On April 10, 1945, Frank reported to the military grounds south of Hiroshima Castle, now the Second General Army Headquarters under Marshal Shunroku Hata. Frank’s official assignment: the 417th Infantry Regiment of the 145th Division, Imperial Second Army; the First Army was based in Tokyo. Frank’s status: a second-class private, an untrained recruit, the lowliest of the low, nicknamed issen gorin (one sen, five rin), the equivalent in change of less than a penny. Frank despaired. “I thought this was the end.”
