After the end of World War II, due to Japan's defeat, all kinds of Japanese in Taiwan, the Korean Peninsula, the northeast region, and the occupied areas in the interior, including soldiers, military dependents, and workers, were repatriated to Japan. However, many people may not know that, contrary to the above situation, there are also many Chinese returning home from Japan.
Who are these Chinese? They were young adults who had been forcibly taken captive by the Japanese, mostly prisoners of war or peasants who had been kidnapped. Because Japan was mired in war, a large number of laborers were also taken from China, and from August 1944 to May 1945, a total of 161 batches of 41,762 Chinese were kidnapped to Japan. On the way, 2823 people were reduced due to death, escape, etc., and the actual number of people who went to Japan was 38939.
Forced Chinese labor
These compatriots have been abused in Japan, and the death rate is very high, according to the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Chinese laborers have died in Japanese enterprises a total of 6830. The humiliated Chinese laborers also rose up against it, such as the famous Huagang Uprising, which was brutally suppressed. In addition, there are many lucky people who have escaped from the factory and scattered into the wilderness.
Among these people, the most famous is Liu Lianren, whose experience can be said to be enough to shake the world!
Liu Lianren, male, Han ethnicity, a native of Caobo Village, Jinggou Town, Gaomi City, Shandong Province, was arrested by the Japanese Kou in September 1944, when his wife was 7 months pregnant. Japan captured Zhuang Ding from Shandong everywhere and sent him to China to do hard labor, and Liu Lianren and 800 other people were sent to the Showa Mining Institute of the Meiji Mining Company in Numata Village, Yulong County, Japan. Liu Lianren was assigned to the mine to drill coal, did more than ten hours of heavy physical work every day, and was severely beaten and abused by Japanese supervisors.
Liu Lianren works in Hokkaido, the northernmost tip of Japan's four islands, which can be described as a bitter cold place, and the climate is extremely harsh. On the night of July 31, 1945, Liu Lianren and four co-workers escaped from this living hell without the Japanese noticing. However, two people were later captured, and Liu Lianren and three others fled to the deep mountains and old forests.
But what if you're in Japan, not in China, and you've escaped? How do you survive?
Liu Lianren and the other three people did not dare to contact the Japanese, can only hide in the deep mountains and old forests of Hokkaido, fortunately Hokkaido is sparsely populated, the degree of development is not high, many deep mountain old forests still have a primitive style, so Liu Lianren almost "returned to his ancestors" and lived the life of a mountain forest savage. He fed his hunger with wild leeks, mountain mushrooms, and wild fruits. In order to escape the cold of minus tens of degrees, he dug a simple cave to live here.
Liu Lianren was at a loss: How to return to the motherland? The sea is vast on all sides. Of course, he did not know that Japan had surrendered, he could go out, Liu Lianren had also secretly gone down the mountain to the village to find potatoes, peas, kelp, rice and other food to fill his hunger, and he also found an iron pickaxe, an iron pot, a box of matches, these tools were of great help to him. However, he saw that women and old people were still working in Japanese villages, and he speculated that the war was not over, so he did not dare to show his face.
Liu Lianren They also made simple efforts, such as if they found a small boat, they sailed to the sea and wanted to drift back to China, which of course failed. One day, when the other two co-workers went down the mountain to look for food, they were also arrested, in fact, at this time the war was over, and these co-workers could return to China!
But Liu Lianren didn't know it, now he was the only one left, he only had endless sadness, however, he was still stubbornly insisting.
In this way, Liu Lianren lived in Hokkaido day after day, year after year, and even survived for thirteen years! Most of his co-workers have returned to China, and Liu Lianren is basically believed to have died in the wilderness. In fact, Liu Lianren almost degenerated into a wild man, and once, a woman picking chestnuts met him on the mountain and fled down the mountain like a wolf crying. At this time, Liu Lianren had not shaved his head and shaved his beard for a long time, his hair was fluffy, his face was full of dirt, and his clothes were ragged, like a wild man.
Until February 8, 1958, a Japanese hunter named Kiyoharu Kwata came to the mountains to hunt, and near Liu Lianren's cave, the hunter noticed that something was wrong here, thinking that there was a wild beast nearby, and his vigilance suddenly increased. But then it turned out to be a person! Liu Lianren quickly fled, and a few days later, Kwata Kiyoshi and more than 10 people found Liu Lianren, Liu Lianren fought hard, but was still caught.
At the invitation of friendly Japanese people, Liu Lianren returned to Japan in the 1990s to seek justice, and in 1993, Liu Lianren met again with Kiyoshi Kwata, who had discovered him
Of course, these ordinary Japanese people didn't know what was going on, thinking that monsters had appeared in the mountains! However, Liu Lianren still had some basic language skills left, he was speaking at the time, of course, he spoke Chinese, Shandong dialect.
These Japanese people were shocked at this time - how could there be Chinese? After settling Liu Lianren, they immediately contacted the local police department, and the Japanese government initially slandered him as an agent who entered the country illegally, but later with the strong help of friendly groups such as the Overseas Chinese Association in Tokyo and the Japanese Red Cross Society, Liu Lianren was confirmed to be a laborer captured by the Japanese army during the invasion of China.
In 1958, Liu Lianren was discovered
On April 10, 1958, with the efforts of all walks of life, Liu Lianren returned to China and was warmly welcomed by compatriots at the Tianjin dock, and President Liu Shaoqi also came to visit him in his busy schedule, and personally arranged for the hospital to treat and recuperate him.
In the 1990s, with the help of righteous people in China and Japan, Liu Lianren filed a lawsuit against the Japanese government. On September 2, 2000, Liu Lianren died of stomach cancer at the age of 87.
On July 12, 2001, the Tokyo District Court of Japan ruled that the Japanese government should provide 20 million yen in damages to Liu Lianren's survivors in violation of its post-war relief obligations, and Liu Lianren won the case in total. However, in 2007, the Supreme Court of Japan rejected the plaintiff's claim in the third instance and has since stopped accepting it, which has aroused great resentment among the Chinese and japanese justice activists.
Liu Lianren has lived with tenacious vitality for 13 years in the deep mountains and old forests of Hokkaido, which is the embodiment of the Chinese nation's perseverance and tenacious spirit.
Author: Yun Fan