[About the Book]
ーThe real-life experiences and piercing gaze of a man who staked his life on “knowing”-
Even in his eighties, the “adventurer grandpa” continues to bravely journey across the globe. This book is a powerful collection of essays capturing his astonishing true stories, gathered over more than half a century on the frontlines of the world.
From an incident he witnessed in the borderlands of Afghanistan and Pakistan that foreshadowed 9/11, to being detained by the military under martial law in Amman after the Six-Day War, to his escape from a temporary police detention center along the Suez Canal. Time and again, even while facing danger, he pushed forward in pursuit of “truths that can only be found on the ground.”
This daring work challenges modern readers to reconsider the value of “seeing with one’s own eyes” and to reflect on the very meaning of “true journalism.”

[Table of Contents]
Introduction
Chapter 1: “It’s True! Just as I Thought!” -A Spot-On Premonition of Terrorism and Riots
Chapter 2: In 1966, My First Overseas Warrior Training in Southeast Asia ~ Turbulent Indonesia and Wartime Vietnam ~
Chapter 3: – 1967: My Second Overseas Warrior Training in the Middle East and Africa ~ Battlefields Right After the Six-Day War: Amman, the Suez Canal, and Aden ~
Chapter 4: The Upbringing of the Adventuring Old Man
Chapter 5: What I Thought About in Foreign Lands
Chapter 6: People Who Remained in My Heart Through Overseas Warrior Training
Chapter 7: How the Media Operates and Advises for Young People
Chapter 8: Events That Amplified My Distrust in the Media
Epilogue
Author’s Profile

[Editor’s Comment]
Reading this book makes one realize that the information delivered through the media is only a fraction of the truth of this world. Especially now, when the spread of smartphones allows anyone to feel as though they “know” things easily, I hope readers will take away from this book the way this grand adventurer lives by his conviction: there are things you can only see by going there yourself.

[Author’s Profile]
Setsuo Kondoh (Non-fiction writer)

Member (former board member) of the Japan PEN Club; member of Japan Travel Writers’ Association.
Born 1938 in Nakano Ward, Tokyo; graduated from the Faculty of Economics, Keio University.
After 40 years working for a railway company and a travel agency, he turned to writing.
Participated in the 1960 Anpo protest movement and the anti–Vietnam War movement. For over half a century he undertook overseas “samurai journeys”, including visits to wartime Vietnam and to Arab and African countries under martial law. Survived muggings, detentions by military and police, and refusals of entry, thereby gaining knowledge of crisis management, a firsthand sense of immediacy, and the true joy of travel.
Has visited 95 countries worldwide; first Japanese traveler admitted into Aden (present Yemen) following its independence.
Received a Greece Government Tourism Bureau Director’s Award for an essay he wrote in 2003.

Website: http：／／www.mr-kondoh.com

Works
The Powerful Pitcher of the South Pacific (published by Gendai Shokan)
Teinen Oyaji no Kaigai Musha Shugyo (published by Waseda Shuppan)
Shin Gendai Kaigai Musha Shugyo no Susume (published by Bungeisha)
Gendai Kaigai Musha Shugyo no Susume (published by Shinpusha)

Co-Authored Works
Shin Sedai no Kankou Rikkoku (published by Kotsu Shimbunsha)
Soko ga Shiritai Kankou・Toshi・Kankyou (published by Kotsu Shimbunsha)
Chi no Genba (published by Toyo Keizai Inc.)