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In 1947, a couple held a special wedding in Japan, in which the groom was Li Xiushen from China and the bride was Reimu Noboru from Japan. It is worth mentioning that this Li Xiushen was once an anti-Japanese fighter. At this time, only two years after the end of the War of Resistance Against Japan, China and Japan were still full of hatred. Why did Li Xiushen, as a soldier who participated in the Anti-Japanese War, marry a Japanese? Where will their marriage go?
After Japan launched a full-scale war of aggression against China in 1937, it thought that China would soon surrender and then take advantage of China's abundant human resources. However, although China experienced many major defeats and lost many important cities and large territories, it never surrendered and still pinned down a large number of Japanese troops in China.
Furious, the Japanese military carried out a brutal purge of the occupied areas on the one hand and implemented the so-called "three lights" policy, and on the other hand, it continued to expand the scope of aggression to obtain scarce resources. However, this behavior led to increasingly severe international sanctions on Japan, and finally Japan simply "lifted the table" and attacked Pearl Harbor in December 1941, provoking the Pacific War.
However, after some early victories in the Pacific War, Japan began to retreat. And because Japan's front was too long, requiring a large number of troops to maintain, and at the same time suppressing domestic opposition, Japan conscripted a large number of men into the army, which led to a serious shortage of labor in Japan.
In order to solve the problem of labor shortage, Japan has put forward the so-called strategy of "feeding the war with war" and has begun to use deception and plundering in China, North Korea, Southeast Asia, and other places to send a large number of young and middle-aged laborers to various areas controlled by Japan to engage in heavy physical labor.
Li Xiushen was one of the laborers who was unfortunately taken captive to Japan, and he was originally just an ordinary villager in Hebei, because he could not bear the "three lights" policy of the Japanese army, he resolutely joined the guerrilla force of the Eighth Route Army. He charged ahead in battle, performed heroically, and killed and wounded the Japanese many times.
But unfortunately, in a fierce battle, Li Xiushen's headquarters was surrounded by Japanese troops, and Li Xiushen was finally wounded and captured and became a member of the prisoners of war. Previously, the Japanese army often used torture and killing to retaliate, but due to the serious shortage of Japanese labor in the late war, the later period mainly sent prisoners of war to various places to do hard labor.
Li Xiushen was also escorted to Qingdao, Shandong, which was then occupied by Japanese forces, and on July 28, 1944, 300 Chinese prisoners of war, including him, were forced to board the Japanese cargo ship Shinano Maru and go to Japan. Some people escaped on the road, and others were killed by the Japanese because of their resistance. Li Xiushen also managed to escape, but unfortunately could not find the opportunity.
Some of these prisoners of war used to be the Eighth Route Army and some used to be Kuomintang troops, but at this moment they all understood their fate and knew that they were going to be sent to hard labor. They naturally do not want to die of exhaustion in a foreign country, and some even want to commit suicide by jumping directly into the sea. But the Japanese were aware of this and feared that the prisoners of war would resist en masse, and simply locked all the prisoners in cabins and prevented them from moving on the deck.
During the long voyage, there could have been seasickness, and the prisoners of war were locked in dull and filthy cabins, unable to move freely, and the atmosphere in the cabins could be imagined. The Japanese only feed them the worst food and do not give them medicine when they are sick. The harsh environment caused several people to become seriously ill, and the Japanese, fearing that they would spread the disease, simply threw them into the sea.
Li Xiushen barely managed to make it until the ship arrived in Japan, but this was not the end of the suffering, but only the beginning. Upon arrival in Japan, they were stuffed into dull "canning trains" and traveled from the port to the place where they worked. After a few days in the dark on the train, Li Xiushen finally arrived at the place where he worked, the Hanaoka Zhongshan Liao.
When Li Xiushen and the others came here, a group of prisoners of war were already working here. Among these prisoners of war were not only Chinese, but also Koreans and Americans, and the Japanese overseers treated them "equally", beating and cursing at every turn, and from time to time they would be arrested and tortured in prison. Since then, several groups of Chinese prisoners of war have been sent here, bringing the number to about a thousand. These men were tasked with building an artificial dark river next to the copper mine to drain the wastewater from copper mining, and they later undertook to modify the channel.
