Talked, talked, bullets rained down on the battlefield, and the negotiating table was full of words and swords, and three years passed unconsciously. In the past three years, the soldiers have also suffered countless deaths and injuries. However, all this is finally coming to an end, and the soldiers can finally return home triumphantly.
It was 1953 and it was a memorable year. Because China and the United Nations military finally reached an agreement, the peace agreement ushered in the moment of final signing. The Korean War ended, and the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea was finally won. After several decades of civil war, war of resistance against Japan, war of liberation, war to resist the United States and aid Korea, the people of Chinese finally looked forward to true peace.
For more than three years, the volunteer soldiers braved the cold that had not been encountered in a hundred years, dressed in thin cotton clothes, and fought with fried noodles and snow. Even though he died in battle and died of frostbite and illness, he never wanted to shake his faith and take half a step back, in order to wait for the day of peace. Now that the peace agreement was finally signed, it was worth everything for the volunteers and all the Chinese.
Zhang Rongqing in his later years
Just when peace came, and the volunteers were looking forward to returning home victoriously, one person had a very complicated feeling. Because he had worked hard and done his duty. Now, he could not enjoy the fruits of victory with his comrades-in-arms, but was to be sent back to China in advance.
His name was Zhang Rongqing, and he was only 15 years old at the time. Although he was young, he had a fearless spirit, obeyed the instructions and arrangements on the battlefield, and although he did not make great achievements in fighting, he also fulfilled his responsibilities and also applied to join the Communist Party of China. Before going to the front line, i also wrote a letter and carried it with me just in case. Just such a person, can you imagine that he would actually be a Japanese?
At the beginning of 1950, the North Korean army was unstoppable. Victory was in sight, but at this moment, the United Nations army led by the United States joined the battlefield, and the situation was reversed. In order to seek strategic buffer and seek peace, China agreed to north Korea's request for assistance and sent volunteer troops across the Yalu River to fight to resist the United States and aid Korea. But those who had confidence in China at that time may have been our own people. In the eyes of the United States, China's combat effectiveness at that time was not worth mentioning at all.
Jang Young-ching in The Korean War
The gap in strength is also self-aware, and the country expects that this operation will inevitably lose a lot, so every soldier will be asked to write a family letter before leaving. If the family did not receive the letter, it proves that he is still alive; if the letter is sent back to his hometown, it means that he has died tragically.
In fact, Zhang Rongqing was a soldier in the 38th Army at that time, although this was a Chinese army, but there were also Japanese soldiers. These Japanese soldiers were not of good origin and were the targets of hostility. Because they did not voluntarily join the Chinese army, but were prisoners of the Japanese army that invaded China during the War of Resistance. However, what is different from the Japanese fascists is that most of them are actually not volunteered to serve as soldiers, but most of them are forced to join the army, but because they are always members of the Japanese army invading China, they will still be hated as well. However, Zhang Rongqing was different from these people.
At that time, there were clear regulations that although the Japanese soldiers retained in China were not inherently bad, they were not allowed to be sent to the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea. However, it was precisely because Zhang Rongqing was different from them that he was able to join the volunteer army smoothly and was not allowed to cross the river like other Japanese in China.
Zhang Rongqing, whose original name was Kei Sahara, was born in Fukuoka, Japan, and he is absolutely Japanese from the bloodline, without a trace of Chinese ancestry. At that time, Bushido was popular in Japan, and his immediate family members were also Japanese samurai, which was a standard samurai family. But there was one exception, and it was his father. Although his father was born into a samurai family, he was not interested in samurai and chose to pursue a career in mineral analysis. But in the context of the popularity of Bushido in Japan and the family being a samurai family, he and his father have not been understood by their families and have been ostracized at every turn.
After his father insisted on not being a samurai, in order not to continue to be excluded, he obeyed the company's arrangement and was assigned to China. Zhang Rongqing, who was only five years old, left Japan with his parents. However, at that time, Zhang Rongqing followed his parents to the "puppet manchukuo". Although it belongs to northeast China, it has become a japanese colony, so the circle that Zhang Rongqing contacts at this time still basically belongs to Japan, and there are very few Chinese around him.
