18 the more determined I became, and that event developed into the starting point for what I am today. My third encounter was in a Cambodian village located in northeast Thailand. As I had remained in Cambodia since Spring 1961, without putting in an appearance at my university graduation ceremony, I decided to return to Japan in December. My feelings with regard to pursuing my research on the Angkor monuments, were firm. To go to Northeast Thailand, which was once an area of influence of the Angkor dynasty, I entered the country from Aranyaprathet, so as to get a view of the ruins of the Khmer stone temples. On passing through a marketplace in a Cambodian village situated in northeast Thailand, the villagers informed me of the presence of a Japanese living there, and the person in question was Mr. A, a former Japanese soldier. Perhaps with the aim of heading from the Burma front to a marshalling point in order to return to his own country, he had lain hidden with his companions in the forests during the day, and moved about at night. While so doing however he collapsed and lost consciousness, owing to his having fallen a victim to severe malaria. Apparently he was then carried to the residence of a local person, and thereby managed to survive. Due to the fact that by the time I saw him almost 16 years had elapsed since the close of the Second World War, Mr. A had practically forgotten his Japanese. It was at a time when dusk was approaching that I came upon him, on the stairs of a stilt house. The following morning, when I went to bid farewell to him before leaving, I asked Mr. A, “Would you like me to inform your relatives in Japan that you are doing well?” With tear-filled eyes and in halting Japanese words which he was able to painfully recall, he answered thus, “Please don’t do that. Let things remain as they are now.” On hearing this, my own eyes grew tearful. That was an encounter I am unable to forget. How did those kindhearted people of that Cambodian village who welcomed a sick foreigner into their midst, come into being? This again evoked
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