The prisoners of war were treated no better here than on ships, nominally they were workers of the Kashima Construction Company, but in fact slaves. Although the Japanese set up labor management organizations and allowed prisoners of war to serve as subordinate managers, in fact these lower management had no power, the superintendents and various middle and high-level positions were all held by the Japanese, and all the power of life and death was controlled by the Japanese.
At this time, in order to supply materials to the front as much as possible, Japan implemented a material control system, and there was an extreme shortage of domestic food, and the average Japanese civilian still did not have enough to eat, so what kind of treatment the prisoners of war could get can be imagined.
The laborers worked 15 to 16 hours a day, but the food was only acorn noodles and apple pomace, and even this food was not adequately supplied, because the overseers feared that the laborers would have the strength to resist when they were full.
Laborers receive only a small amount of food every day, but they are forced to do heavy physical labor, which naturally cannot lift their spirits. However, the overseers felt that this was a sign of laziness, and it was common to whip them and insult them.
Under such abuse, the prisoners of war finally could not bear it anymore and began to privately join forces, preparing to resist. Participating in the planning of the riot were former Eighth Route Army and Kuomintang troops, as well as ordinary civilians who were abducted to Japan, and even Koreans and Americans. According to the recollections of Geng Zheng, who participated in the riot, on the eve of the riot, a young Korean came to him and said that China and North Korea are one family and should unite against the Japanese devils. And Li Xiushen, as the former Eighth Route Army, naturally also participated in the planning of the riot.
It was May 1945, Germany had surrendered, World War II was in its final stages, and Japan would actually surrender in three months. But the workers at this time naturally have no way of knowing this, not to mention that they may not survive for more than three months under such harsh conditions. And at this time, another thing happened that irritated everyone's nerves, which made the riot advance again.
At the end of May, a laborer named Xue Tongdao was so hungry that he sneaked out of the crowd while he was leaving work and ran to a nearby family to steal half a bowl of leftovers, but unfortunately was discovered by the overseer.
Subsequently, Xue Tongdao was brutally tortured, and in order to play the so-called "deterrent role", the overseers even gathered the prisoners of war and publicly executed them in front of Xue Tongdao, Xue Tongdao was beaten to a bloody blur, but the overseers laughed on the side, and Xue Tongdao was finally beaten to death by the overseers. However, this incident aroused greater anger among the workers, and more people joined the ranks of preparing for the riot.
On June 30, the long-standing grievances of laborers finally broke out, and more than 700 laborers launched a riot, known as the "Hanaoka Riot". The laborers killed several overseers and seized some of the grain, and Li Xiushen also charged forward and killed an enemy. But unfortunately, the laborers failed to destroy the enemy in Zhongshan Liao at the first time, resulting in the overseers having the opportunity to report the news.
The Japanese authorities were extremely shocked when they heard that there were laborers rioting in Japan, and mobilized a large number of military and police forces to besiege them. There were only a few hundred laborers in the riots, but the Japanese authorities mobilized tens of thousands of people to search for them. In the end, due to the lack of weapons and the laborers' unfamiliarity with the Japanese people, the riot unfortunately failed, and Li Xiushen was also arrested and imprisoned. The enemy tortured Li Xiushen and demanded that he account for the whereabouts of the others, but Li Xiushen preferred to die.
Fortunately, before the enemy could execute Li Xiushen, Japan surrendered, and the American occupation forces released Li Xiushen and others, and tried the former overseers of Hanaoka Zhongshanliao. Li Xiushen originally wanted to return to China as soon as possible, but at that time the Chinese delegation in Japan found him and hoped that he could stay in Japan to help with security work. Because Li Xiushen knows Japanese and participated in the Anti-Japanese War, he is a rare talent, and the delegation in Japan is in urgent need of manpower, so I hope he can stay.
Under the persuasion of the delegation in Japan, Li Xiushen finally decided to focus on the overall situation and stayed in Japan as a guard. Of course, there was actually another reason why he decided to stay, that is, after the war, China, the United States, Britain, and the Soviet Union had agreed to occupy Japan by division, and the delegation to Japan actually played the role of "laying a front station" for the Chinese occupation forces stationed in Japan. Li Xiushen wanted to stay to see the Japanese war criminals put on trial and see the day when the Chinese occupation forces landed in Japan.
