On the morning of July 14, 1981, Marshal Nie Rongzhen received a Japanese woman visiting China in Beijing, named Mihoko Kato.
Mihoko Kato was very excited when she saw Marshal Nie Rongzhen, and he held Marshal Nie Rongzhen's hand tightly, and tears couldn't help but flow down.
Marshal Nie Rongzhen looked at Mihoko Kato like a loving father, and the two were like fathers and daughters who had been separated for many years, and this scene also touched many people.
Mihoko looked at Marshal Nie Rongzhen and shouted excitedly, "Daddy."
Many people in the know were very moved to tears, but many uninformed people were very confused: When did Marshal Nie Rongzhen have a Japanese daughter?
Nie Rongzhen and Mieko Kato
This story also begins during the War of Resistance Against Japan.
When the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression broke out, Nie Shuai led the Eighth Route Army to fight against the Japanese
On December 12, 1936, Yang Hucheng and Zhang Xueliang took control of Chiang Kai-shek, who advocated "first security inside and then outside", in Lintong, Xi'an, Shaanxi Province, and carried out military advice, known in history as the "Xi'an Incident".
After the peaceful settlement of the Xi'an Incident, the two parties reached a cooperation agreement again, and the Red Army in the Long March to northern Shaanxi was reorganized into the Eighth Route Army, officially embarked on the road of anti-Japanese resistance, and began to struggle against the Japanese army invading China.
The Eighth Route Army had three divisions under its jurisdiction, namely the 115th Division, the 120th Division, and the 129th Division.
When the Red Army was reorganized, the 115th Division was formed with the Red First Army as the main body, and Nie Rongzhen, who was then the chief of staff of the Red First Army, served as the deputy division commander of the 115th Division after the reorganization, and continued to cooperate with his old partner Lin Biao to command the troops.
The venue of the Anti-Japanese Mobilization Conference
In July 1937, the Japanese army invading China launched the "July 7 Incident", and immediately began a comprehensive attack on China, and the all-out War of Resistance Against Japan broke out.
The Invading Japanese Army soon reached Shanxi, and in order to stop the Japanese army in Shanxi, our army cooperated with the Kuomintang army to launch the Battle of Xinkou, and the 115th Division immediately crossed the Yellow River and rushed to the front line.
On September 25, the main force of the 115th Division, under the command of division commander Lin Biao and deputy division commander Nie Rongzhen, set up an ambush in the area of Pingxingguan, preparing to ambush the invading Japanese who came and went here.
However, the soldiers of the 115th Division encountered a very rare heavy rainstorm while marching, and the heavy rain caused flash floods, and it was not until dawn on the 25th that the troops of the 115th Division entered the predetermined ambush position.
The independent regiment led by Yang Chengwu took the lead in engaging the enemy's follow-up troops at the pass of the waist station, and the 21st Brigade of the Japanese vanguard had reached the ambush position of the 115th Division at this time, and also exchanged fire with our army.
Nie Rongzhen (second from left) and Lin Biao (second from left) in the Ping-type Guan Dajie
Yang Chengwu's independent regiment was tasked with blocking enemy reinforcements in order to ensure the smooth ambush of the other units of the 115th Division and completely block the Japanese army at the waist.
At this time, on the bridge and ditch position, the main battlefield of the Pingxingguan ambush, after the Japanese 21st Brigade was ambushed by our army, it carried out a fierce counterattack, and the battle lasted for several hours, and both sides had run out of ammunition and even some battlefields had already launched a white-knife battle.
It was not until 4 p.m. on September 25 that the battle at Pingxingguan ended, and Nie Rongzhen immediately sent a telegram to the independent regiment led by Yang Chengwu: The main force of the division annihilated more than 1,000 people of the 21st Brigade of the Japanese Sakagaki Division, and your independent regiment had successfully completed the task of reinforcement.
After receiving the telegram from Nie Rongzhen, Yang Chengwu immediately pursued the enemy's reinforcements that had already collapsed, and after chasing more than 50 miles, he caught up with Laiyuan, where the enemy's troops were weak, and Yang Chengwu directly led the independent regiment to restore Laiyuan City with a big wave of his hand, adding icing on the cake for the victory of Pingxingguan.
