And yet, 1945 was a seminal year for Japan as 2 September 1945 witnessed the formal surrender of Imperial Japan. And so, this young soldier had signed away five years of his life to a cause that ended shortly after signing. Instead of Imperial Japan, young Martin was sent to Indochina to participate in military operations and battles against native uprisings and more specifically the Democratic Republic of Vietnam(DRV) , the newly inaugurated communist-led party in North Vietnam. It was during Martin’s deployment in November 1946 that he witnessed the violent Haiphong Incident colloquially dubbed the “Haiphong massacres”. This was the last straw for young Martin and many other soldiers. Martin was not alone in his distaste for the war in Indochina. The French had experienced personally the effects of colonial conflict and so many soldiers saw their actions in the French military in Indochina as either active or passive involvement in the colonization of a foreign peoples. French statesman, Maurice Viollete, summarizes the appeal for the war in Indochina by comparing it to that of “Dying for Danzig” during WWII - that is to say, it was not highly popular.