After Li Xiushen stayed in Japan, he also came into contact with many ordinary Japanese and became familiar with some people. One day, a Japanese cleaner who had a good relationship with Li Xiushen asked Li Xiushen if he was married, and said that he could introduce him to an acquaintance, Li Xiushen thought that the other party was joking and casually agreed.
Who knew that after a few days, this cleaner really invited the Japanese girl to the place, and Li Xiushen heard that the other party had come, so he had to go over to take a look, but he had already made up his mind to refuse the other party. It's okay for him to talk to Japanese people, but he really can't accept marrying Japanese people.
After the two met, the Japanese girl introduced herself as Ling Mu Dengjiang. Li Xiushen had long decided to reject the other party, so he simply told all his experiences, from joining the Eighth Route Army to the Hanaoka Riot, he said that he killed a lot of Japanese, and if Ling Mu Dengjiang minded this, he didn't have to fall in love with himself.
Who knew that after hearing this, Ling Mu Dengjiang instead bowed to Li Xiushen and said, "Those fascists should have been killed a long time ago, you are very great." Li Xiushen was very surprised and had the idea of further interaction with Ling Mu Dengjiang. In the subsequent conversation, Li Xiushen learned the reason why Ling Mu Dengjiang said this.
It turned out that Ling Mu Dengjiang was an anti-war activist, and as early as the war, she expressed her views on stopping aggression and secretly delivered food to Chinese laborers. You must know that long before Japan launched the war of aggression against China, it launched a purge of leftists in the country, and many leftists fell under the butcher's knife of the fascist authorities. The Japanese left's hatred for the fascist authorities is no less than that of Li Xiushen, so Li Xiushen and others resisted the fascist authorities, and Ling Mudenjiang actually supported it.
After listening to Lingmu Dengjiang's experience, Li Xiushen was deeply moved, and then began further exchanges with Lingmu Dengjiang, gradually rubbing the spark of love. Finally, the two entered the palace of marriage, and in 1947, Ling Mu Dengjiang gave birth to a son, and Li Xiushen named the child Li Guozhao.
But the life of this family of three did not last long, and Li Xiushen had hoped to see the Chinese occupation troops land in Japan before he stayed in Japan, but Chiang Kai-shek transferred the troops that were supposed to be sent to Japan to fight the civil war, which led to all this finally coming to naught. In 1948, Li Xiushen received an order to escort several war criminals back to China, and soon after Li Xiushen set foot on the ship returning home under the reluctant eyes of Ling Mudengjiang.
Who knew that as soon as Li Xiushen completed his task, he was detained by the Kuomintang authorities and asked to join the Kuomintang army, and Li Xiushen naturally refused to work for the regime that launched the civil war and found an opportunity to escape. But his passport has expired and he can no longer go to Japan, so he can only return to his hometown in Hebei Province first, hoping to find another opportunity after a while.
Li Xiushen's family cried with joy when they saw Li Xiushen again, but they frowned when they heard that Li Xiushen was married to a Japanese. They were oppressed by the Japanese during the Anti-Japanese War, and they did not contact people like Ling Mudenjiang, they only felt that all Japanese were bad, and what kind of system did they become when they married the Japanese? In the end, under the strong pressure of his family, Li Xiushen had to dismiss the idea of going to Japan, and finally married a new wife.
In 1995, Li Xiushen was already full of children and grandchildren, but he could not let go of Ling Mu Dengjiang and Li Guozhao in his heart. In this year, he went to Japan as a witness to the atrocities of the Japanese army, and complained in court about the atrocities of the Japanese army. And here, he met a middle-aged man and a gray-haired old lady, and it took a while for Li Xiushen to recognize that this old lady was Ling Mu Dengjiang, and this middle-aged man was his son Li Guozhao! Several people cried relatively bitterly.
After that, Li Xiushen returned to China because he still had a family in China, but he has maintained contact with Ling Mu Dengjiang and Li Guozhao since then. In an interview with reporters, Li Xiushen wrote the following words: "May China and Japan be friendly and live in peace from generation to generation." May the Hanaoka lawsuit be resolved as soon as possible. I hope that Ms. Lingmu will come to China to see it as soon as possible..."