In the early morning of January 4, 2013, two South Korean diplomatic consuls were desperately guarding a Chinese man at Mokpo Airport in Seoul, South Korea, anxiously waiting for a flight in a borderless security zone.
As soon as the Chinese man boarded the plane on his front foot, a Japanese action team on the back foot arrived at the airport and was empty. South Korean leftists who rushed to hear the news surrounded the Members of the Japanese side, and some even protested on the spot.
The reason why the Chinese man let the Japanese chase and intercept him was because he did something that many people wanted to do but did not dare to do. That is: on December 26, 2011, he successfully fled South Korea by burning the Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo, Japan, and only a dozen days later, he threw four Molotov cocktails at the Japanese Embassy in South Korea.
This man is Liu Qiang, a Chinese man who dares to love and dare to hate.
Why would he do such a crazy thing as burning the Yasukuni Shrine? How did he escape to South Korea? What kind of situation will he face after returning to China? Time flickered, 11 years have passed, what kind of life is Liu Qiang living now?
1. The son of the general, recognized as a genius
Liu Qiang was born in Shanghai on June 20, 1974, his family is happy, his life is happy, and his happy life was exchanged for his ancestors' lives in the War of Resistance.
Liu Qiang's ancestral home is the Gangshan area of Anfujing, Jiangxi, and his grandfather is called Liu Beisheng, who is an outstanding anti-Japanese hero who has made great military achievements.
In September 1928, he joined the Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, joined the Communist Party of China in 1934, experienced five anti-"encirclement and suppression" struggles in the Central Soviet Region, and in 1942 was appointed as the commander of the Forty-eighth Regiment of the Sixteenth Brigade of the New Fourth Army.
It is just that there are unfortunate storms in the sky, the War of Resistance Against Japan is coming to an end, and the civil war has begun.
In 1945, Liu Beisheng led his troops to engage in a white-knife battle with the enemy in the Xindeng Anti-Stubborn Campaign, and was shot in many places on his body and died heroically, at the age of 30.
Liu Qiang's grandmother was a senior commander of the New Fourth Army, Zhou Zikun, and was also a hero of a generation.
Liu Qiang's grandparents are heroes who have dedicated their lives to the founding of New China, and are well-deserved "devotees".
On the contrary, Liu Qiang's grandmother was a victim of the War of Resistance Against Japan.
His grandmother, whose original name was Lee Nam-young, was Korean, and when she was a teenager, the Japanese army invaded South Korea, and she was forced to become a comfort woman with the army, and was later taken to China.
During those days, she was tortured day and night, both physically and mentally. It was not until 1945, when Japan announced its surrender, that it was liberated.
Then, lingering, she chose to change her name and surname, changed her name to Yang Ying, and stayed in China. It has also buried this inhuman encounter deep in my heart. In 1985, his grandmother, who had brought up Liu Qiang since childhood, told him about her experience of being forcibly recruited by the Japanese army as a "comfort woman" on the occasion of her death.
Liu Qiang's great-grandfather, Li Shengwu, was a former middle school teacher who was forcibly ordered to teach Japanese when his hometown became a Japanese colony. With national integrity, he wanted to leave a little seed and culture for his motherland, and privately still taught Korean to the students, but after being discovered by the Japanese patrol, he was arrested and put into a torture station and tortured to death.
Liu Qiang, who was only 11 years old at the time, although he was sad about his grandmother's suffering, did not have the seeds of anti-war and hatred of Japan in his heart.
In his second year of junior high school, he and one of his father's friends, Bai Yang, watched a play, "Confucius, Jesus, Beatles Lennon." Bai Yang is a Taiwanese writer who once wrote "The Ugly Chinese", he used his spicy brushstrokes to mock the Chinese people who were imprisoned by conservative concepts, exposing the ugliness of the family, hoping that the Chinese could straighten their waists and live with dignity. Liu Qiang, who read this book, germinated a critical consciousness. This also made him have a strong interest in Japan, and after graduating from high school, he attended Japanese language classes and made many Japanese friends in the class.
