After three months of training in Yamaguchi, he was sent to Manchuria as a corporal in Japan’s Kwantung Army where he was responsible for repairing military equipment.
[2] He took his painting materials with him in an attempt to retain his identity as a painter, viewing himself as living in a different world to the other soldiers.
Kazuki and his comrades were taken to a concentration camp in Siberia, where they were forced to generate thermal power through logging.
[2] For each comrade who died in the concentration camp, Kazuki sketched a death mask on paper to give to the bereaved families of the deceased.
[2] Originally, Kazuki was supposed to mine coal, but upon discovering he was a painter, those in charge made him plaster walls.
[3] He also published a poetry collection, created toys and lithograph art books, and featured on NHK’s radio and TV programmes.
Following his eldest daughter's death from cancer in 1971, his heart problems worsened due to increased alcohol consumption.
The second painting was of his painful memories of the gulag, titled Burial (1948), depicting a dead body with its face covered with a white cloth.
[2] The Siberia Within Me was published by Bungei Shunjū in 1970 and explored Kazuki’s early life, artistic career and military exploits, with an emphasis on the Siberian Series.
[1][2] Kazuki continued to paint the Siberian Series until his death in 1974; his final pieces were titled Sunrise and Moonrise.