Yang Chengwu led an independent regiment to occupy the Beacon Tower of the Great Wall of Laiyuan Jianling
After the pingxing pass, Nie Rongzhen became famous as the deputy commander of the 115th Division, and the Japanese army even launched a reward for Nie Rongzhen.
However, after the victory of Pingxingguan, the performance of the Kuomintang army in the Battle of Xinkou was not good, not only did it turn the counterattack into a defensive battle, but also lost the city of Taiyuan, which made the 115th Division and other units that had dispersed the operation and the headquarters of the Eighth Route Army cut off by the enemy.
In November 1937, in order to change the current situation in which the headquarters of the Eighth Route Army was cut off from the combat units of various departments, our army decided to appoint Nie Rongzhen as commander and political commissar of the Jin-Cha-Ji Military Region, leading more than 3,000 soldiers of the Eighth Route Army to create the first anti-Japanese base area behind enemy lines in the Wutaishan area of Xinzhou, Shanxi Province, and ensure the contact between the various departments and the headquarters of the Eighth Route Army.
After receiving the order, Nie Rongzhen immediately led his troops to stay overnight and rushed to the Wutaishan area in Xinzhou, Shanxi, to open up a base area for the anti-Japanese revolution behind enemy lines.
Photo of General Nie Rongzhen in front of the former site of the Jin-Cha-Ji Headquarters
The situation of the struggle between the enemy and ourselves in the Wutaishan area was very complicated, and the Japanese army had only recently occupied this area, and often inspected and swept the area, and even launched several village clearance activities.
In the face of this situation, Nie Rongzhen fully mobilized the local masses of the people, often ate, lived, and even worked with the masses of the people, and expounded our party's policy of unity toward the people when chatting with them.
Moreover, the soldiers of the Eighth Route Army also took great care of the masses of the people in their daily lives, and the captured non-arms trophies would be distributed to the local villagers as much as possible, so the broad masses of the people in the area had a good feeling for this Eighth Route Army, which was obviously different from the Kuomintang army.
Therefore, the strength of the Eighth Route Army in the Jin-Cha-Ji anti-Japanese base area of Wutai Mountain grew stronger and stronger, and by the spring of 1939, the area of the base area had expanded to 72 nearby counties, and the revolutionary masses had also grown to 12 million, and the strength of the main force alone had reached as many as 100,000 people, excluding the militia and the troops of the organs.
Soldiers of the Jin-Cha-Ji Eighth Route Army were examined by Nie Rongzhen
Mao Zedong praised: "Mount Wutai, there was Lu Zhishen in the past, and now there is Nie Rongzhen, and Nie Rongzhen is the new Lu Zhishen." ”
It also called on all the anti-Japanese base areas of the Eighth Route Army to learn from the Jin-Cha-Ji revolutionary base areas.
In 1939, he commanded the winter anti-"mopping-up" operation, and our army killed Norihide Abe
In the autumn of 1939, the Japanese in the Wutaishan area realized that the strength of the Eighth Route Army was developing rapidly, a situation that the Japanese did not want to see.
Therefore, they divided their forces into 12 roads and carried out a large-scale winter "sweep" from different directions to the Jin-Cha-Ji Border Region.
Nie Rongzhen led the soldiers and civilians in the Jin-Cha-Ji base area to calmly deal with the "sweeping" of the Japanese 12-way army.
On October 30, after the Eighth Route Army found out that the main force of the Japanese 2nd Independent Mixed Brigade in Laiyuancheng, Hebei Province, had attacked the Jin-Cha-Ji base area in three ways from Shuibao, Zoumayi, and Yinfang, our army decided to launch sparrow warfare and guerrilla warfare, and while harassing the enemy, it would attract one of its units to the vicinity of Yansu Cliff and annihilate it.
Cavalry of the Eighth Route Army in anti-winter "sweeping" operations
After Nie Rongzhen made his decision, he immediately arranged the combat tasks, and the 1st and 3rd Regiments of the First Military Division of the Jin-Cha-Ji Military Region and the 2nd Regiment of the Third Military Sub-district arrived at the ambush positions on both sides of the YansuYa Gorge before November 3.
At the same time, the 715th Regiment of the Independent First Brigade of the 120th Division and the third detachment of the Guerrilla Brigade of the First Military Division first held the enemy troops in check on the way of the enemy's march, and then the 25th Regiment of the First Army Division continued to contain the enemy in the second echelon.