Liu Qiang has been working very hard, psychology course translator, simultaneous interpreter, member of the American Advanced Health Association (IASH), music therapy registered student of the Los Angeles Conservatory of Music, and the 19th generation of Zhang Sanfeng Taijiquan. He used to be a foreign language trainer in Guangzhou New Oriental, wrote English learning books and recorded and released his personal English record "Fluent English Singing Out". He is fluent in six languages, including English, Japanese, and Spanish, and has obtained the status of an internationally certified psychotherapist through self-study.
In the circle of friends, he is recognized as a genius, and it is precisely because of his hard work and studiousness that he has learned to look at problems "in two" when he was educated in new ideas since he was a child, but he was born in the family of revolutionary martyrs, and he was born with a patriotic sense of justice in his bones.
At this time, Liu Qiang, even though he hated Japanese militarism incomparably, was still extremely friendly to the Japanese. He even appreciates Japanese culture and once had a Japanese girlfriend. In his view, these ordinary Japanese people have nothing to do with the past history.
2. Go to Japan to support the disaster areas
In 2011, the "311 Earthquake" in Japan occurred, with a magnitude of 9.0, the fifth largest earthquake in history. The huge tsunami caused by the earthquake caused devastating damage to Iwate, Miyagi, Fukushima and other places in northeastern Japan, and triggered a nuclear leak at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant.
Liu Qiang, who had experience in wenchuan earthquake rescue and had professional psychological knowledge, decided to volunteer in Japan, but his decision was opposed by people around him.
His friends and relatives around him said: "The Japanese have something good, pups, bad guys, you have money and don't help Chinese, go help the Japanese, you traitor." ”
But Liu Qiang said: "The Japanese are very good, they are also people, since they are people, they should help them." ”
Despite everyone's support, in October 2011, Liu Qiang, who complained with Virtue, embarked on a "rescue trip" to Japan alone.
After arriving in Japan, Liu Qiang's first stop for himself was to study at a language school for three months, familiarize himself with the local customs and customs, and then carry out rescue in the disaster area.
This is his first time to come to Japan, the first time to contact so many ordinary Japanese people at zero distance, Liu Qiang's first impression of Japan is neat and orderly, every convenience store has a toilet, and it is clean and clean, very convenient. The security is very good and the people are polite.
When he first arrived, liu qiang was very touched by the civilization and order of the local society, and also left a very positive impression on him. But what happened after that completely overturned all this and completely reversed Liu Qiang's fate.
3. With an inclusive heart, I have been inspired by the right wing
Wakayama, near Osaka, was once the birthplace of the 61st Wing of the Japanese invasion of China, and inside a shrine dedicated to the soldiers of the squadron who died during World War II. The 61st Company was the invading unit that had committed the heinous crime in the first place.
Liu Qiang, who had just gone to a nearby language school to study, inadvertently saw a sacrifice text on the stone tablet at the entrance of the shrine, and the description on it greatly annoyed him.
The shrine's memorial text described the evil deeds of the 61st Wing as a heroic epic: turning to the north and south of Great China, East Asia, and finally burning the military flag, returning to China in glory, etc., this incident deeply stimulated Liu Qiang.
Since then, Liu Qiang has also found that the attitude of many ordinary people in Japan towards history is also very polarized. Some people hate and reflect on Japanese militarism, but others, influenced by Japan's right-wing ideology, hold deep prejudices against China.
He saw with his own eyes that some descendants of the Japanese army invading China were drunk and preached militarism in front of him.
Once, in a language school, a Chinese student was reprimanded by a local Japanese teacher for being late, and when the Japanese student was late, the teacher just said two words and gently let it go.
In the face of this scene, Liu Qiang could not sit still, he stood up and argued with the teacher.
He asked the teacher, "Do you have 61 Wing at home?" ”
The teacher said gloriously, "Yes! What's wrong? ”
"You have to apologize to Chinese, you are a family member of the 61st Wing, the 61st Wing has fought three battles in Changsha and done so many bad things, you should apologize to the Chinese."
The other party said without remorse: "This is our duty, this is our task, what's wrong?" ”
After this quarrel, Liu Qiang thoroughly understood that the Japanese did not realize their mistakes at all, and whether they were then or now, they did not have the slightest remorse for the crime of invading China.
