Take a look at this:
http://www.ww2incolor.com/gallery/black_and_white/japanese_dday
Comments?
Is there evidence to support the claim that the bloke really is a Jap ?
If not he could just as easily be from one of the eastern Soviet states.
He is not Japanese but could in fact be Korean.
Bear with me here - Korea was part of the Japanese Empire and Korean troops were conscripted into the Japanese Army.
In 1939 in the Far East Soviet and Japanese forces clashed, the Soviets coming off best and capturing a fair few prisoners (Koreans did surrender). These prisoners were given a chance to join the Soviets (or simply pressed into Service.
When the Germans invaded the Soviet Union they took a lot of prisoners, some of these were Koreans who inevitably ended up in some Ost Battalions that were defending the Normandy Beaches.
There is a story of these guys surrendering to the Allied forces an no one being able to tell what the heck they were saying! Until one guy recognised it as Korean! Its a good story but as Cuts says, they could just be Hiwis from the Eastern Soviet States.
Could also be Chinese or Mongolian. Face is too broad for a Japanese.
Definitely a Hiwi.
Ive just remembered the book, its ‘Citizen Soldiers’ by Stephen Ambrose. He states that 3 Koreans were captured in Normandy along with a whole host of other nationalities including Poles, Czechs, Ukrainians and many more…
Did he get campaign medals for all three services and could he wear them. 
That would be a good after dinner speech. :lol:
Well if they got back to Korea, they may have fought in the Korean War too!
I dont think its any big deal that he could be Japanese. Maybe his family moved to Germany before the war. The reasons that he is there is up to speculation. I doubt that the Japanese sent him over to help protect the beaches of Normandy. Maybe there is more about it online somewhere.
Apart from the fact that he doesn’t look japanese?
Well if they got back to Korea, they may have fought in the Korean War too![/quote]
For the North or South?
Or maybe both… :shock: He certainly ended up a long way from home.
Probably is a russian of the eastern republics that was captured in 1941 and then “put in service” with the wermacht with the promise of better food (than a prisoner camp) some payment, better treatment, etc.
In the atlantic wall there was a pletora of this non germanic soldiers like polish, frenchs, Croatians, Ukranians, etc.
found this one in the Ceris normandy signal corps photos…
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v243/airsoftshooter35/airsoft%20stuff/p012606.jpg
after doing some research if found out that they were part of a detachment of japanese officers and enlisted men that were at normandy doing in depth research on the beach defences that the germans were building to get ideas for the defence of the home islands…guess their info didn’t get back home…lol…some of the officers…
http://www.geocities.com/alvinlee_81/Asiatic5.jpg
http://www.geocities.com/alvinlee_81/Asiatic6.jpg
I recall that. I think there is a comment made by an American soldier in there at the time to the effect of “What army are we fighting anyway?” because of all of the ethnicity’s in the Wehrmacht.
I believe there were Chinese men in the Wehrmacht as well…
And an entire SS unit (I can’t remember the size) was Muslim, mostly European Bosians…
The man in the photo is Korean. The Bosnian SS Division was the 13th Waffen Mountain Division of the SS Handschar.
The name of the soldier in this 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/weeks_view.php?terms=����&path=hankooki1%2Fwhan%2F200212%2Fw2002120614100061510.htm
His surprising story will be told in a new movie which is now being made in the United States. The title of this movie is ‘A POW in Normandy’ and will focus on the real story of a Korean POW(Kyoungjong Yang) and a US soldier who helps him. It is said that the budget for this movie will amount to more than 40 million dollars.
Wow thanks for the info and welcome to the site.
yea i saw this pic be4 and i was told that he was a chinese man who was caught by the Krauts firstly then he became a cook at last he was caught by the allies as the pic showed just COULD BE
A few more interesting photos of asiatic soldiers in German service.
-
Thai Soldat from the 29th Panzer Grenadier Division.
-
This is most puzzling photo… Chinese in Hungarian uniform receiving German decoration…
-
This is one of the Koreans mentioned by Ambrose in “D-Day”.
-
Turkmen troops in Heeres. (From soviet republic of Turkmenistan)
-
More Turkmen…
-
Turkmen captured by Canadians on D-Day
-
And Turkmen in color!
-
Turkmen in training
-
Volga Tatars
-
More Volga Tatars
Cheers,
Lancer44
The German officer in the color pic is Generalleutnant Hellmich.
Yeah I was gonna say what others have already said: he’s probably a Hiwi from one of the Central Asian or Far Eastern regions of the USSR.