Editing Masaki Kobayashi (section)

====Wartime (1942-1946)====
In January 1942, Kobayashi was drafted into the Azabu Third Regiment of the [[Imperial Japanese Army]].<ref name=I1996 /><ref name="PrinceDreamAizu"/> After three months of training as a heavy machine gunner, Kobayashi was sent near [[Harbin]] in [[Manchuria]].<ref name=I1996 /><ref name="PrinceDreamAizu"/> In September 1943, Kobayashi's squad was sent to patrol along the [[Ussuri]] river.<ref name="PrinceDreamAizu"/> In June 1944, his regiment returned to Japan, from which they were to be transferred to the [[Philippines]].<ref name="PrinceDreamAizu"/> However, [[Allies of World War II|Allied]] submarines prevented the Azabu Third Regiment from reaching the Philippines, so they headed for [[Okinawa Island]] instead.<ref name="PrinceDreamAizu"/> While traveling to Okinawa, Kobayashi's group diverted to [[Miyako-jima]] in the [[Ryukyu Islands]], where they remained until the end of the war.<ref name="PrinceDreamAizu"/> During that time, his group worked towards building an airfield.<ref name="PrinceDreamAizu"/> Kobayashi's time on the island was difficult, with his group frequently resorting to eating grasshoppers and dogs to survive.<ref name="PrinceDreamAizu"/> He kept a diary during his time on Miyako-jima, which documented his experience in the war and included an [[I-novel]] about the loss of his youth.<ref name="PrinceDreamAizu"/> In his diary, Kobayashi shows support for the Japanese war effort, but laments the death and destruction that the war caused.<ref name="PrinceDreamAizu"/> Kobayashi never participated in frontline fighting during his time in the army.<ref name="PrinceDreamAizu"/> Kobayashi regarded himself as a pacifist and a socialist, and resisted by refusing promotion to a rank higher than [[private (rank)|private]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.criterion.com/current/posts/381 |title=Harakiri: Kobayashi and History – From the Current – The Criterion Collection |publisher=Criterion.com |access-date=January 19, 2013}}</ref>

After the war ended, Kobayashi spent nearly a year in a [[prisoner of war]] labor camp in [[Kadena, Okinawa]].<ref name="PrinceDreamAizu"/><ref>{{Cite book|title=Japanese film directors|last=Bock|first=Audie|publisher=Kodansha International|year=1985|isbn=978-0-87011-714-5|pages=248|language=en|oclc=1015968920}}</ref> At the camp, Kobayashi ran a theater company with other inmates, and produced several shows.<ref name="PrinceDreamAizu"/> Kobayashi was released from the labor camp in November 1946.<ref name=I1996 /><ref name="PrinceDreamKinoshita">{{cite book |last=Prince |first=Stephen |author-link=Stephen Prince |date=November 16, 2017 |title=A Dream of Resistance: The Cinema of Kobayashi Masaki |chapter=Conjoining Spirit and World |publisher=[[Rutgers University Press]] |pages=30-38 |isbn=978-0-8135-9235-0}}</ref> Upon returning home, he learned that his father had died in 1945 and that his older brother, Yasuhiko, died in battle in China in 1944.<ref name="PrinceDreamKinoshita"/>