 In 1941 (Showa 16), the Pacific War broke out, but the following year he retired from Matsushima Shoten and joined the National Labor Training Institute.During the same year, he was assigned to Shibaura and Kayaba Works , where he learned the skills of a lathe mechanic.The director, who was planning to be in charge of accounting for the first time, turned to the site in charge of Ikenami himself, and in a few months, with the careful guidance of his boss, mastered this technology.