In 1945, the Japanese emperor announced unconditional surrender, and the northeast was successfully recovered by China, and Japanese companies naturally had no foothold in the northeast. However, Zhang Rongqing's father suddenly fell seriously ill and died soon after. On his deathbed, his father entrusted one of his Chinese apprentices to arrange to send him back to China. However, before the apprentice could send him back to Japan, he was arrested for being convicted of treason during the War of Resistance.
Young Zhang Rongqing
The sudden death of his father and the arrest of his apprentice made Zhang Rongqing's family have no conditions to return to Japan. With no place to live, they could only wander all the way to Liaoning. Fortunately, one of the employers finally accepted them, and the mother worked as a weaver for the people, and she worked long-term work to earn a living.
Such a life is indeed hard, but fortunately it also allows Zhang Rongqing to understand China more deeply. Employers and people around them knew that they were Japanese, but after hearing about their experiences and not having a bad heart, they chose to reject them and chose to accept them. A few years later, Zhang Rongqing, who had been working hard and complaining about ma li, gradually won the affirmation of his employer, and the remuneration he received also increased.
At the same time, the people around them also became increasingly close, and offered to teach them to speak Chinese and learn Chinese culture. Zhang Rongqing did not know when or whether he would be able to return to Japan, and at the same time, although his life was hard, he was becoming more and more comfortable. He slowly learned to speak Chinese, accepted Chinese culture, and because of his excellent performance, he obtained the status of a Chinese farmer, and gradually regarded China as a second motherland.
After becoming a Chinese farmer, Zhang Rongqing's identity was also changed. He went from a Japanese man with no place to live, like a rat on the street, to a handyman who worked hard all day under the fence and had no food, to a "Chinese farmer" who owned his own land. And Zhang Rongqing's heart has also changed. He knew that the Japanese fascist behavior was wrong, and he could not just ask for food and clothing, but wanted to join the People's Liberation Army and seek the welfare of the people. Because the land he now obtains is also given by the People's Liberation Army.
The peasants were given the land
But his age at this time was not enough to join the military, but he did not want to miss this opportunity. He deliberately said that he was a few years older and successfully joined the Northeast Democratic Coalition Army. Later, it was reorganized into the Chinese People's Liberation Army, subordinate to the Four Fields, and participated in the Liberation War, fighting in the three major battles, so Zhang Rongqing's name was also written in the "History of the Four Fields".
At this time, Zhang Rongqing already thought that he was a Chinese, a well-deserved soldier of the Chinese People's Liberation Army. Therefore, in the conscription to resist us aggression and aid Korea, he chose to enlist in the Korean War. When filling in the place of origin, he did not hesitate to write about Liaoning, China.
From enlistment in the army in 1948 to the end of the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea in 1953, five years of military career, because Zhang Rongqing obeyed the arrangement, fought without fear of life and death, and at the same time submitted an application to join the party. Not to mention that he was fluent in Chinese and honest, so no one would have thought that he would be a Japanese. But coincidentally, just when the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea was about to be victorious, his mother was critically ill. According to the regulations, the families of the fighters were sick and the local government needed to go to the condolences. When her mother died, she said in Japanese, "I want to go home", which exposed the truth that their family was actually Japanese.
Zhang Rongqing returned to China
Although Zhang Rongqing was meritorious in battle and not bad in nature, he was repatriated and then arranged to be sent back to Japan. He was less than 21 years old. Although he returned to the motherland, he seemed strange and always thought that he belonged to China and was Chinese people's liberation army. Later, although his name was changed back to his real name, he still called himself Zhang Rongqing.
Since then, his work has always been devoted to the cause of Sino-Japanese friendship, and although there is often political and economic friction between China and Japan, he has always chosen to fight for China's interests and has no regard for criticism of him in Japan. He always insisted that he was Chinese, and it was inevitable that he would be insulted in Japan. After repeated abuses and condemnations, he also admitted that he did doubt his identity and could not say which side he belonged to, but he always tried to maintain Sino-Japanese friendship and fight for China's interests. Whenever someone asks him which country he belongs to, he will firmly say that China is my hometown.
Zhang Rongqing kept his own photographs of Chinese soldiers
In his old age, he returned to China again as he wished, and instructed: "When I die, please bring half of my ashes back to northeast China, because that is the hometown where my soul is haunted..." "I am Sahara Hui, I am also Zhang Rongqing, I am a glorious soldier of the Chinese People's Liberation Army..."
On June 24, 2021, Mr. Zhang Rongqing passed away at the age of 88.