The most hateful thing is that the word "real" has long ceased to exist in Japanese history textbooks. They try to make those ugly acts disappear by falsifying history and covering up the facts.
The evil deeds created by their invasion of China have become their capital for showing off.
Since then, Liu Qiang has often told his classmates from all over the world about the lives of his grandfather and grandmother in the name of practicing Japanese, and denounced the crimes of the Japanese army that invaded China. When he met some Japanese students, he was even more talkative.
Soon, the school was going to hold a party, and Liu Qiang was invited to perform on stage because of his versatility, which was an excellent opportunity for him. Therefore, in front of all the teachers and students of the school, Liu Qiang, while performing, told everyone the true situation of the Nanjing Massacre, and the school was furious after hearing it, and expelled Liu Qiang overnight for "often disturbing the teaching order".
Although he was expelled, this did not affect his rescue plan to go to the earthquake-stricken area, and after donating blood at a blood collection point, Liu Qiang went with several Japanese volunteers to Fukushima, Japan, which had just experienced the disaster.
At that time, Fukushima was almost a "dead city" due to a nuclear leak caused by the earthquake. At the risk of nuclear radiation, Liu Qiang and volunteers went deep into the front line to carry out rescue work. In some of the surrounding villages, he also met many simple Japanese farmers. During the conversation, Liu Qiang experienced the kindness and friendship between people from them.
Because of Liu Qiang's outstanding performance in the rescue work, he was once reported by local media in Japan as a Chinese who truly loved Japan and the Japanese.
4. Furious hair rushed to the crown and burned the Yasukuni Shrine
At the end of 2011, Liu Qiang ended nearly 3 months of psychological assistance volunteers and volunteer teachers for the East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami, and was ready to return to China. It was this news that completely changed his life.
On December 18, Liu Qiang saw then-Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda in the media protesting the commemorative statue of the comfort women set up in front of the Japanese Embassy in South Korea and publicly denying that the comfort women were sex slaves of the Japanese army.
Subsequently, a number of Members of the Japanese Diet paid a high-profile visit to the Yasukuni Shrine, nakedly provocatively about resolving the issue of comfort women.
The Yasukuni Shrine, also known as the Tokyo Spirit-Summoning Shrine, is dedicated to soldiers and military dependents who died fighting for Japan, most of whom were officers and soldiers killed in the invasion of China and the Pacific War. Those war criminals who committed heinous crimes became the warriors whom everyone praised.
This made Liu Qiang think of his grandmother, who brought him up since he was a child. There are still living comfort women who have closed their eyes, lost their hearts and minds, and ignored the international community.
The vast majority of the women who were humiliated at that time already hated Jiuquan, who could have imagined that they had already been ruined by the Japanese invading army for the rest of their lives, and would suffer such insults after death! This made him furious. Before leaving, it was decided to leave a mark on the Yasukuni Shrine, a symbol of Japanese militarism.
Originally, Liu Qiang just wanted to throw paint on the gate of the Yasukuni Shrine, but one of his Japanese friends said, "Are you a child?" Spray any paint, you burn it! He was a relative of this Japanese friend, whose grandfather had died in China in the war, and she hated Japanese militarism.
After this small talk, Liu Qiang decided to burn the Yasukuni Shrine. So over the next five days, he conducted three reconnaissance sites against the Yasukuni Shrine.
He found that the worshippers who had gone to visit the Yasukuni Shrine were crowded and heavily guarded, and there were more than ten security guards in the light, and as soon as the camera was raised, there were security guards to drink. Also because of the close proximity to the Emperor's Palace, the heavily armed Tokyo police patrolling nearby are almost 3 steps and 5 steps. Liu Qiang only prepared a knife and 5 liters of gasoline.
After many investigations, he finally found a surveillance dead end, and there was a small side door to the left of the Divine Gate, which was not open to tourists and was a good place to sneak in. He bought 5 plastic large-mouth drink bottles of gasoline nearby. 5 Korean margare glass bottles are used to make flame bottles.
