Paul Nobuo Tatsuguchi

Paul Nobuo Tatsuguchi was a surgeon in the Imperial Japanese Army during World War II. He was killed during the Battle of Attu on Attu Island, Alaska, United States on May 30, 1943. A devout Seventh-day Adventist, he studied medicine and was licensed as a physician in the United States. He left Japan in 1939 and was buried on May 29, 1953.

About Paul Nobuo Tatsuguchi in brief

Summary Paul Nobuo TatsuguchiPaul Nobuo Tatsuguchi was a surgeon in the Imperial Japanese Army during World War II. He was killed during the Battle of Attu on Attu Island, Alaska, United States on May 30, 1943. A devout Seventh-day Adventist, he studied medicine and was licensed as a physician in the United States. He kept a diary in which he recorded its events and his struggle to care for the wounded in his field hospital. His diary was recovered by American forces and translated into English. Copies of the translation were widely disseminated and publicized in the U.S. after the battle. The American public was intrigued by a Christian, American-trained doctor serving with Japanese forces on the island and by his apparent participation in assisting with the deaths of wounded Japanese soldiers during the battle’s final days. The middle son, born on August 31, 1911, was given the English name of Paul and the Japanese name of Nobuo, although he was called \”Joseph\” at home. He attended Healdsburg College, later renamed Pacific Union College, in Angwin, California. He married Sadako Shibata who was also familiar with the US and spoke fluent English. He had three sons and three daughters. All three sons would eventually attend school in the US. He also had a friend, Taeko Miyake, whose parents were serving as Adventist missionaries in Honolulu, Hawaii, while Paul pursued studies in California.

In 1939, Paul departed the U S. for Japan, and was a father and a father-of-three by the time he died in 1953. He is buried in Tokyo. He died on May 31, 1953, and is survived by his wife, Sadako, and their three daughters, all of whom were born in Japan. He leaves behind a wife and a son, Paul Nobuo; a son-in-law, Shuichi T Katsuguchi; and a daughter, Sadako Shibata, who was born in Hiroshima, Japan, on March 16, 1923. He has three grandchildren and a great-grandchild. He will be remembered for his contributions to the Seventh Day Adventist Church and his service to the Japanese people. He left Japan in 1939 and was buried on May 29, 1953. His last words were: “I love you all. I love you very much.” He was buried at the Tokyo Adventist Sanitarium, where he had been working as a doctor until his death in July 1953. In September 1938, he was awarded a California medical license. That same year, he accepted a post at a Tokyo Sanitarianium in part in part by his tuberculosis patients in Tokyo, which he would be working with for several more months in 1928. In 1938 he married a friend of his father’s, Taekso Miyako Miyeko, while he was serving as a missionary in Honolulu. In 1941 he was ordered to cease his medical practice and conscripted into the IJA as an acting medical officer. In late 1942 he was sent to Attu.