introduction
War is always cruel, it makes the originally happy family lose relatives, so that the wife is separated. The war has also left some families and buried their bodies, leaving trauma to some survivors.
In the 1940 War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, two of the Japanese sisters who were saved by Nie Rongzhen were two of them.
Second life
In Umeho-cho, the capital city of Miyazaki Prefecture at the southern tip of Kyushu Island in Japan, there is a house with a single house. Ordinary Japanese women Mihoko Kato and her husband live here.
Out of the gate there is a small hardware store. Mihoko came to the hardware store early in the morning, cleaned up, wiped off the dust on the surface of the counter, and began the day's business.
This small hardware store is the main source of livelihood for Mihoko's family, and Mihoko receives patrons in this hardware store every day.
Mihoko's three daughters are all married, and she has given birth to 7 grandchildren and granddaughters for Mihoko, who come back from time to time to visit Mihoko, making Mihoko's heart extremely sweet.
At night, Mihoko closed the door of the small hardware store, returned home, looked at a "family portrait" hanging at home, and thought about her "relatives" in a foreign country.
This special "family portrait" has a special meaning for Mihoko, in her own words, the person who gave her a second life.
It was in 1940 that the Eighth Route Army in North China launched a Hundred Regiments War against the Japanese. Nie Rongzhen came to the front line of the War of Resistance and commanded the post to launch an attack on the Japanese.
In the village of Honghechu near the Jingxing Station of the Zhengtai Railway, Nie Rongzhen was looking at a map in the command post.
From the time of the general offensive on 20 August, the telephones in the command post continued to ring, and instructions and orders were passed from one end of the line to the other.
The units participating in the battle quickly completed their respective combat tasks in accordance with the deployment of the command headquarters, and the progress was very smooth.
On the 21st, Nie Rongzhen was thinking about the next step of the war, when the phone suddenly rang urgently. Yang Chengwu said on the other end of the phone that they had saved two Japanese girls and asked Nie Rongzhen for instructions on what to do.
Nie Rongzhen praised Yang Chengwu, told Yang Chengwu that this was a very meaningful thing, and asked Yang Chengwu to send the two Japanese girls to the command post in front of the division headquarters.
In the course of the attack, the third regiment under Yang Chengwu was ordered to capture the Dongwangshe Coal Mine, and in a room, company commander Han Jinming and correspondent Yang Zhongshan found two Japanese girls.
These two Japanese girls, the older one is only five or six years old, and the youngest is still holding it in a small quilt.
When she was found, the five- or six-year-old Japanese girl was curled up in the corner. With the sound of the explosion, her body trembled unceasingly, obviously terrified.
In the fierce fire of the Japanese, their parents had died, leaving only their two small children.
Han Jinming and Yang Zhongshan risked their lives to save the two little Japanese girls from the ruins of the Jingxing Railway Station.
After Yang Chengwu knew about it, he instructed them to take good care of the two Japanese girls and quickly send them to the front-line headquarters.
The investigator put the two children in baskets, took turns carrying them, and sent them to Yang Chengwu's headquarters. Yang Chengwu saw that the little baby's right shoulder was injured, and asked the military doctor to treat the wound and save the child's life.
After a while, the little baby girl was so hungry that she kept crying, and Yang Chengwu found a nurse again and gave the child some milk. Immediately after, Yang Chengwu called Nie Rongzhen.
Feng Qishu, a correspondent of the sub-district, was assigned by Yang Chengwu to pick up the two Japanese girls and send them to the Honghe Trough Village where Nie Rongzhen was located.
After Nie Rongzhen saw these two Japanese girls, she picked up the injured little baby, looked at it carefully, and saw that the wound on her right shoulder was bandaged very well, and the child slept very quietly, and her heart was very relieved.
Nie Rongzhen turned to look at the doctor and the guards and told them to take good care of the child. Thinking that she was still breastfeeding, she asked the guards to see if there were any women in the nearby village who were breastfeeding.
The guards inquired around the village and found a woman who had just given birth to a child and fed the child.
Nie Rongzhen felt that the five- or six-year-old girl was very likable, so he took her hand and took the pear for her to eat.
At first, the little girl did not answer, Nie Rongzhen washed the pear with water and took it again. The little girl took the pear and held it in her hand.
After Nie Rongzhen settled the two children, he asked the cooker to make a pot of porridge for the older Japanese girl.
After the porridge was served, Nie Rongzhen pulled the five- or six-year-old girl in his arms, filled it with a spoon, blew it cold, and fed it to the little girl.
The little girl seemed to feel the "father's love", and she no longer seemed to be as restrained as when she first arrived. She opened her mouth and gulped it up.