Because all the Japanese soldiers who went to Invade China at that time had to pass through a 13-meter-high, independent so-called shrine gate and enter it to receive the blessing of their emperor. Therefore, Liu Qiang set the focus of the burning of the Yasukuni Shrine at this gate, he did not want to hurt people, he only wanted to give them a mark on the shrine that symbolized Japanese militarism.
The time was set at 4:00 a.m. on December 26, 2011, which coincided with the death of Liu Qiang's grandmother, that is, to commemorate the death of his grandfather as an anti-Japanese general of the New Fourth Army on the eve of the victory of the anti-Japanese war, and also to let the Japanese militarist terrorism begin to "die" completely. (Japanese "four" and "dead" homophone)
At 2:00 a.m. on the 26th, Liu Qiang first packed his luggage and went to the Tokyo subway station, because he did not find a luggage storage box, he could only use luck to put the luggage next to the garbage heap, and then went to the convenience store to buy a masked scarf, and then he returned to the hotel to change into a black night clothes and check out. And ordered a taxi at the guesthouse, which is a 5-minute walk from the shrine gate.
On three occasions, he poured the gasoline prepared in advance on the wooden door, pedestal and national emblem of the Yasukuni Shrine.
This was followed by a video introduction to the selfie:
"My name is Liu Qiang, and I am the grandson of Liu Beisheng, commander of the 48th Regiment of the 16th Brigade of the New Fourth Army's Anti-Japanese Hero. The place I came to today is the Yasukuni Shrine in Japan, the place where those Tojo Hideki war criminals were worshipped, and I want to declare today: The New Fourth Army will win! Victory is ours! ”
After speaking, he looked up and sang: "The big knife cuts the heads of the devils, kill!" ”
At 4 a.m., he threw a flame bottle at the door plaque engraved with the words "Yasukuni Shrine." The flame of the flame bottle is very beautiful, like a fire dragon in the darkness, spewing a long flame, instantly engulfing the four words "Yasukuni Shrine".
In order to prevent the fire from being saved too "in time", he also lit the fire box next to the divine gate.
At this moment, Liu Qiang felt that he was his grandfather, and he also had a bad breath for the millions of people in China who died under the bayonets of the Japanese army, and he also comforted his grandmother's spirit in heaven.
It is also officially because of Liu Qiang's burning of the Yasukuni Shrine this time, in every shot of the "Ghost Shrine" filmed in Japan in the future, the door has been opened, and they have never photographed the door closing again. Because on the gate, there is always a scar left by Chinese on it.
5. Flee South Korea and burn the Japanese embassy
After the arson, Liu Qiang, who was extremely nervous, rushed all the way to the hotel where the taxi was waiting, took a taxi booked in advance, arrived at the Tokyo subway station and found that the luggage was intact, so he took the luggage and went all the way to Tokyo Narita Airport, he was worried about being photographed by surveillance cameras when he escaped, and also changed into a straight suit on the car, and threw away all the coats, shoes and hats when committing the crime.
After more than three hours of waiting and suffering at the airport, the outbound flight taken by Liu Qiang at 9:10 finally took off and flew directly to Incheon Airport in South Korea.
On the other hand, after the Japanese side extinguished the fire, it found a strong smell of gasoline, judged it to be arson, and began a comprehensive arrest of the arsonist, and designated him as the "most wanted criminal".
The Japanese, who have been unable to find the murderer, suspect South Korea, and they suspect that South Korea is retaliating against them because of the comfort women incident. So Japan began to "shell" South Korea on the Internet, and the people of the two countries also quarreled.
Now that he had made the anti-Japanese start, Liu Qiang made a trip for himself to remember the family martyrs: first to Mokpo and Daegu, South Korea, where his grandmother had expected during the anti-Japanese war, and then to the "Seodaemun Penal Office" in Seoul, where he knew that his great-grandfather was killed. The current Seodaemun Penal Office has built a historical memorial hall.
In the memorial hall, Liu Qiang saw: a series of historical scenes truly reproduced with wax figures and torture instrument models, which once again stinged him and once again provoked his feelings of home and country and anti-Japanese sentiments.
