Yomitan Engineers Poem by Michael Pruchnicki

A rowdy bunch we were
trained as infantry
but serving as engineers
dropouts from airborne
guys from the stockade
entrusted with the care
and maintenance
of an outpost
in southern Japan

We swam daily in the waters
of the East China Sea
and caroused nightly
with geisha girls
in the village

On the horizon
we didn't see
the storm
rising in China
black clouds
of disaster
fast approaching

Now we look back
in awe at the months
that followed
languishing in
camps north
of Pyongyang