World War II was a painful experience all around, but it was especially cruel for the weak and physically impaired who were treated with contempt by the Japanese soldiers wielding power, according to one 87-year-old female survivor.
"Japanese society was especially unkind to women, children and the physically disabled during the war," said Noriko Nishio. "This type of society is unacceptable."
While most of her classmates were mobilized for wartime labor, Nishio, who graduated from a girls high school in the city of Tottori in the spring of 1945, was sent to a local regiment's recruitment office.