Coupled with the fact that he was in a foreign country, he often suspected that there was "Japanese spies" around him, and his great fear made him feel that there was nowhere to hide. He instinctively realized that he would only be safe if he exposed himself to the public.
Liu Qiang first took the initiative to contact dozens of media outlets, saying that he was the arsonist of the Yasukuni Shrine, but no one believed that the Chinese tourist would be Japan's "most wanted criminal.". So he himself posted on the Internet that "I put the fire, I am Chinese, I will be responsible." But the Japanese government did not pay attention to him at all, and regarded him as a "madman".
On January 7, 2012, Liu Qiang contacted a friend in China: "I am Liu Qiang, now in South Korea, the other day burned japan's Yasukuni Shrine, please search the Internet for 'Yasukuni Shrine Liu Qiang' paste forward, Japanese gendarmes are now searching me everywhere, please Torah!" ”
On January 8, Liu Qiang, who was cornered, decided to risk his own life, letting the whole world know that he had burned the Yasukuni Shrine and letting the media take the initiative to find him.
On this day, he came to the door of the Japanese Embassy in South Korea, threw 4 Molotov cocktails at it, and did not flee, but took the initiative to stand where he was, waiting for the police to arrest him.
When the police arrested him, Liu Qiang was still chanting: "How many Asians have been killed by Japan before, how many people have been slaughtered, I will never succumb to violence." At the police station, Liu Qiang faced the Japanese media, and he opened his clothes, revealing two big words that had already been written on his clothes: Apologize, and generously admit that the fire of the Yasukuni Shrine was set by himself.
Because of this incident, there was once a question on the Internet: "Chinese can you go to the Yasukuni Shrine?" ”
An answer to a platform appeared: you can go, but please make three preparations.
- Bring a barrel of petrol.
- Bring an igniter.
- Put a fire on the plane and run, then go to the next destination to him!
6. Tried in Korea, Hero of China and South Korea
After media reports, these two arson cases that shocked the world made Liu Qiang famous.
The South Korean people did not regard Liu Qiang as an arsonist who provoked diplomatic relations between South Korea and Japan because Liu Qiang set fire to the Japanese embassy on South Korean soil, but regarded him as a hero, and some people even asked for liu qiang to be awarded during the trial.
In the end, the Seoul Central District Court imposed a relatively lenient punishment on the grounds that Liu Qiang "did not cause special damage": sentenced Liu Qiang to 10 months in prison.
There is no doubt that Liu Qiang is a big hero in the eyes of Koreans, and such a move is undoubtedly helping them avenge and anger.
On November 6, 2012, Liu Qiang, who had completed his sentence, was taken to the procuratorate in Seoul. He thought he would get the news of his release after completing his sentence, and then he learned that the Japanese government was constantly exerting pressure to pass the "extradition regulations for criminal offenders signed by Japan and South Korea" to bring Liu Qiang back to Japan for a new trial.
South Korean authorities have officially launched an "extradition review" of Liu Qiang. Once passed, he will be sent to Japan for trial and face a longer prison sentence.
Of course, the Chinese government will never abandon this hero, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has made it clear that it hopes that the ROK side will handle Liu Qiang's case fairly and properly, and demands that Liu Qiang be treated as a political prisoner and sent back to China to visit him.
During the review, anti-Japanese groups in Seoul, South Korea, demonstrated outside the High Court to demand that authorities refuse to extradite Chinese Liu Qiang to Japan.
South Korea also sent a luxurious 10-member team of lawyers (7 Korean lawyers, 2 Chinese lawyers and 1 American lawyer) to insist that the case was a political crime.
Finally, on January 3, 2013, with the help of the South Korean people and the motherland, the Seoul High Court ruled on the case not to extradite Liu Qiang to Japan because Liu Qiang protested to Japan on the basis of the "comfort women" issue, was a "political prisoner", and was deported back to China.
To prevent accidents, the Chinese government immediately demanded that South Korea send Liu Qiang back to China on January 4. And that's where it happened.
At that time, a reporter interviewed Liu Qiang and asked: "Why did you do this back then?"?
Liu Qiang answered:
I want to show it to the Japanese people and let them see the strong spirit of Chinese.
