My painful memory with the Japanese Mountaineering Team in Indian Himalayas in 1975

My painful memory with the Japanese Mountaineering Team in Indian Himalayas in 1975

Sushanta De

It was in 1975 I had returned from Mulikla Six (20600 ft.) of Himachal Pradesh. I was with them as Indian Liaison Officer, then I was Second Lieutenant of the Indian Army. By then before joining Indian Army I  had done Basic & Advance Mountaineering Courses and also had the experience of organising mountaineering expedition to Indian Himalayas, I was also a  member of the team of Kolkata, India they had first time unfurled the NCC flag from a mountain it was in 1972.

My artillery unit released me for the USA team. After completing the assignment I went to the Army Headquarter for returning my unit location. A was told by the concerned officer that a Japanese team was waiting for the Indian Liaison Officer to arrive at New Delhi. I was advised to proceed with the Japanese team, I got only one day at my disposal at New Delhi before leaving for the mountain with the Japanese team. i had filled up the forms for accidental insurance for the sherpas who had arrived from Darjeeling, West Bengal. There was only one Sherpa who was in the 1973 expedition to Sickle Moon in the Kishtwar region of J&K.Siclel Moon, He was Havildar Ang Chatter, he was working with the Indo Tibetian Border Police (ITBP). He joined this expedition taking leave from his employer. This was twelve members  from Japan Self Defence Force (JSDF) from Japan along with two ladies. The leader was Lt Col Yunoki of Armoured Corps.

In 1973 there was a joint expedition with the Indian Army to the same peak. Havildar Ang Choter was rescued from an accident, he was evacuated to Military Hospital.

In 1975 we started our trekking from Kishtwar, Google Map of Kishtwar Regionthe road head towards that area. The team was carrying Very High-frequency transceiver sets. The communication between Camp I and summit camp ( at a height of 18500 ft. was possible through these radio sets. On the very first day, the team member could not cover the distance, they had bivouac on the very first night.

The team had after establishing a base camp which was at the height of 125000 ft., and intermediate camps were there. Lieutenant Takachi who had established weather observation instruments at the base camp those were wind velocity and temperature recording.

I tried to remember a few very important words in case of emergency but at the time of an emergency, those words were not remembered such as ‘watch out’ .

The base camp to nearest telegraph and police wireless was at a distance of 24hrs walking, we employed two mail runners and the cook was also used to carry the urgent evacuation messages to New Delhi by telegrams and also police wireless.

i was surprised to see the gesture of shepherds, they had brought meat, butter for the Indian Officer who was with the foreign team.

The final attempt for climbing the peak Sickel Moon was made the team returned to the summit camp at 1 am, they went to sleep in a tent thereat. All of them were in one row. At about 2 am. a running boulder from the top had hit the head of Hav Ang Choter who was dead at the spot.. next to Choter was Lt Takashi who got the hit at his chest, he survived for next 2 hrs and 30 mins. Another member from the said camp Lt Yamaguchi left the camp at about 4 am and reached Base camp for rescue. An immediate arrangement was sent but it was no use by then.

Myself Ms. Hiraga with the help of English to Japanese and vice versa dictionaries we marked helipad area for the evacuation of the dead bodies. This was not possible. The last rites of both of them were carried out at the base camp.

I took imitative with the employer and insurance company, the matter was settled. i was able to meet Mrs. Chotter after 2 years at Darjeeling.