White Rice, Darkness--To Friends Who Died in the Field of Battle (Russo-Japanese War, 1905-38)

White Rice, Darkness--To Friends Who Died in the Field of Battle (Russo-Japanese War, 1905-38)

In the midst of the Russo-Japanese War, we army soldiers were supplied with glistening white rice. The whitest rice I had ever seen. We, who grew up in a farming family, could not eat such a luxury even on festival days, and at first we were truly happy. I never thought I would be able to eat a full belly of white rice on the battlefield.

However, as the months passed, the faces of our friends grew darker and their strength waned. Even though they were eating, something was wrong. Everyone whispered to me that I had a strange disease, but at first I laughed about it. But it soon became something less funny.

Apparently, the Navy soldiers ate rice mixed with wheat and did not suffer from this. I later heard that the military doctors there had different instructions. The doctor who treated us said, "It's contagious," and he abhorred barley rice. I don't know what was right. But we were eating white rice and getting weaker day by day.

It was one thing to be shot to death in battle, but to have your life drained from you as you ate the rice. We could do nothing but watch in silence as our friend's face turned pale, he became bedridden, and quietly disappeared.

If only we had been given different food at that time. Such a thought still sinks to the bottom of my heart. The dazzling light of the white rice and the unfathomable darkness that followed it are the only things that remain burned into my heart.