"War is the cruelest act, but the after-effects of war are far more painful than the process." This is the sentiment of the "General History of the World" when depicting the war of World War II, this sentence seems to reveal some truth to us, the fight on the battlefield is actually only a short pain, and what really makes people feel the pain of war is the sequelae of war.
I remember that when I read the "Revelation of World War II" before, I saw a lot of sad records in it, the Second World War has ended, but the legacy of fighting on the battlefield has become a problem. Countless wars have been left behind in other countries, countless homeless refugees, and even some persecuted homeless children who have lost everything. Where should they go, and how long will the pain of war last?
Even in China, there are such historical records all around us. For example, in the story to be told in this issue, an old woman in Shaanxi has refused to go to the hukou many times, and as a result, when she confessed her true identity before she died, everyone was surprised to find that the suffering brought by the war was so heavy. So what's going on here?
First, the after-effects of the war
Before we talk about this story, we must first understand what is called the after-effects of war. Taking Northeast China as an example, Japan once invaded Manchuria and established a puppet state of Manchukuo. At that time, Japan was bent on turning Manchuria into its own rear area, so nearly 1 million Japanese who had once immigrated came here to reclaim it.
To tell the truth, apart from the terrible Kwantung Army, most of the Japanese are actually working people at the bottom who cannot survive in their own countries, and they hope to reclaim their homes in foreign countries.
Unfortunately, the changes in the war were uncertain. At that time, Japan could manipulate the Republic of China at will, and later the Republic of China and the Communist Party cooperated to finally defeat the Japanese invaders. Therefore, the puppet state of Manchukuo was completely wiped out, and the Japanese army was completely driven out of China.
However, the embarrassment was that the Japanese troops were gone, but the Japanese who remained were still there, first by the terrible ravages of the Soviet military and then by the massacre of The Kuomintang radicals. Although the Communist soldiers and the ruling figures of the Kuomintang were later dealt with kindly, they stumbled and the Japanese who remained here were horrified.
Later, these people had no other thoughts and only wanted to go home, and some even wanted to flee to Taiwan and return to their home countries. But unfortunately, at that time, Sino-Japanese relations were deadlocked, and Japan no longer accepted these people to return to China, and even hoped that these people would starve to death directly in China.
In this terrible despair, many Japanese people choose to stay, or even find a Chinese and marry. The reason for this is only to survive, because the terrible Soviet lands are hovering over their heads, and there are countless Chinese who are resentful of Japanese imperialism, and people in other countries are retaliating. And it is in this context that our protagonist has spent his life.
Second, a Japanese woman
The protagonist of this issue is named Hideko Mizusaki, who was originally just an ordinary Japanese woman, but after the outbreak of war, many ordinary Japanese were forced to colonize Tohoku. Because Japan has an island mentality, everyone has to go to the wilderness. And Mizusaki Hideko is in this background, hoping to find her sister in the northeast and then get shelter.
After coming to the northeast, she did find her sister and started her new life, where she also gave her a Chinese name - Wang Yulan.
However, the years here did not last long, because soon Japan failed, and Tohoku became a place of fear for the Japanese. The Soviets went on a killing spree and captured them as laborers. People in other countries who are very hostile to Japan have shot and killed in it in retaliation.
Moreover, japan had abandoned them, and under the pressure of this fear, Hideko Mizusaki's sister left China by chance, while she herself was forced to stay here.
Seeing such a dangerous situation, she could only choose to marry Chinese and stay here. Fortunately, she met a small kuomintang officer, and the two were married.
Unfortunately, it was still 1947, the Kuomintang soldiers still had to participate in the war, And Hideko Mizusaki's husband did not return from the battlefield, and the Japanese woman once again lost her home.
In order to survive, she can only find another person to continue to survive, and as a result, she meets a soldier again, and the two also have a more warm life.
But alas, it seems that the heavens are playing with her again, because the new era has arrived, so monogamy is emphasized. Her new husband already had an arranged marriage at home, so the two were forced to divorce. Hideko Mizusaki was alone again.
However, although the history is bumpy, this woman's life is still relatively lucky, because then he met two husbands, although the time they were together was short, but she still had a home.
Later, the last husband, Li Mingtang, died in 2015, and Hideko Mizusaki was left alone.
Fortunately, she already had children and grandchildren to accompany her, and she finally lived to 2018 and then passed away.
Third, identity changes and ups and downs
It can be said that Hideko Mizusaki's life is really very bumpy, and she lets us see the helplessness under the shadow of war. Although the war we understand is only a rush on the battlefield and the evil of the enemy, in fact, both countries have civilians, and both countries have no good end in the face of war.
China has paid the price of blood, and the japanese civilians are also involuntary. After a lot of ups and downs, Hideko Mizusaki once searched for her hometown, and, with the help of the rescue agency, returned to Japan and met her cousin.
However, when the two meet, there is only endless sadness, they may not understand war, but they know that war has destroyed their family, and the entanglement of grievances in this can no longer be said.
In the end, Hideko Mizusaki did not stay in Japan, but returned to China, because she had lived here for most of her life, because she could not leave the place, and finally died quietly in 18 years.
It seemed to this old woman that she had witnessed the pain of war, and she had become a real feeling of war. War is not simply a fight, kill and win, but the pain and entanglement of several generations in two countries.
The author also feels that the reflection on the war in the life of this old man is actually more important than our emphasis on Japan's recognition of mistakes. Because only when the Japanese people themselves feel the pain of the war, and then these survivors tell the stories of that year, can the Japanese truly realize the evil of militarism. However, all this has nothing to do with this old man.
Before her death, she even bravely announced her identity as a Japanese, but everyone did not resist her or hate her, but a total of 150 people buried her, and the villagers also lamented that she was "hiding deeply". Maybe once everyone had hatred, but now everyone is a family, there is no obstacle that cannot be overcome, there is no irreconcilable interest, in fact, we are all a family on the earth. There is no need to use war to solve these entanglements, because war will only make everyone miserable, and this is really a fact that everyone must reflect on.
epilogue
After reading this old man's story, some of us may have some sense of touch about war, war is really not a joke, but a cruel act that costs a lot. And this old man is still relatively lucky, if you go to see "The Shadow Under the Victory", there will be more thought-provoking war pains.
Moreover, now on the Internet, we often see some people clamoring every day about who China must have a war with, how stupid it is to say that such a statement does not understand war, that war is a last resort, not a tool that we use to obtain some kind of benefit.
When we really want to use the war machine, all the good things we recognize and want will be destroyed. Therefore, in the future, we should know more about this knowledge, and we must also let this knowledge be widely accepted by everyone, and world peace needs to have a deep reflection, and impulses will only be wrong.
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