Japanese Troops in France?

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#1

Odd, I know. But after reading a memoir of 101st Airborne Trooper that took a role in D-Day, I grew curious of the Japanese involvment at D-Day. In the book, it’s a military nonfiction by the way, he mentioned that his friend had killed a Japanese soldier dressed in a tan colored uniform and a much differen rifle from the German K98.

The book is Currahee! By Donald Burgett.

I was wondering if anyone had any information at all is Japanese troops where in France when D-Day took place. I was wanting to know if it was true at all. Thanks in advance.

#2

I believe that it’s posted here that a small number of Japanese military attaches were present in Normandy to exchange ideas with the Germans on battling amphibious invasions…

Needless to say, they learned a lot but were unable to share the lessons…

There were also a small, but sizable, number of Koreans and perhaps Chinese fighting in the Wehrmacht…

#3

don’t know about chinese or koreans in the wehrmacht…but there was a contingent of japanese officers and enlisted men that were researching the atlantic wall defences for improvment ideas for the home islands…many of them were captured…
on an LST headed back to the UK…

#4

Some people have all the luck!

The name of the Korean soldier in the above photo is Kyoungjong Yang who was born in Shin Euijoo, Northwestern Korea on March 3, 1920. He was conscripted to the Kwantung army in 1938 and captured by the Soviets in Nomonhan and captured again by Germans in Ukraine in the summer of 1943, maybe in the battle of Kharkov, and captured finally by Americans in Utah beach, Normandy on June 6, 1944.

He was freed from a POW camp in Britain on May, 1945 and moved and settled in America in 1947. He lived near the Northwestern Univ. in Illinois until he died on April 7, 1992. He lived as an ordinary US citizen without telling his unbelievable life story even to his two sons and one daughter.

His story was revealed by an article of ‘Weekly Korea’ on Dec. 6th, 2002, which became a big topic in the Korean society here at the time. http://search.hankooki.com/weeks/wee...4100061510.htm

From Post #7 and following here http://www.allforums.net/showthread.php?t=25554
which also has photo of lucky Yang

More info on Asian troops in Heer here (no pun intended)
http://www.geocities.com/alvinlee_81/WarPicsChinese.html

#5

Well, thats very odd. Thanks for the info guys!

#6

This is an interesting thread. I often wondered about this myself. Think we’ve all seen the photo of a German soldier who has an obvious asian heritage, surrendering to the allies. I’ve also read a lot about the Indian troops used by the Germans, some under the command of the SS. They even had their own insignia. I heard at the war’s end, elements of these troops fled into Austria where they were captured and executed by French troops.

#7

I understand military liasons, training visits and such…but why the uniform change?

#8

Good question. Germany and Japan were allies, but I don’t think a Japanese soldier would normally start wearing a German uniform when he visited Europe. Likewise, I’m fairly certain that a German wouldn’t don a Japanese uniform when he goes to the PTO.

#9

I think you will find that some of this has already been covered here:

http://www.ww2incolor.com/forum/showthread.php?t=3303&highlight=Koreans+Normandy

#10

Well you never know, the Volksgrenadiers was made up of many, many different races. Maybe a couple of immigrant asians fell through the cracks.

#11

i was re-reading Curahee! the other day and in his introduction Stephen Ambrose suggests that Burgett perhaps saw a Mongolian and confused him with a Japanese soldier. Any thoughts?