I want to show Chinese, through my own weak strength, to further awaken the spirit of the Chinese nation.
7. Wife and daughter are separated, and severe depression
Liu Qiang, who regained his freedom, thought that he would be comforted after returning to the motherland, but he never thought that he had become a "neuropathy" in the eyes of others.
He found himself on the Internet that he had become the focus of heated discussion, with mixed public praise and criticism and abuse. Some people even think that his behavior is sensationalism and rumors are rife.
This made Liu Qiang, who was deeply trapped in the whirlpool of public opinion, overwhelmed for a while. What surprised him even more was that his friends and relatives also began to gradually alienate him.
In their eyes, Liu Qiang is no longer the polite and decent English teacher of the past, but has become a "sensitive" and violent "arsonist".
Because he could not understand Liu Qiang's behavior, his wife moved out of the house with his six-year-old daughter, and his father also had to break off relations with him, and the originally happy family was instantly torn apart.
This made Liu Qiang, who had just experienced a year of fear and helplessness in a foreign country, completely despair.
Since then, Liu Qiang has been alone at home every day, lying in bed, losing interest in everything, and he has professional psychological knowledge to realize that he has suffered from major depression, but he can't find an outlet for self-help, and sometimes there are even "Japanese spies" monitoring his hallucinations.
In this way, Liu Qiang lost his job, lost his family, and passed nearly a year in a blur.
On December 26, 2013, the first anniversary of Liu Qiang's burning of the Yasukuni Shrine, he was watching TV at home and happened to see the news of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's visit to the Yasukuni Shrine.
This news suddenly made his heart die like ashes, felt the stimulation and passion that he had been missing for a long time, and seemed to have found a way out of self-help, he felt that he was not wrong, and this news was the best arrangement given to him by heaven.
Since then, Liu Qiang has embarked on his new patriotic anti-Japanese campaign, this time choosing a nonviolent and unorganized approach.
Every week, he would go to the gate of the Japanese Consulate in Guangzhou to perform "theatrical performances", and sometimes he would put on the military uniform he used to perform in the choir and sing patriotic songs such as "The March of the Big Knife". Sometimes he would take off his shirt and display the four big characters of "Jing ZhongGuo" tattooed on his back. Calligraphy works such as "Japan's Apologies and Compensation", "China's Rise", "Return My Rivers and Mountains", and "Jia Wu Snow Shame" will also be displayed.
Liu Qiang's practices made onlookers feel that he was a "mentally ill person", and almost all the units that hired him drew a clear line with him. Even the New Fourth Army Descendants Choir, which had always attached great importance to him, reluctantly expelled him.
Liu Qiang, who is "crazy", "mentally ill", "has no overall view", and "sensational clown" in the eyes of others, is still the big hero she admires in the eyes of her daughter, and her family has begun to understand him little by little...
Liu Qiang also gradually gained inner peace through this different path of self-healing, and his depression slowly recovered. He is happy to do what he is willing to do in his heart and will be responsible for it.
He also set himself a new goal for the past two years, creating a research association on Ryukyu, the main purpose of which was to support the Ryukyu independence movement and break away from Japan.
He said: In the years to come, it will still carry out patriotic and anti-Japanese activities without hesitation, until the Japanese Government can face up to the crimes committed in the war, face up to the issue of comfort women, and apologize to the countries and peoples that have been invaded. He said: Since I joined the revolution, I have never thought of leaving myself a way back.
Afterword:
It is also true that Liu Qiang's arson behavior was deliberate, but it is undeniable that his original position was just, and he only wanted to make the Japanese face up to that period of history through his own strength, avenge the martyrs who died on the mainland, and be a Chinese man with blood and conscience.
Japan wants to cover up the crimes it has committed by denying it, or even by delaying time, and our hatred for Japanese militarism as sons and daughters of China has gone deep into the marrow of the bones, and we must stand up our backbone, not forget the national shame, and revitalize China is our eternal mission.
In ancient times, I was not born, I was not born in the old times, and I was not born in the old times, and I have made a deep affection in this world. Born in a prosperous world, when it does not live up to the prosperity, this life is willing to send China with an inch of heart, and give the years to the mountains and rivers.