Kaori Maekawa

(1970) was born in Hiroshima, a city where the ghost of the atom bomb still haunts. In her youth she heard about 'the disaster'; but she never heard the details of the story. Her interest in the history of her country and especially those episodes that were not talked about increased. She studied history, specializing in WWII in Asia. During her holiday in Indonesia she met Indonesians who had served as heiho - Indonesian soldier in Japanese service - in WWII. It was again a meeting with a story unknown in Japan and Kaori made herself familiar with the lives of the heiho. Currently she is working as a researcher at the archives department of the National Institute for the Humanities in Tokyo.