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祖父はシベリアからの引き揚げを経験した口だ。

My grandfather was one of the people who were repatriated from Siberia.

I couldn't find any dictionary entries that would fit 口 in this context. What does it mean here exactly?

Makoto
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user12320
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1 Answers1

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「[口]{くち}」 has a dozen different meanings/usages.

I do not know about bilingual dictionaries, but this usage of 「[口]{くち}」 is fairly common and it should be explained in every monolingual dictionary.

See definition 一 - 4 from デジタル大辞泉:

４ [物事]{ものごと}を[分類]{ぶんるい}したときの、[同]{おな}じ[種類]{しゅるい}に[入]{はい}るものの一つ。また、その[種類]{しゅるい}。たぐい。「彼は相当いける口だ」「甘口」

That means a "(special) group of people or things that someone/something belongs to, or that person or thing him/itself".

「祖父{そふ}はシベリアからの引{ひ}き揚{あ}げを経験{けいけん}した口{くち}だ。」

In this context, 「口」 refers to the group of people who experienced repatriation from Siberia (after WWII), or any individual within that group.

In case someone needs help in understanding the examples for that definition in the link, 「[彼]{かれ}は[相当]{そうとう}いける[口]{くち}だ」 means "He is the kind to drink a lot."　He is a member of that particular group of people. 「いける」 means "to be able to drink much" in colloquial Japanese. 「甘口{あまくち}」 is the name for a category of sakes, wines, etc. that is on the sweet side.

Since both examples are alcohol-related, I presume that one of the authors of デジタル大辞泉 would be an いける口 him/herself.

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    Interesting; I had only noticed 口 being used, indeed, in those kinds of sample sentences and had assumed it was actually referring to the mouth of the one being referred to, similar to how one can have "a sweet tooth" in English. – Dolda2000 Jan 29 '16 at 15:21