Author: Di Yun (Lu Abandoned Team Author), this article authorized today's headlines original debut
After the "918 Incident" in 1931, in order to occupy China more thoroughly, Japan immigrated to the northeast in an attempt to change the ethnic composition of the northeast and establish new "overseas colonies".
Japanese orphans refer to the Japanese who abandoned Japan in 1945 when the Japanese army withdrew from China and repatriated from China. After 1993, Japan was called "Chinese returnees", "remnant Japanese" and "Chinese remnant Japanese".
Among the orphans are the children of military and political personnel, as well as the descendants of business people, but most of them are the descendants of the Japanese Pioneer Group, and there are more than 4,000 orphans, distributed in 29 provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions in China, of which 90% are concentrated in the three northeastern provinces and the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region.
Never before in the history of war have so many orphans been abandoned in an enemy country that is still at war and adopted by the people of a country enslaved and ravaged by the Japanese aggressors.
<h1>Dream</h1>
In the autumn of 1940, under the propaganda of the Japanese government, the Japanese people took their wives, children and families to sign up for the Manchurian Pioneers and came to northeast China.
At that time, the registration caused a lot of controversy.
The "beauty" of Manchuria, promoted by the Japanese government, such as "5 million immigrants reclaimed fertile land in Manchuria within 20 years" and "Moving forward, the happy new world of Manchuria, the wonderful 8,000 kilometers of national borders", are full of temptation and yearning for ordinary Japanese people.
After the pioneers were deceived, some people found that it was not as beautiful as the propaganda, the labor was very hard, the health and life could not be guaranteed, and they wanted to flee back to the country, but they found that they were closely guarded by the Japanese army, and they would be shot and killed, and they had to come and be safe, and the bitter water swallowed themselves.
Floods flood in summer and autumn, and wolves howl in winter.
<h1>Orphans are victims of the catastrophe of war</h1>
On August 9, 1945, the Soviet Red Army quickly sent troops to the northeast, hundreds of thousands of Kwantung Army disintegrated in an instant, and the military, political, industrial, commercial, and pioneer people who lacked Japanese military protection were forced to retreat urgently, concentrate on the coast, and return to China by boat, resulting in millions of refugees.
Day and night, they trekked through mountains and rivers to port cities thousands of miles away, some starving, cold, sick, and dying on the way, leaving their children abandoned in wilderness, streets, stations and docks.
Others leave their children in Chinese to raise them in order to prevent their children from dying of disease.
According to statistics, the total number of deaths of the "pioneer group" after the war exceeded 78,500, of which 11,520 committed suicide.
Of the remaining Japanese immigrants, only a small number returned to Japan after their ordeal.
<h1>The encounter of orphans is unimaginable to ordinary people</h1>
Before they were adopted, some of them were ragged and skinny; Some diseases are entangled and scarred; Some are hungry and cold. The archives show that the vast majority of orphans were dying when they were adopted. At that time, the Changchun Railway Station was almost entirely Japanese, and many people could not get on the train and had to throw their children on the side of the road, and those who could speak Chinese begged the Chinese people to adopt their children.
The Chinese people said: "Adults also have scales on their bodies, and we are uncomfortable when we look at them, and the small grave bag on the artemisia tree outside is buried with children." ”
Although the situation of the Chinese people was still very difficult at that time, the desperate and dying Japanese orphans extended a benevolent hand, saved them from the brink of death, and fed them with their own milk and the food they had saved from their mouths. At the same time, we should cut back on food and clothing, and do everything possible to provide them with primary schools, middle schools, and universities, so as to cultivate them into useful talents. When they became adults, they used all their savings to arrange marriages for them and establish a family.
It was precisely the war of aggression launched by Japanese militarism that caused these children, who should have enjoyed the care of their parents, to be reduced to orphans and abandoned in a foreign country. But The Japanese orphans are lucky. Chinese people have done so with virtue, have not exchanged violence for violence, and have not resorted to violent means against the orphans of enemy countries remaining in China's territory.
Rather, it is to give them virtue, to accept them and raise them with a broad mind. After the victory of the War of Resistance, the Chinese people were still very hard, but they extended their benevolent hands, pulled them back from the ghost gate, and raised them with their own milk and the grain they had saved. At the same time, every effort is made to provide them with primary schools, middle schools, and universities, to treat them as biological children and cultivate them into useful talents.
<h1>China, which raised orphans, has won praise from around the world</h1>
The act of nurturing kindness of the Chinese Government and people has been unanimously praised by people from all walks of life in China and Japan. On 3 April 1983, Japanese Foreign Minister Shintaro Abe said in a meeting with Japanese orphans who had gone to Japan to search for relatives: "It was a mistake for Japan to launch a war of aggression, because this unfortunate war has enabled you to live in China for 38 years."
A person from Hyogo Prefecture, Japan, said: "We have a feeling of respect for China. China's humanitarian treatment and fraternity for Japanese orphans is rare in the world. ”
In October 1984, when an orphan representative met with Japanese Minister of Health and Welfare Tsunezo Watanabe in Harbin, he said: "Remembering the past is a guide to the future, and Sino-Japanese relations have had unfortunate experiences. Because of historical reasons, we orphans have endured countless hardships and are cornered in the war of aggression against China.
As we struggled before the ghost gate closed, it was Chinese and government that extended a warm hand to us, led us to our homes, gave us food and clothing, and rescued us from the brink of death. After the founding of New China, the government sent us to school and arranged jobs for us after graduation. Help us build families, have children, and live happily ever after. ”
<h1>There are still orphans left in China</h1>
In 1986, Yu Deshui, a Japanese orphan and poet in Changchun, was identified as an orphan and went to Japan in September of the same year to search for relatives. However, because the adoptive parents had no one to support, they did not apply to settle in Japan. After the death of his adoptive parents, he kept filial piety for three more years before he left Japan in 1992. Hundreds of orphans now live and work across China. Among them were government officials, workers and peasants, as well as technicians and experts and scholars. There are many reasons why they have not returned to China, but the most fundamental one is the longing for the land and people who raised them.
Yu Deshui, a Japanese orphan and poet in Changchun, was identified as an orphan in 1986 and went to look for his family in September of the same year. However, since his adoptive parents had no one to support him, he did not apply for resettlement in Japan. After the death of his adoptive parents, he kept filial piety for another three years and returned to Japan in 1992.
During his time in Japan, he could not forget his second hometown, and wrote a poem called "Homesickness": "In the heart of Fuso in China, Ping traced thousands of miles to the end of the world." Cherry blossoms are full of tears, and the soul of the night dreams to the old home. ”
In 1995, he returned to Changchun, invested in the construction of a factory, and wrote a poem Mingzhi: "Do not want to pass on the fame to future generations, and fight to call peace with blood." The world was originally full of disasters, and the sword was forged for the plough to persuade the plough to be cultivated. ”
Today, more than 90 percent of Japanese orphans have returned to Settle in Japan. They are a group sandwiched between China and Japan, they have Japanese ancestry, but they grew up in China, and they have inseparable feelings with both countries, and they are also called "remnant bang people".
About author:Di Yun, Doctor of Literature, Hong Kong cultural scholar, is currently the deputy editor-in-chief of History Spring and Autumn Network.