Return To Japan and Later Life
Takeo Yoshikawa never received any official recognition of his services despite the fact that he continued to work for naval intelligence during the remainder of the war. When the war ended and Japan was occupied by U.S. forces he went into hiding (disguised as a Buddhist monk) for fear of being prosecuted for his role in the Pearl Harbor attack. He returned to his wife (whom he married shortly after his return from the U.S.) when the Americans left.
In 1955 he opened a candy business but it failed as word spread of his role in the war. The Japanese blamed Takeo for the war; "They even blamed me for the atomic bomb," he declared in one interview. Penniless and jobless, he was supported by his wife for the rest of his life via her position selling insurance. "My wife alone shows me great respect," said the old spy. "Every day she bows to me. She knows I am a man of history." He died in a nursing home.
Over the years, the mysterious spies of Pearl Harbor were always mentioned in passing in history books. While Yoshikawa contributed to the decision to intern Japanese Americans he himself distrusted the Japanese-American community who in his mind were loyal to America over Japan.
Read more about this topic: Takeo Yoshikawa
Famous quotes containing the words return to, return, japan and/or life:
“When we suffer anguish we return to early childhood because that is the period in which we first learnt to suffer the experience of total loss. It was more than that. It was the period in which we suffered more total losses than in all the rest of our life put together.”
—John Berger (b. 1926)
“The return of the asymmetrical Saturday was one of those small events that were interior, local, almost civic and which, in tranquil lives and closed societies, create a sort of national bond and become the favorite theme of conversation, of jokes and of stories exaggerated with pleasure: it would have been a ready- made seed for a legendary cycle, had any of us leanings toward the epic.”
—Marcel Proust (1871–1922)
“I do not know that the United States can save civilization but at least by our example we can make people think and give them the opportunity of saving themselves. The trouble is that the people of Germany, Italy and Japan are not given the privilege of thinking.”
—Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882–1945)
“I describe family values as responsibility towards others, increase of tolerance, compromise, support, flexibility. And essentially the things I call the silent song of life—the continuous process of mutual accommodation without which life is impossible.”
—Salvador Minuchin (20th century)