After receiving the order, the troops immediately set out to enter the predetermined position, the 3rd guerrilla detachment took the lead in fighting the Japanese troops in the direction of Yinfang, and the 3rd detachment immediately resisted and lured the enemy deeper, and introduced a Japanese force of more than 200 people into the ambush position.
The 3rd Regiment then launched a fierce attack, killing most of the enemy troops, and then the 2nd Regiment also entered the battle, pressing the remaining enemy troops to the high ground northwest of Yansu Cliff.
Soldiers of the Eighth Route Army ambushed on both sides of the Yansu Cliff Canyon
At the same time, another Japanese force of more than 300 people was lured by our army to the area of YansuYa Gorge, and when its vanguard troops reached Zhangjia Tomb in YansuYa Gorge, the 1st Regiment quickly detoured back to the north mouth of the narrow valley to block the retreat of the Japanese army.
The 3rd Regiment also sent a battalion to blockade the south entrance of the canyon, and the main forces of the 1st and 3rd Regiments on the east side of the canyon, together with the main forces of the 3rd Regiment and the main force of the 2nd Regiment on the west side of the Canyon, launched a fierce attack on this Japanese force. After a few hours of fierce fighting, the Japanese army was annihilated by more than half of our army.
At this time, the remnants of the Japanese puppet army on the northwestern highlands of Yansu Cliff were also forced into the canyon by some troops of the Second Regiment, and our army quickly completed the encirclement of this group of Japanese puppet troops and launched a general attack in the afternoon.
At 17:00 on the afternoon of the same day, all the Japanese puppet troops surrounded in the canyon were annihilated by our army, and in this battle, more than 500 Japanese troops were killed and wounded, and 6 artillery pieces, 13 light and heavy machine guns, more than 210 rifles, more than 300 mules and horses, and 2 transmitters were captured.
The main force of the Eighth Route Army after the victory of the Battle of Yansu Cliff
However, at this time, the winter "sweep" of the Japanese puppet army was not over, and nie Rongzhen, after carefully studying the Japanese army's marching route, sent Yang Chengwu to command troops to set up an ambush in the Loess Ridge area, preparing to ambush Lieutenant General Noboru Abe, a famous Japanese general who personally led the troops to carry out the sweep.
After the Battle of Loess Ridge began, the troops led by Yang Chengwu quickly launched a fierce attack on the Japanese troops who entered the ambush positions of our army.
During the battle, lieutenant general Abe Norihide, a famous general of the Japanese army, was killed by our army, and Abe Norihide was the highest-ranking Japanese commander who was wiped out in the War of Resistance Against Japan.
Heavy machine guns captured by Yang Chengwu's troops during the Battle of Loess Ridge
Anti-Japanese forces throughout the country sent congratulatory telegrams to the Jin-Cha-Ji base areas one after another congratulating them on the victory in the Battle of Loess Ridge, and newspapers throughout the country also reported on the course of the Battle of Loess Ridge and published various poems wishing for Success, and Nie Rongzhen once again became famous.
In order to break the Conspiracy of the Japanese Political Temptation of the Nationalist Government, the Eighth Route Army launched the Hundred Regiments War
On August 8, 1940, the headquarters of the Eighth Route Army officially issued the "Campaign Action Order", which launched the first stage of the Hundred Regiments War:
Dispatched 10 main regiments of the Jin-Cha-Ji Military Region to sabotage the Pingding to Shijiazhuang section of the Zhengtai Railway, with a focus on destroying the Niangziguan and Pingding sections;
It also sent enough troops to attack the Beining Railway, Jinpu Railway, Cangshi Railway, Deshi Railway, Pinghan Railway and other Japanese transportation trunk railways around the Jin-Cha-Ji Border Region, and at the same time blocked the Japanese troops who might reinforce the Zhengtai Railway.
The Jin-Cha-Ji Military Region immediately carried out operations according to the order, and at the end of the first phase of the Hundred Regiments War alone, the Eighth Route Army had already engaged the Japanese army 1824 times, and the Japanese army's communication lines throughout north China were paralyzed.
Nie Rongzhen commanded the troops in the base area during the battle, and after conquering Niangziguan, quickly occupied the Dongwangshe mining area at the foot of the Taihang Mountains, at this time, in order to prevent our army from advancing, the Japanese army carried out intensive bombardment of the Dongwangshe mining area, and the Dongwangshe mining area instantly turned into a sea of fire.
