Paul Nobuo Tatsuguchi , sometimes mistakenly referred to as Nebu Tatsuguchi ( August 31 , 1911 – May 30 , 1943 ) , was a surgeon in the Imperial Japanese Army ( IJA ) during World War II . He was killed during the Battle of Attu on Attu Island , Alaska on May 30 , 1943 . A devout Seventh - day Adventist , Tatsuguchi studied medicine and was licensed as a physician in the United States ( US ) . He returned to his native Japan to practice medicine at the Tokyo Adventist Sanitarium , where he received further medical training . In 1941 , he was ordered to cease his medical practice and conscripted into the IJA as an acting medical officer . In late 1942 or early 1943 , Tatsuguchi was sent to Attu , which had been occupied by Japanese forces in October 1942 . The United States Army landed on the island on May 11 , 1943 intending to retake the island from the Japanese . Throughout the resulting battle , Tatsuguchi kept a diary in which he recorded the events of the battle and his struggle to care for the wounded in his field hospital . He was killed on the battle ' s final day after the remaining Japanese conducted one last , suicidal charge against the American forces . Tatsuguchi ' s diary was recovered by American forces and translated into English . Copies of the translation were widely disseminated and publicized in the US 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 in his field hospital during the battle ' s final days . Translated excerpts from Tatsuguchi ' s diary have been widely quoted in Western historical accounts of the battle , especially his final entry in which he recorded a farewell message to his family . Parents and birth . Tatsuguchi ' s father , Suichi Tatsuguchi , was born and raised in Hiroshima , Japan , before leaving for the US in 1895 to " explore the new world . " He attended Heraldsburg College , later renamed Pacific Union College in Angwin , California . While attending the college , he was baptized into the Seventh - day Adventist Church . In 1907 , after completing a course of study in dentistry at the College of Physicians and Surgeons in San Francisco , Suichi Tatsuguchi returned to Hiroshima with plans to serve as a medical missionary . In Hiroshima , Tatsuguchi established a prosperous dental practice and promoted the establishment of the Hiroshima Adventist church . He married Sadako Shibata who was also familiar with the US and spoke fluent English . Suichi and Sadako had three sons and three daughters . All three sons would eventually attend school in the US . 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 . Schooling and marriage . Paul Nobuo Tatsuguchi graduated from middle school in Hiroshima on March 16 , 1919 . On March 2 , 1923 , he graduated from Travier English Academy . Paul traveled to California and entered Pacific Union College in 1929 and graduated on May 22 , 1932 . When Suichi and Sadako both died unexpectedly in 1932 , Paul returned to Japan to help settle the family affairs . He returned to California in 1933 and entered the College of Medical Evangelists at Loma Linda University , completing the course of study in June 1937 . Paul Tatsuguchi then accepted a year ' s internship at White Memorial Hospital in Los Angeles . While studying in America , Tatsuguchi was regarded by his classmates , who called him " Tatsy " or Paul , as a serious student , friendly but not gregarious . Classmate J . Mudry , a year behind Tatsuguchi at Loma Linda University later said , " I know him well . I always thought Tatsuguchi – we called him Paul – was quite an American . " On September 8 , 1938 , Tatsuguchi graduated as a Doctor of Medicine and was awarded a California medical license . That same year , he accepted a position at the Tokyo Adventist Sanitarium , an institution founded in part by his father in 1928 . As he would be working with tuberculosis patients in Tokyo , Tatsuguchi spent several more months undergoing postgraduate medical studies in California . Also in 1938 , Tatsuguchi married a childhood friend , Taeko Miyake . Taeko ' s parents were serving as Adventist missionaries in Honolulu , Hawaii while Taeko pursued studies in California . Paul and Taeko departed the US for Japan in 1939 . Early military service . In Tokyo , Tatsuguchi was aware of the rising tensions between Japan and the United States . Although he was strongly loyal to his native country , he also shared with Taeko a love of the US , to which they hoped to return to live someday . Tatsuguchi concentrated on his work at the sanitorium , and , with Taeko , supported activities for the Adventist church , of which they were devout members . In 1940 their first daughter , Joy Misako , was born . Early the next year , the IJA – the conscription authority in Japan – ordered Tatsuguchi to leave his medical practice and report to the First Imperial Guard Regiment ( FIGR ) in Tokyo , where he was inducted with the rank of private on January 10 , 1941 . As he was stationed in Tokyo , Tatsuguchi was occasionally able to visit Taeko and Misako when his duties allowed . Misako said of this time that , " I only have one memory of my father , and that was playing hide and seek with him . " In September 1941 , Tatsuguchi entered the IJA ' s medical school . He graduated in October and was promoted to sergeant major , rejoining the FIGR in January 1942 . In the meantime , in December 1941 the Japanese attacked the US Navy base at Pearl Harbor and declared war on the US and its allies . Suspicious of Tatsuguchi ' s American