Despite her family's opposition, she insisted on marrying a man from another country who already had a family lineage, and Miss Rich was expelled from her home by her parents and lived a displaced life with her five children. Years later, with his son to search for a husband, what he got was that the man had empathized and set up another door..... In just a few words, a woman's tragic life is over. This is Guo Moruo's Japanese wife - Tomiko Sato (Guo Anna).
Romantic and bitter exoticism
In 1914, Guo Moruo went to Japan to study, due to the continuous warlord wars at home, and often encountered ethnic discrimination in other countries, coupled with academic pressure, which made Guo Moruo very depressed for a time, and even fell ill and was hospitalized. It is precisely for this reason that Guo Moruo met Tomiko Sato.
Group photo of Guo Moruo studying in Japan (front row, middle)
According to records, Tomiko Sato originally came from a famous and prestigious family in Japan, and her grandfather was the founder and first president of Hokkaido University. His father was originally an engineer who graduated from Hokkaido University, and later became a pastor because of his Christianity. After graduating from Naozuna School in 1914, Tomiko Sato's mother arranged her marriage, but she resolutely refused and ran away from home, and came to Tokyo alone to work as a nurse at St. Luke's Hospital in Kyobashi Ward, wanting to dedicate her life to charity.
Tomiko Sato
In August 1916, Guo Moruo was admitted to St. Luke's Hospital in Kyobashi Ward, Tokyo, due to illness, accompanied by more than a dozen people, all students. Tomiko Sato came to see the excitement and greeted Guo Moruo, and Guo Moruo opened the heart field at once. In fact, at the beginning of the month, Guo Moruo came to St. Luke's Hospital in Jingqiao District for dealing with the aftermath of his friend Chen Longji, and he accidentally saw Tomiko Sato, who had white skin.
Therefore, Guo Moruo pretended to be calm and went to Sato Tomiko to get an X-ray, so as to see Sato Tomiko more. A week later, when Tomiko Sato sent Guo an X-ray, she attached a letter written in English. Guo Moruo, who received the letter from Tomiko Sato, was excited, so he immediately replied to Tomiko Sato, showing his fiery love.
"When I saw you at the entrance of the hospital, I immediately felt as if I were seeing the Virgin Mary, your eyebrows radiated an incredible clean light, like a brilliant moon, your face emits holy light, your eyes can speak, your mouth is like a cherry, I am in love with you!"
Guo Moruo and Tomiko Sato while studying in Japan
Unsurprisingly, Tomiko Sato was moved, at the age of 22, it is the age when she is full of yearning for love, Tomiko Sato fell in love at once. Guo Moruo was in Okayama, Japan, and Tomiko Sato was in Tokyo, although they were thousands of miles apart, but the two exchanged letters very frequently, even five times a week when they were intensive.
Finally on the annual vacation, Guo Moruo went to Tokyo again, and he also had a big event this time, that is, he wanted Sato Tomiko to enter the girls' medical school, and let Sato Tomiko go to Okayama to prepare for the exam. Tomiko Sato agreed to this, and then resigned from the hospital and moved to Okayama to live with Guo Moruo. In addition, after being with Guo Moruo, she also asked Guo Moruo to give herself a Chinese name - Guo Anna to vote on the determination of the two to be together.
Of course, this was strongly opposed by both families, the Sato family is a strict Christian family, they cannot accept their daughter to live with a man before marriage, let alone a man who is already married, and Sato Tomiko was also punished for "breaking the door". And Guo Moruo also faced a dilemma, because he had been married in China according to his parents' orders, and when he mentioned divorce with his parents, he was reprimanded by his parents, and finally Guo Moruo chose to distance himself from his parents and wives in China.
In March of the following year, Tomiko Sato successfully enrolled in Tokyo Ichitani Women's Medical College, but just one month after entering the school, Sato Tomiko found out that she was pregnant, and she had to drop out of school and return to Okayama. Two young people have to face the cruel reality of life, if Guo Mo is an official international student, the tuition subsidy issued by the national government cannot support the expenses of a family, Guo Moruo can only write articles and live on a meager manuscript fee.
Two years later, Guo Moruo entered Kyushu Imperial University, and Sato Tomiko also took care of all the housework for her husband's academic success, washing and cooking for Guo Moruo and raising children. Although the days were hard, the two often encouraged each other, and they added 4 children one after another, and Tomiko Sato gradually saw the light. But what she didn't expect was that what she ushered in next was darkness.
After the war, he took his son to find a husband
After the outbreak of the Anti-Japanese War in 1937, Guo Moruo resolutely decided to return to China to resist Japan, leaving his wife and children behind, and risked boarding the sea ship returning to China. When the Japanese authorities learned of Guo Moruo's return, they immediately searched Guo Moruo's residence, took away a large number of manuscripts, arrested Tomiko Sato on suspicion of being a "spy," tortured her for questioning, and released her. In August and November of that year, Guo Moruo received two letters from Tomiko Sato, after which the two lost contact.
After being released, in order to support her children, Tomiko Sato could only shoulder the burden of life alone, and in the face of the survival crisis of the whole family of 6, she did all the dirty work, not only so that the children could have food, but also so that the children could receive a good education.
In 1945, Japan surrendered, the Anti-Japanese War finally ended, and Tomiko Sato finally survived. Tomiko Sato, who had been waiting for 8 years, also specially dressed up, and then went to the Japanese authorities to apply to go to China, wanting to go to her husband's side. But fate seems to have played a huge joke with Tomiko Sato, and in 1946, a Japanese friend returned to Japan from China and brought Sato Tomiko a letter and hundreds of dollars, in which her husband Guo Moruo introduced his situation and reorganized the family. This is undoubtedly a huge blow to Tomiko Sato, but she still wants to meet her once beloved husband.
In 1948, Tomiko Sato arrived in Hong Kong with her daughter and young son, and on a small building on Forest Road in Kowloon Mountain, Sato Tomiko met Guo Moruo, but also met Guo Moruo's young wife and their children. Tomiko Sato burst into tears and wanted to say a lot, but when she saw their family, she couldn't say anything. It was also the first time they had seen each other after 11 years apart.
Guo Moruo with Yu Liqun and his children
Until 1951, Sato Tomiko went to Beijing to look for Guo Moruo again, but Guo Moruo avoided it, and Sato Tomiko had to find Guo Moruo's house by herself and sit in the living room waiting for Guo Moruo to return, which was the second meeting after the two separated.
The third time the two met was after May Day in 1969. Tomiko Sato went to Beijing to visit her youngest son, and then met Guo Moruo again. The last time they saw each other was in 1975, when Guo Moruo fell ill and was hospitalized, and Tomiko Sato, accompanied by her daughter, went to visit Guo Moruo. In 1995, Tomiko Sato passed away, and when she died, there was still a pile of love letters that Guo Moruo had written to her on her pillow.
【Brother Wu has something to say】
Throughout Sato's life, she should have been a carefree rich family, but in her youth, she made a desperate bet on love, but in exchange for abandonment, her life was tragic and great.
Resources:
Centennial Tide Journal – Guo Moruo and His Japanese Wife
Centennial Tide Journal - Guo Moruo and Anna's four meetings after the victory of the Anti-Japanese War
Archival time-space journal - Guo Moruoning's unbending Japanese wife Anna