During the Battle of Weihaiwei, the Imperial Japanese Army experienced heavy snow and low temperature, while being under-equipped with water, food and fuel.[3] Nagai reflected in his song the hardship Japanese soldiers experienced and their discontentment about the war.[4] The song, which was popular at the time of its publication[5] and is described by scholars to have an upbeat melody,[6][7] was said to be favoured by Ōyama Iwao.[8] It was also taught and sung in Japanese schools during the late Meiji period.[9]
Yuki no shingun koori wo funde
Dore ga kawa yara michi sae shirezu
Uma wa taoreru sutete mo okezu
Koko wa izuku zo mina teki no kuni
Mama yo daitan ippuku yareba
Tanomi sukunaya tabako ga nihon
Marching in the snow, stepping on ice
We can't even tell passages from rivers
The horses are beaten, but we can't leave them
Just what is this place? It's all enemy territory
Tried to take a cigarette thinking 'Well the hell with it.'
I'll be damned. Why there is another?
Yakanu himono ni han-nie meshi ni
Namaji inochi no aru sono uchi wa
Korae kirenai samusa no takibi
Kemui hazu da yo namaki ga iburu
Shibui kao shite kōmyō banashi
"Sui" to iu no wa umeboshi hitotsu
Dried fishes are not dry enough, and the rice won't be cooked enough.
It's not long before we're living half-boiled days
For this cold can't be endured with just a bonfire
It will definitely smoke but the wet wood burns.
Putting on a sour face, saying the stories of valor.
The "sour" thing here's a pickled plum
Ki nomi ki no mama kiraku na fushido
Hainō makura ni gaitō kaburya
Sena no nukumi de yuki doke kakaru
Yagu no kibigara shippori nurete
Musubi kanetaru roei no yume wo
Tsuki wa tsumetaku kao nozokikomu
The clothes we wear are our carefree beds
We cover under our overcoats on knapsack pillows
With the warmth of our backs, the snow thaws
Soaking wet our millet-husk bedding
We can't dream of dreaming in the bivouacs
The moon peeks into, coldly
Inochi sasagete detekita mi yue
Shinuru kakugo de tokkan suredo
Buun tsutanaku uchiji ni seneba
Giri ni karameta jūppei mawata
Sorori sorori to kubi shime kakaru
Dōse ikashite kaesanu tsumori
As we came here in debt of our lives
We charged with death resolution
If the fortunes of war betrayed us, and we survived the battle
The consolation packages entwined with loyalty
Slowly, slowly, would try to strangle us
Anyhow, the superiors won't let us go home alive
The Japanese version of the 2005 video game Destroy All Humans!, released in 2007, referred to the first two lines of the song.[10]
The 2012 anime Girls und Panzer shows Yukari Akiyama and Riko "Erwin" Matsumoto singing the song during a reconnaissance march through the snow, and the anime's sequel films Girls und Panzer der Film[11] and Girls und Panzer das Finale use the melody as a leitmotif for the Imperial Japanese Army-themed Chi-Ha-Tan Academy.