During her stay in Honghe Trough Village, the older little girl seemed to follow her father and followed Nie Rongzhen all the time. Wherever Nie Rongzhen went, she followed.
The little girl tugged at Nie Rongzhen's pant leg with her small hand and walked beside him. I don't know, I thought it was Nie Rongzhen's girlfriend.
Due to the frequent battles on the front line and the fear of being violently counterattacked by the Japanese army, Nie Rongzhen felt that it was difficult to take good care of these two children.
Therefore, Nie Rongzhen decided to send the two Japanese girls to the Japanese military camp so that they could return to their country in the future and grow up around their relatives in their hometown.
According to Nie Rongzhen's recollection in his later years:
I consider either raising them up or sending them back.
I think that if we raise up, the fierce war will not know when it will end, the environment in the border areas will not only be harsh, but also the enemy's 'sweeping' will be frequent, the troops will often be transferred, and there will be many difficulties in taking care of the two small children.
Besides, two lonely children, staying in a foreign country, the eldest is five or six years old, and have begun to understand things, and she is likely to be sad when she stays.
They have lost their parents, leaving only two sisters, not on their own land, and will cause them suffering in the future.
Send them back, although their parents are dead, there will always be relatives and friends in their families to take care of it, and I decided to send them back when I wanted to go.
Later, Nie Rongzhen asked the guards to prepare a pair of picks and found a reliable fellow Li Huatang. Let him be responsible for picking the two children to the Japanese garrison in Shijiazhuang and handing them over to the Japanese army.
Before leaving, Nie Rongzhen was worried that the child was crying on the road and refused to leave, so he filled some pears in the basket. When the child is crying, you can give her a pear to comfort the child.
In order to allow the Japanese officers to receive the two children, Nie Rongzhen also wrote a special letter to his compatriot Li Huatang to hand over to the Japanese troops in Shijiazhuang.
The letter was not sealed, it was photographed by Sha Fei, and the content was preserved intact:
Japanese officer commander soldiers:
The Japanese valves were violent, invading China, and the war lasted for four years. The chinese and Japanese people are not known how many people are dead, injured, or displaced. The responsibility for such a tragic incident shall be borne entirely by the Sun Valve.
This time, our army attacked the Zhengtai Line, recaptured the East King's House, and brought two weak Japanese women. His mother unfortunately died in the gunfire, and his father was seriously injured when the mine was on fire, and after my treatment was ineffective, he unfortunately died. One of the young daughters who are lonely and miserable is only five or six years old, and the other is still in her infancy, as if she is helpless and compassionate. After I took care of her, I sent someone back to me and asked her to be raised by her relatives, so that the innocent orphan daughters of the other generation would not fall into a foreign land and be buried in a ravine.
The Chinese and Japanese peoples have no vendetta, do not seek the dictatorship of the Japanese valve, and do not want to be vicious, while the internal conquest is violent, and the outside is creating war. As a result, the Japanese people are living in an uneasy life, living in difficulty, leaving their homeland, touching the flames, widows' wives, orphans' sons, and parents. As for the peaceful residents of China, they have even more wantonly burned and plundered, inhumane, killed and injured in exile, and suffered severe pain. This is an unprecedented catastrophe for the two great nations of China and Japan, and the evil crimes of the Japanese valve.
However, the Chinese people never regarded the Japanese soldiers and the people as enemies, so they persisted in resisting the war, vowed to die against the Japanese, and were forced to defend themselves against the Japanese invasion. And the invasion of China was not the will of the Japanese soldiers and people, nor was it just a threat to the Japanese. For the sake of the present, the soldiers and people of China and Japan should join hands to immediately oppose and eliminate such a criminal war, overthrow the Japanese warlords and chaebols, and strive for the true liberation, freedom and happiness of the two great nations. Otherwise Chinese the people will be more difficult, and the future of the monarchs will be unimaginable.
The spirit of the internationalism of our Eighth Route Army, the most benevolent and righteous, has a beginning and an end, and must fight to the end for the survival of the Chinese nation and the eternal peace of mankind, and must fight to the end against the barbaric and violent Sun Valve. If we hope that the emperor and others will suddenly awaken and join hands with the Chinese soldiers and the people to seek liberation, Japan will be very fortunate, and China will be very fortunate.
That's the way it is
well
Nie Rongzhen
August 22
At the time of farewell, Nie Rongzhen hugged the little girl in the quilt bag, and then crouched down again, saying goodbye to her father like a child, touched Mihoko's head, and told her to sit well on the road and grab the rope when the basket was shaking so as not to fall.
Li Huatang picked up the two children, bid farewell to Nie Rongzhen, and headed in the direction where the Japanese army was stationed.
Li Huatang didn't go far, and when they reached the eastern slope of Nangou, because the battle ahead was very fierce, there was no way to continue to move forward, so they had to return.