The Eighth Route Army that occupied Niangziguan in the Hundred Regiments War
Nie Rongzhen and Mihoko meet
There were many Japanese expatriates in the Dongwangshe mining area, and although the soldiers of the Eighth Route Army hated the Japanese very much, they could not bear to let the civilians die in the sea of fire.
So they began to search for these Japanese expatriates who did not participate in the war of aggression against China in the sea of fire, and in the ruins of the mining area caught in a sea of fire, the soldiers of the Eighth Route Army saw a child who was crying.
The warriors immediately rushed forward and rescued the infant and the infant next to the child, a pair of sisters, the children of The Japanese expatriate, the older sister named Mihoko Kato was only four years old at the time, and the younger sister named Ryumiko Kato was born and was still breastfeeding.
Although the soldiers of the Eighth Route Army hated the Japanese soldiers who committed heinous crimes in the war of aggression against China, these two children were innocent after all, and their parents may have oppressed the Chinese people, but what mistakes could these two young children make?
Therefore, the soldiers of the Eighth Route Army decided to raise the two children well, they changed Mihoko into clean clothes, gave Miho the best food to eat, and found nursing women from nearby villages to feed Ryumiko.
Mihoko sitting in a basket
A group of clumsy big men in the Eighth Route Army also frightened the young Mihoko at first, but in the later relationship, Mihoko gradually accepted this group of well-intentioned "fathers".
Nie Rongzhen also knew about this matter and paid great attention to this matter, so that the soldiers sent the two girls to the front line headquarters, although the soldiers were very reluctant, they still had to participate in the battle, and they could not take good care of the two girls, and finally sent the two girls to the front line command.
Nie Rongzhen was already a father at this time, and his daughter Nie Li was 10 years old at the time.
However, because of the war, Nie Rongzhen and Nie Li gathered less and more, so when Nie Rongzhen saw these two children, the father's loving nature was naturally stimulated.
Nie Rongzhen instructed the military doctor to examine the bodies of the two little girls, and also ordered the cooking class to boil a bowl of millet porridge for Mihoko, who was very close to Nie Rongzhen, who exuded the glory of father's love, and Nie Rongzhen was also very considerate of feeding Mihoko to drink millet porridge.
Marshal Nie Rongzhen who fed Mihoko porridge
After spending a few days with Mihoko, Nie Rongzhen also felt that the two little girls following the army was never a solution, nor could they foster the two Japanese little girls in the local mass homes, after all, the burden of raising two children was too great.
It was not realistic to send the two little girls to the rear, so Nie Rongzhen decided to send the child to the Japanese army in Shijiazhuang, Hebei Province, hoping that the Japanese army would find Mihoko's relatives.
The day before Nie Rongzhen sent the two little girls away, he also took a group photo with the two children and wrote a letter to Li Huatang, a farmer who sent the children back, to hand the letter to the Japanese officers in Hebei along with the children.
Before leaving, Nie Rongzhen looked very reluctantly at Mihoko and Ryumiko sitting in the basket that Li Huatang was carrying, and waved goodbye to Mihoko.
Nie Shuai handed Mei Sui to the farmer Li Huatang and said goodbye to Mi Sui before sending her away
Although Mihoko was young at the time, she could remember things, and she clearly remembered the Soldiers of the Eighth Route Army who rushed into the fire to save her and her sister, Nie Rongzhen, who treated her like a daughter, Chen Wenduan, who fed her sister, and Li Huatang, who sent her on the road back to her hometown.
Mihoko and her sister were sent to a Japanese officer of the Japanese army invading China, who called him to translate the letter written by Nie Rongzhen, in which Nie Rongzhen severely condemned the atrocities committed by the Japanese invading China, expressed deep sympathy for the suffering of Mihoko and Ryumiko, and demanded that the Japanese army transfer the two little girls to their relatives to raise.
Nie Rongzhen wrote a letter to the Japanese army
The Japanese officer was very grateful for Nie Rongzhen's behavior, and immediately wrote a letter for Li Huatang to forward to Nie Rongzhen, and the Japanese officer thanked Nie Rongzhen in his heart for being able to treat the two children so leniently, and mentioned in the letter that he would definitely hand over the two little girls to their relatives to raise.
