A former Japanese soldier last seen by his family when he went off to fight in World War II has resurfaced in Ukraine and is returning home to see his relatives after more than 60 years.
Ishinosuke Uwano, now 83, had been declared in 2000 with the consent of his family as having died in the war. He is married and has three children, and lives in Zhytomyr, about 145 kilometres of Kiev, accordingly with the Kyodo News agency.
Uwano was an Imperial Army soldier in a force occupying the island of Sakhalin in Russia's far east when the war ended in August 1945. Ishinosuke Uwano was last reported seen there in 1958.
The ex-soldier will arrive Wednesday with his Ukrainian son and they are expected to spend 10 days with surviving relatives in Iwate, about 470 kilometres northeast of Tokyo.
April 18, 2006