When he arrived at Zhongguyue Village in Pingshan County, because the younger girl still had an injury on his right shoulder, Li Huatang took the child to the rear hospital of the Jin-Cha-Ji Military Region to recuperate.
Later, Feng Qishu, who was only 17 years old at the time, received orders from his superiors to take care of the older Japanese girl, and the baby girl in the swaddling was handed over to the local women's rescue association.
Although Feng Qishu was only 17 years old, it seemed that he was still a child. He clumsily fed and dressed the little girl, and did everything he could to make the child happy.
In order to make the little girl happy, Feng Qishu often took her to play by the Guyue River. As the days went on, the little girl slowly became lively and happy.
Once, a fellow gave the little girl a few green-skinned walnuts.
Feng Qishu peeled out walnut kernels for her to eat, and the fellow also made gestures to let the little girl eat. However, she just doesn't eat. Feng Qishu peeled off a thin layer of skin on the walnut kernels, and after rinsing them with water, the little girl happily ate them.
Horse officers, who know Japanese, tell the little girl in Japanese to see her sister, which is when she is most happy. She bounced all the way, humming nursery rhymes in her mouth.
After seeing her sister, she shoved the wildflowers and delicious candies she had picked by herself into her sister's hands.
Li Huani, director of the Women's Rescue Association, found Chen Wenrui, who had just died prematurely, hoping that she could feed the younger Japanese girl.
When Chen Wenrui first heard that the children he fed were Japanese, he was extremely reluctant. Later, hearing the child crying with hunger and remembering her child who died prematurely, she reluctantly took the child and fed the child with her sufficient milk.
Over time, Chen Wenrui developed feelings for the child and took good care of it. Later, when he was sent away, Chen Wenrui was still in love, and secretly shed tears in the crowd.
After more than a month had passed, the superiors decided to send the child to Honghechu Village and then hand it over to the Japanese army.
Feng Qishu found a small straw hat, put it on the little girl, found some soft wheat straw, spread it in the basket, spread a layer of oilcloth in the middle, and then laid a small cool mat on it so that the sisters could sit more comfortably.
After a while, Li Huani sent her sister over. The younger sister wears a small embroidered hat given by the villagers on her head, and wears small tiger head shoes on her feet, and a small local doll in Pingshan who has gone out of the country.
Feng Qishu and his party sent the two Japanese girls to the county seat of Jingxing, and handed them to the Japanese army together with Nie Rongzhen's letter.
Later, the Japanese army headquarters in Shimen also sent a letter to the Eighth Route Army, saying that it had received these two children, and expressed gratitude for the humanitarian spirit of the Eighth Route Army.
Unfortunately, however, the little girl who was under the age of one in the bag died in the Japanese military hospital in Shijiazhuang. The older girl was brought back to her hometown in Japan by her uncle in October.
Raised by her grandmother, this little Japanese girl eventually grew up and lived the life of an ordinary woman.
Later, Nie Rongzhen became the marshal of the republic and paid great energy for the cause of national defense science and technology of the republic.
Coming to China again
In April 1980, Yao Yuanfang, vice president of the People's Liberation Army Daily, took out three photos and asked Marshal Nie Rongzhen to see them. These photos were taken by Comrade Sha Fei during the Battle of the Hundred Regiments.
In the first, Nie Shuai held the hand of a little girl and stared ahead;
In the second picture, Nie Shuai is concentrating on watching the warrior feed the little girl;
In the third picture, a fellow villager carried two baskets and held a letter in his hand, and Nie Shuai was caressing the head of the little girl sitting in the basket with pity.
After Marshal Nie Rongzhen carefully looked at the photos, he clearly remembered that this was the little Japanese girl he had seen in the Hundred Regiments War.
Yao Yuanfang wrote a passage "Where are you, Little Girl in Japan?" Asked Marshal Nie Rongzhen if he remembered the name of the Japanese girl.
Nie Rongzhen thought for a while and said that he remembered that the Little Japanese girl at that time seemed to be called "Xingzi".
In May, the People's Liberation Army Pictorial and the People's Liberation Army Daily successively published Yao Yuanfang's "Where Are You, Little Girl in Japan?" article. And in the article with these three pictures.
In the article, Yao Yuanfang emphasized that Nie Rongzhen still remembered the Japanese girl and hoped to find her.
After the article was published, the response in China and Japan was very strong.
The next day, Japan's Yomiuri Shimbun reprinted Yao Yuanfang's article in its entirety. Used "
Orphans were rescued from the war, and General Nie called out to the Xingzi sisters forty years later.
" title.
Just a day later, the Yomiuri Shimbun sent their reporters in Beijing, Hoshino and Arai, to find a way to meet Yao Yuanfang.
