under his care. Being one of the only doctors, he did not leave until the remaining troops were boarded aboard the last ship that arrived there. By the time he was returned to Japan, almost a year had past since the Japanese surrender. He received 110 Japanese yen per month for the year period he was held as a prisoner-of-war.
The ship he was brought to Japan on docked in Ortake, Yamguchi Prefecture, in July, 1946. He went directly to his home in Aichi Prefecture, however, he had to go thru Hiroshima to get there. He found the city completely devastated. Captain now Doctor Ozeki, obtained employment in a small hospital in Nagoya where he worked until he set up his own private practice in the city of Nishibiwajima, where he presently resides. His practice grew and prospered, and his children, all of whom are medical physicians, have continued his practice today where Dr. Ozeki, although semi-retired, still see patients from time to time.
I will try to add to this short war-time history of Dr. Ozeki in the future shall the opportunity permit.
Bruce Lamberto
December 24, 1998
Dr. & Mrs. Shigeyoshi Ozeki
72 Hashizume-Cho, Nishibiwajima-Cho,
Nishi Kasugi-Gun, Aichi-Ken 452
Japan
Dear Dr. & Mrs. Ozeki:
My deepest apologies for not completing this short war time history of your life. This year has been unusually busy with work for me plus the arrival of my son had greatly altered my life style.
I hope you find what I wrote is accurate as to what you told me. Please feel free to make any changes you would like and most certainly add any details you can to what I have already written. If you have anything to add about your experiences on Wake Island, I know Mr. Borne would most gladly appreciate it.
You might even want to include your impressions of the war from your viewpoint and the subsequent devastation of Japan and its rebirth into the world power economy it is today. If you had visited Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Tokyo, or any of the other major cities of Japan after the war, please describe your thoughts and the sites you observed.
Anything else that you can think would be appropriate would also be appreciated as you are a part of history, along with Ed Borne, that many people are not aware of.
I hope this letter finds you and your family in good health and my family and Ed Bornes looks forward to your next journey to the United States. Please give your regards to your sons, daughters, and grandchildren.
Sincerely,
Bruce & Carolene Lamberto
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