PHILADELPHIA, Aug. 1 Kyodo -- Tokio Tobita, a former Japanese sergeant who spent 10 years in prison on war crimes, met his American jailer on Thursday in an emotional reunion brought together by an exhibition of war prison art.

"I'm speechless. The only thing I can say is 'I'm really moved'," Tobita said after his reunion with Buck Langdon, a former U.S. soldier who served as a guard at the Sugamo prison in Tokyo.

"Never in my life I thought something like this would happen," said Tobita, who, accompanied by two sons, was visiting the United States for the first time in his life.

Tobita, 84, and Langdon, 73, were in Philadelphia for a special exhibition at the Philadelphia Art Alliance gallery on art work produced by Japanese prisoners who spent time at Sugamo for war crimes committed during World War II.

Among the art work on show were sketches by Tobita, who was convicted as a "BC-class" war criminal, on the daily lives of the prisoners and their guards at Sugamo.

Reunited in the United States for the first time in more than half a century, Tobita and Langdon could hardly contain their emotions.

They hugged in joy and together they examined the Tobita sketches, haltingly reminiscing the memories that etched into their young minds more than five decades ago.

Tobita was recruited into the Imperial Japanese Army in 1939 and saw action in China and in Burma, now Myanmar. He was a young non-commissioned officer working at the Tokyo hospital for allied prisoners-of-war when the war came to an end.

Tobita was taken prisoner and convicted of war crimes, spending the next 10 years at Sugamo.

Langdon was 18 when he was dispatched to Japan in July 1947 and served as a guard at Sugamo until December that year.

Langdon, who flew in from Seattle for the reunion, said he was moved by the way the Japanese war prisoners tried to shake off uncertainties of life in prison by making handicraft such as cigarette boxes and sandals.

Langdon said he bought some of the prison ware.

When Tobita and Langdon returned to their civilian lives, they pursued vastly different careers.

Tobita took up farming, his family occupation, and later built a construction business, retiring just several years ago.

Langdon went back to school, and studied at the University of California in Los Angeles. He later became a dental technician, and has yet to retire.

And both were clearly happy that they have lived this long and have stayed healthy enough to travel a long way for the reunion.

"It's really great that we are both alive and well," Langdon said.