After seeing Yao Yuanfang, Hoshino and Arai inquired in detail about Marshal Nie Rongzhen's concern about this matter, and resolved to find the little girl in Japan.
On June 10, the Yomiuri Shimbun published a book with the title of ""
It was really Xingzi, and she wrote to General Nie, looking forward to meeting again
"For the title, the report has found the little girl.
The report said that the Japanese little girl, who was called "Xingzi" by Nie Rongzhen, whose real name was Mihoko, lived in the capital city of Miyazaki Prefecture in Japan, and is now 43 years old.
The Yomiuri Shimbun forwarded Mihoko's letter to Marshal Nie Rongzhen hoping to visit China, along with a recent photograph of Mieko.
Nie Shuai carefully looked at Mihoko's letter and the attached photo and confirmed it
"Xingzi" is Mihoko
。
Nie Rongzhen said happily, "...
After reading Mihoko's enthusiastic letters, looking at her close-ups and childhood photos, much like what she looked like when she was a child, after 40 years of absence, she finally found it, which is rare, I am very happy, I wish Mihoko's whole family happiness.
”
On July 10, the Mihoko family came to Beijing, and Nie Shuai specially asked his daughter Nie Li to meet the Mieko family at the airport.
Under the arrangement of Marshal Nie Rongzhen, the Mihoko family visited some of Beijing's attractions, such as the Military Museum, the Badaling Great Wall, the Arts and Crafts Museum, and the Beijing Zoo.
On the morning of July 14, Marshal Nie Rongzhen cordially met with the Mihoko family in the Xinjiang Hall of the Great Hall of the People.
Japanese Ambassador to China Kenzo Yoshida, Sun Pinghua of the Sino-Japanese Friendship Association, Chai Chengwen, Yao Yuanfang, Nie Li, and others, director of the Foreign Affairs Bureau of the Ministry of National Defense, attended the meeting together.
Nie Shuai said to Mihoko as he drew a comparison, "It's a pleasure to meet you and your whole family, when I saw you, you were still a little girl, only so tall." ”
After the meeting, Nie Rongzhen and Mieko exchanged gifts and took a group photo as a souvenir.
Later, as a special emissary of Sino-Japanese friendship, Mihoko came to China many times and formed a deep sisterhood with Nie Rongzhen's daughter, General Nie Li.
In 1986 and 1989, Mihoko also visited China twice as a member of the delegation to Visit China, accompanied by the Japan-China Friendship Visit group in the capital city.
At home, Marshal Nie Rongzhen warmly received Mihoko and all the members of the delegation visiting China, had cordial conversations with them, and encouraged them to make more contributions to the cause of Sino-Japanese friendship.
When Nie Li visited Japan in 1989, he also made a special trip to see Mihoko.
To Nie Li's surprise, everywhere she went, everyone knew the story of China's Nie Rongzhen saving the "Japanese little girl" in the war, and she could say mihoko's name.
Later, Mihoko's hometown of Miyazaki Prefecture, Japan, and Marshal Nie Rongzhen's hometown of Jiangjin City, Sichuan Province, were also established as sister cities.
On May 14, 1992, Nie Rongzhen passed away due to ineffective medical treatment.
When Mihoko heard the news, tears came out of her eyes, and she cried all her tears...
Mihoko cried and wrote the following condolences:
“
Shocked to hear of the unfortunate death of His Excellency General Nie Rongzhen, I am deeply saddened, because of that terrible war, I was orphaned in Chinese mainland, thanks to General Nie's rescue, I have today, from the day of returning to China to today, I have always regarded General Nie as the support of my soul, and ignored the bad news of my father's death! And because they are far apart, they can't go to The Hanging, and I deeply regret it!
afterward. On the phone, Mihoko said to Nie Li: "I very much want to come to China to hang General Nie Rongzhen to fulfill my daughter's filial piety, but because her husband has a sudden cerebral thrombosis, he is sick in bed, and he needs to take care of it, it is really difficult to get out, and I ask for forgiveness." ”
When Mieko came to China, she also came to Zhongguyue Village in Pingshan County, and in front of Chen Wenrui's tomb, she offered fruit paper money, burned a piece of incense, and bowed her head to worship the old man.
At the grave, Mihoko chanted, "Thank you, me."
Forever Grandma
！”
War is always the most merciless, and the wounds it leaves on people cannot be healed for a long time. In the midst of these traumas, there is also some warmth, as Mihoko wrote in her letter:
I became an orphan of war in the brutal offensive and defensive war, but it was only because of your precious care that I survived. I don't even know how much trouble I have caused you, and how hard you have worked to raise me regardless of your own safety. All this fills me with infinite gratitude and gratitude, and it is difficult to repay whatever it is