For instance, I knew nothing of this...

"When, barely nineteen years old, I returned to Japan in late August 1946 , it was a kind of homecoming to my "furusato," combining as the word does the meanings of birth-and-native place. During my absence of almost six years, my earlier national identity had changed from German to American, courtesy of the United States Army that had drafted me in the summer of 1945 and rewarded me three months later with my new and treasured citizenship. But more important than any personal change was the awful and devastating alteration that Japan had undergone. None of the many pictures and newsreels could capture the vast stretches of flatness, dotted with shacks made of cardboard, corrugated tin, and bits of wood for most of the way from the docks of Yokohama to downtown Tokyo. These areas were well-known to me from my childhood as we had taken the same road leading through them to the beaches (Hayama and Zushi) for swimming or to Ofuna for hikes (sampo would be more accurate) through the hills in the general direction of Kamakura."

This paragraph has given me an insight into him that I have never even come close to.