Japanese Volunteer died at Kawmoora

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Subject: Japanese Volunteer died at Kawmooraw [D 

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FROM:NBH03114@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Burmese Relief Center--Japan
DATE:March 17, 1995
TIME:12:46PMJST
SUBJ:The Japanese volunteer died at Kaw Moo Raw


MAINICHI DAILY NEWS,   March 16, 1995

Michael Hoffman, "ASIASCOPE"

A native or the Kanto countryside, he enlisted in the
Ground Self-Defense force after high school, only
to find that his energies demanded a wider scope.   In
1991, the 20-year-old soldier went to Myannar
and joined the Karen resistance forces.  Though "a man
of few words," he confessed to at least one
friend that for family reasons he would prefer not to go
home again.  He took a Karen name, Etim.  
He was 24 when he died on Feb. 8, apparently the lone
Japanese casualty of the Myanmar junta's
military offensive that overran the main Karen base at
Manerplaw and drove the remnants of the
Karen independence movement east across the Thai.
border.  Friday (March 17) hears Etim's story from
Takazumi Nishiyama, 31, another Japanese volunteer
fighting with the Karens.  

"He was extremely brave," says Nishiyama.  "He
fought at the frontlines until the end.  For three days,
government forces kept up an incredible artillery
barrage.  The bunker where Etim was taking shelter
took a direct hit from a 106 mm shell.  He died
instantly."

"In Japan," Nishiyama continues, "soldiers have a bad
image.  (Among the Karen), though, they are needed,
and loved. Etim in particular.  He shared their refugee-camp lives.  He would 
help fix things -- anything from
broken blackboards to bridges washed out in the
rains."

Nishiyama himself joined the Karen resistance in
1989, after a stint of roaming around Indochina
brought him face-to-face with the plight of the region's
ethnic minorities.

"(The Myanmar junta) claims its only purpose is to
protect minority Karen Buddhists from the Karen
Christian majority," he tells Friday.  "That's utter
nonsense.  There is no armed religious conflict among
the Karens."

The picture of the war emerging in the Japanese media
is hopelessly skewed, he believes, because "all they're
doing is passing on the Myanmar government's one-sided information.  I wish th
ey would report the facts."

Deprived of bases in their home territory, the Karen
nationalists' immediate prospects appear as bleak,
suggests Friday, as those of the pro-democracy
movement, crushed by the junta five years ago. 
Nishiyama, currently on leave in Japan, is preparing to
return to the region and resume his career as a Karen
guerrilla.