background , the IJA never gave him officer status , instead designating him as an non - commissioned acting medical officer . Over the next several months , Tatsuguchi was deployed to the South Pacific in support of IJA units in the Dutch East Indies . During his service , Tatsuguchi kept a diary , recording his first - hand observations of military service as well as his thoughts and feelings about the events in which he was involved . In September 1942 , after learning that he would be reassigned to a combat area in Rabaul , New Britain , he noted in his diary , " I feel very happy and I am determined to do my best , " adding that he was " determined to destroy the enemy force to the very last soldier . " Tatsuguchi reached Rabaul on October 4 , 1942 . His stay there was probably short , for his wife recorded that he joined her in Tokyo that same month prior to being redeployed . Tatsuguchi was unable to tell his wife , now pregnant with their second child , where he would be assigned , but she noticed that he studied maps of the North Pacific area . At one point , he remarked to Taeko that he was going to an area where he might meet some of his former classmates from California . A few weeks after Tatsuguchi left for his new assignment , the IJA delivered a lock of his hair to Taeko . The IJA did this whenever soldiers were sent to a high - risk combat area in case the soldier was killed and it proved impossible to repatriate the remains for proper funeral rites . Attu . Arrival . Japanese forces had first occupied Attu and Kiska in the Aleutian Islands on June 7 , 1942 . They abandoned Attu in September 1942 , but then decided to reoccupy it . A regiment of IJA soldiers from the , a detachment of Imperial Japanese Navy Special Naval Landing Force troops , and support personnel , began arriving on Attu in October 1942 . The total number of Japanese on the island would eventually be between 2 , 500 and 2 , 900 men . Exactly when Tatsuguchi arrived on Attu is unclear , because he was forbidden from specifying dates in the letters he wrote to Taeko , but it was probably between November 1942 and January 1943 . He was assigned to the Northern 5216 Detachment North Sea Defense Hospital . With an American naval blockade in place , mail between Attu and Japan was infrequent and unscheduled . Tatsuguchi received several small packages from Taeko containing cookies , and ointment for his skin , which was chafed by Attu ' s severe winter winds . Four letters and several postcards from Tatsuguchi reached Taeko . As he was forbidden from discussing his unit ' s exact location or mission , Tatsuguchi wrote about the weather , the beauty of the snowy and mountainous landscape around him , and his success in catching fish . He was cheered by the news from Taeko that their second daughter , Laura Mutsuko , was born in February . Tatsuguchi reminded Taeko in his letters to play classical music for their daughters . Whether he kept his diary during this time is unclear , for the only known diary entries by Tatsuguchi began in May , after the American landings to retake the island . Battle of Attu . On May 11 , 1943 , the American Seventh Infantry Division began landing on Attu to retake the island from the Japanese . Attu ' s commander , Yasuyo Yamasaki , positioned his troops – who were outnumbered five to one – in the mountains from where they temporarily delayed the Americans ' advance inland . Tatsuguchi ' s diary entry on May 12 records the Japanese move into the mountains after the American landings , stating simply " evacuated to the summit . Air raids carried out frequently . Heard loud noise , it is naval gunfire . Prepared battle equipment . " On May 14 , American artillery fired phosphorus smoke shells to mark Japanese positions in the mountains . Many Japanese , and many Americans , believed these were poison gas shells . Tatsuguchi noted in his diary that , " In the enemy the U . S . Forces used gas but no damage was done on account of strong wind . " Tatsuguchi recorded in his diary that he was forced to move his field hospital into a cave to escape American naval and aerial bombardment . He relocated the hospital and patients several times as the Japanese forces were pushed back by the Americans . His May 17 entry describes one of the moves : Tatsuguchi refers again and again in his diary to the constant , intense attacks by American aircraft and artillery on his comrades ' positions . On May 21 , he noted that he " was strafed when amputating a patient ' s arm " and on May 23 that " by naval gun fire a hit was scored on the pillar pole of tents for patients and the tents gave in and killed two instantly . No food for two days . " On May 26 , Tatsuguchi recorded that " there was a ceremony of granting of the Imperial Edict . The last line of Umanose [ Japanese defensive position ] was broken through . No hope for reinforcements . We will die for cause of Imperial Edict . " Final attack and death . By May 28 about a thousand Japanese remained , compressed into a small pocket . Yamasaki , apparently realizing that help from Japan was not forthcoming , decided on one last , desperate measure to try to save his command from destruction . On May 29 , Yamasaki organized a surprise attack on American positions . Yamasaki hoped to break through the enemy ' s front lines and seize the American artillery batteries , which would then be turned on the rest of the American forces and their ships offshore . Tatsuguchi ' s last diary entry records Yamasaki ' s order , the disposition of the wounded in his hospital , and a farewell message to his family : Yamasaki launched his attack early in the morning on May 30 . Although the attack succeeded in penetrating the enemy lines , American rear - area personnel rallied and killed Yamasaki and the majority of his attacking troops . Most of the remaining Japanese then committed suicide and only 27 were taken prisoner . Two versions exist of how Tatsuguchi died . One version is that he did not participate in the attack . Later in the day on May 30 , two American soldiers , Charles W . Laird and John Hirn , who were helping mop - up remaining Japanese forces after Yamasaki ' s attack was defeated , approached the cave containing Tatsuguchi ' s field hospital . Tatsuguchi emerged from the cave , waving his Bible in the direction of the Americans and yelling in English , " Don ' t shoot ! I am a Christian ! " Laird heard and understood what Tatsuguchi was saying and withheld fire . Hirn , however , shot and killed Tatsuguchi . Hirn later stated that he could not hear what Tatsuguchi was saying over the wind and noise of battle and that he thought that the Bible Tatsuguchi was holding was a weapon . The other version was told to Taeko and Laura by Charles Laird in 1984 . Laird , a former US Army sergeant who served on Attu , stated that he was sleeping in a tent the morning of May 30 when Yamasaki ' s troops broke through the American front lines . A man ran into Laird ' s tent and Laird shot and killed him , only to discover that the man was American . Then he saw eight Japanese soldiers approaching through the fog , so he shot and killed them too . One of them was Tatsuguchi . Laird said that he found Tatsuguchi ' s diary and an address book in which he was shocked to see American names and addresses . J . Mudry and another of Tatsuguchi ' s Loma Linda classmates , J . L . Whitaker , were medical officers with the US Seventh Division on Attu during the battle . Whitaker was in the path of Yamasaki ' s final attack , but survived without injury . Whitaker and Mudry were stunned to later learn that their former classmate was on the island with Japanese forces and was killed nearby . Diary . After Tatsuguchi ' s death his diary , which was written in Japanese , as well as his Bible and address book , were forwarded to the division intelligence section . At division headquarters , an American Nisei serviceman named Yasuo Sam Umetani made the initial translation of the diary . Word of what the diary contained spread quickly through divisional headquarters and then through the other American troops on Attu . The news that an American - trained doctor had been with the Japanese forces on Attu and Tatsuguchi ' s descriptions of the battle from a Japanese perspective intrigued the Americans . Unauthorized copies of Umetani ' s and later translations , some of which contained variations of the translated text , spread quickly among the American troops on Attu and to military installations on other Aleutian islands . Civilian crews of transport ships in the area who obtained copies of the diary translation took their copies with them back to the continental US , where it gained wider public exposure , including press attention . Simon Bolivar Buckner , Jr . the US commander of the Alaska Defense Command ( ADC ) , learned of the diary and was concerned about Tatsuguchi ' s claim that the Americans had used poison gas in the Attu battle . Buckner ordered the diary sent to his headquarters and all copies of the translations confiscated . In transit to Buckner ' s headquarters , the diary vanished without a trace . In early September 1943 , the ADC ' s intelligence section reported that efforts to control the distribution of copies of the diary ' s translation had failed . Several American newspapers published portions of the diary ' s translation . Most of them highlighted the aspect of Tatsuguchi ' s account that indicated that he , a professed Christian , may have been involved in the killing of wounded patients . The " Chicago Tribune " on September 9 , 1943 published an article headlined " Japs Slew Own Patients on Attu , Diary Discloses " . In contrast , the " Loma Linda School of Medicine Alumni Journal " defended Tatsuguchi as a gentle and caring doctor who was trapped in a situation beyond his control , where his actions did not violate his religious and medical creed . Most Western historical accounts of the Battle of Attu mention Tatsuguchi and quote from his diary ' s translation , especially the diary ' s last entry . Family legacy . The Japanese government notified Taeko of her husband ' s death in August 1943 . Taeko and her two daughters survived the remainder of the war on a small widow ' s pension and with help from relatives . Taeko hoped that her husband was still alive and would return . Just after the war ended , B . P . Hoffman , one of Tatsuguchi ' s former college instructors and a friend of Taeko ' s , visited her in Osaka where she was living . Hoffman told her that a US Federal Bureau of Investigation agent had visited him during the war because Hoffman ' s name was in Tatsuguchi ' s address book found on Attu . The agent told the story of Tatsuguchi ' s death to Hoffman , who related it to Taeko . Taeko accepted that her husband would not be coming back . After the war , Taeko worked for the American occupation forces as a secretary and teacher . In 1954 , she and her two daughters left Japan and joined Taeko ' s parents in Hawaii . All