[Medical aspect of the winter march of the Fifth Regiment of the Eighth Military Division in the winter of 1902 - particularly concerning the cause of Major Yamaguchi's death].

Two hundred and ten military soldiers of the Fifth Regiment of the Eighth Division of the Japan Imperial Army joined a marching practice in the end of January, 1902, but 193 soldiers out of 210 died due to severe frost-bite during stormy weather and only seventeen, including Major Yamaguchi, were rescued to survive and brought to the Veteran's Administration Hospital at Aomori. This accident was most tragic and world-shaking for the Japanese people as well as for the Japanese Imperial Army. In December of 1991, an admission record of the Veteran's Administration Hospital at Aomori was found in the residence of Dr. Murakami of Aomori City. Judging from its handwriting, this record was written by a military physician Ki-ichi Murakami, Dr. Murakami's uncle. The record describes the details of seventeen patients, most of whom were severely injured and frost-bitten during the winter march. The content of this newly discovered record is similar to the report written by the military physicians of the Fifth Regiment which appeared in the Japan Imperial Military Medical Journal, but a more detailed description about Major Yamaguchi's vital signs, and symptoms of his frost-bite were found in the former. In the journal, Major Yamaguchi was reported to have died because of sudden cardiac arrest but Jiro Nitta described in his novel "Death March on Mount Hakkoda" that he committed suicide using his gun. However, this record strongly tells us that both of his hands, as well as both lower extremities, were severely frost-bitten and swollen and that he could not pull the trigger of his gun with his fingers. Since Jiro Nitta's novel has been published, it is widely accepted that Major Yamaguchi committed suicide with his gun. But we do not have any definite proof to substantiate his suicide. The present detailed survey on the medical references strongly suggests that he could not have pulled his gun's trigger by himself.