After that, Nie Rongzhen and Mihoko had no contact anymore.
Mihoko saw the article about herself and Nie Rongzhen and embarked on the road of "searching for relatives"
The Japanese officer who wrote back to Nie Rongzhen quickly found information on Mihoko's father, who was an employee of the Jingxin Coal Mine Railway Station in Hebei Province, and died of wounds in the Japanese bombing on August 21, 1940, and Mihoko's mother was also killed by a shell on the same day.
The Japanese officer was also very angry when he saw that the local troops had disregarded the lives of the expatriates, but because he did not belong to the same team, he could not deal with the officers at that time.
Following mihoko's father's information, Mihoko's uncle was found, but at this time, Mihoko's sister Ryumiko had died at the Shimen Hospital of the Beijing Railway Bureau, so she only gave Mihoko to her uncle, who sent Mihoko back to Japan.
Mihoko in a photo with her mother before she was killed
After the end of the War of Resistance Against Japan, Mihoko was 9 years old, and she still remembered the days she spent with the Eighth Route Army, but at that time, she was very young, and after the civil war broke out in our country, she did not get in touch with Nie Rongzhen.
After the founding of New China, the United States and other Western countries imposed a diplomatic blockade on New China, and Japan has always been under the control of the United States, and Mihoko still has not been able to get in touch with Nie Shuai, and even cannot express her gratitude to Nie Shuai.
It was not until Sino-US relations began to gradually ease up, and the United States and Japan established diplomatic relations with China one after another, that China and Japan began to communicate, but Nie Rongzhen's environment at that time was not very good, and Mihoko could not remember Nie Rongzhen's name clearly, and even did not know what position Nie Rongzhen held.
Mihoko poses with Nie Shuai
Until 1980, after the reform and opening up, the People's Liberation Army Pictorial published "Japanese Little Girl, Where Are You", accompanied by a photo of Marshal Nie Rongzhen and the young Mihoko, this article was transmitted to Japan by the reporter of the Japanese "Yomiuri Shimbun", and mobilized the Japanese people to look for the girl.
After unremitting efforts, the reporter finally found Kato Misako, who had become a mother of three children in Kyushu, and after Mihoko learned that she had found her life-saving benefactor, she immediately wrote a letter to Marshal Nie Rongzhen, expressing her gratitude and the idea of wanting to visit China to thank Nie Rongzhen in person.
In July 1981, with the financial support of Japan's Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper, Mihoko embarked on a visit to China with her husband and three children.
On July 10, 1981, The Kato Mishoko family first went to the Jingxing Coal Mine in Hebei Province to pay their respects to their parents, and then on the morning of July 14, Mihoko finally met nie Rongzhen's "father" whom she had in mind.
Marshal Nie Rongzhen and Kato Mihoko hugged and wept like a pair of women who had been separated for many years, and Mihoko cried silently: "Forty years ago, the Chinese people full of human fraternity saved my life, and you are my savior." ”
And excitedly called out to Nie Rongzhen, "Daddy."
Mihoko who meets Nie Shuai again
Marshal Nie Rongzhen looked at Mihoko, who was already a mother, and said, "May the Chinese and Japanese peoples continue to be friendly from generation to generation, and never see each other in battle." ”
The meeting between Mihoko and Nie Shuai was quickly transmitted back to Japan by the Yomiuri Shimbun, which had a very great impact in Japan, and the Japanese people called Nie Rongzhen a "living bodhisattva" and a "messenger of Sino-Japanese friendship".
In 1986, he came to China again to visit Nie Shuai's Mihoko
Marshal Nie Rongzhen was benevolent, and during the War of Resistance Against Japan, he not only saved the orphans of the war in the hostile countries, but also sent the two children back to the army of the enemy country that was at war with his own country in order to let the two children grow up in front of their relatives, and the soldiers of the Eighth Route Army in their treatment of Mihoko and Ryumiko also better reflected the style of a big country in our country.
Mihoko and Ryumiko were also victims of the war, losing their parents in the war, and Ryumiko did not grow up healthy and died in her infancy.
Mihoko's search for a savior has also been praised by the people who yearn for Sino-Japanese friendship, and has become the best example of Sino-Japanese friendship.