three became naturalized citizens of the US . Joy and Laura both attended Pacific Union College and became nurses . Joy later married a Japanese man and returned to Japan to live . Laura married an American and moved to the Los Angeles area , where Taeko later joined her . In 2005 , Taeko told Kyodo News of her husband , " He was a faithful Christian doctor and a gentleman who devoted himself to God and communities . " In May 1993 , Laura traveled to Attu and spoke at a 50th anniversary commemorative event of the Battle of Attu . In her speech at the event , Laura stated " How ironic that my father was killed in combat against his beloved America while in loyal service to his Japanese homeland . . . Like my father , I too have a great love for Japan and America . " Years earlier in 1984 , Laura received A call from Charles Laird . Laird told her that he has some artifacts of the battle that may belong to her father . At Laura ' s invitation , he visited Laura and Taeko . The items he had turned out not to have belonged to her father . At the end of his visit , he said goodbye to Taeko and asked Laura if she would walk him out . When she did , he told her that " I did not want to say this in front of your mother , but the reason that I know about your father ' s death is that I am the man who killed him . " He recounted what had happened , and how shaken he was when he realized that one of the men he had killed was and American trained doctor with American friends . When asked by an interviewer from 20 / 20 why his role in Tatsuguchi ' s death haunted him Laird responded , ( referring to the barren stretch of land over which the battle was waged ) " Because neither of us had any business being there . " He later described his frequent and painful recall of that event to Laura as " daymares " After a telephone conversation with him about the flashbacks he described , Laura wrote to him asking him to let go of any guilt he carried about killing her father . She wrote , " It was so good to have had a chance to talk to you tonight . I am writing this letter to express even more completely my gratitude to you for coming to my home so many years ago , and to ask you to let go of any feelings of guilt or pain you still have over what happened between you and my father at Attu . What happened there was neither your fault or his . Neither of you , nor any of your comrades chose that particular battle or that particular time to fight . . . . " The only thing that dignifies and sanctifies that terrible battle was the bravery , duty and loyalty to country that those of you on both sides who were left to fight that battle displayed under the most terrible circumstances . You were an American soldier . Your native land had been attacked , and you accepted the task of defending it . You did the duty thrust upon you bravely and ably . So did your comrades . So did the men on the other side . None of you , on either side , chose to make this horrible war happen . When others did , it fell upon you and your comrades , and my father and his , to do what was left to you to do . " When you confronted my father he appeared to be , and was in the eyes of the conflict , one of the enemy . You and your comrades were all in a " kill or be killed " conflict . When interviewed almost 60 years later , you remarked that what hurt about the memory of my fathers ' death was that my father had no business being there and neither did you . But that could be said for most if not all of the men who fought and suffered and died there . None of you should have been there . But you were , and that fact cast upon you terrible duties , duties you discharged the only way you could . What happened , happened . You were not at fault . The men you fired upon that day would have fired upon you . Had you not fired when you did , you , or more of your own comrades may have died . How could you know that there was an American trained physician , and a father and husband facing you ? And what could you have done , other than what you did , even had you known ? " Whatever happened out there that day , and whatever painful flashes of memory still visit you , I ask you to let them go . I ask you to accept what happened and forgive yourself and to be at peace . And I want you to know that the daughter and the wife of Paul Tatsuguchi both hold you in honor and gratitude for coming forward and visiting our home that day , and wish you peace and happiness . " Laura and her family and Laird remained in touch with each other until his death . Taeko Widowed and with two small children , Taeko was left to care for and protect them in a war devastated Japan , moving from place to place during the war to keep them safe . She and her children remained in Japan until 1954 when they joined her parents , who were Seventh Day Adventist missionaries in Oahu , Hawaii . where they remained until she moved her children to California so they could pursue their education . She died in June 2011 at the home of her daughter Laura , where had she lived for many years , loved and honored by her daughters and grandchildren . She was 98 . Those who knew her best spoke of her loving warmth and quiet courage at her memorial service in the Seventh Day Adventist chapel filled to overflowing by people , young and old , whose lives she had touched . Of her life with her children during the war years it was noted that " She made them feel safe when there was no safety . She made them feel nourished when there was nothing . "