Miyuki Yashiro, 89, has a wartime story to tell that only men are supposed to have: She served in the all-male Imperial Japanese Army during the Pacific War.
Yashiro, who has always been a woman at heart, was biologically a man for most of her life, until undergoing transgender surgery 11 years ago at age 78.
The military service was but one part of the difficult life Yashiro had endured as a woman with the appearance of a man. Music has given her the strength to stick it out, she says.