Ex-Japanese War Orphans Make Likely Final Trip to China

Beijing, Sept. 25 (Jiji Press)–A delegation of former Japanese war orphans who were abandoned in China after the end of World War II and later came back to Japan visited Harbin, Heilongjiang Province, northeastern China, on Sept. 10-14. The trip was organized by a nonprofit organization in Tokyo that supports former Japanese war orphans in China for the first time in six years. This is expected to be their last large-scale visit to China as former war orphans are elderly, 80 years after the end of the war. There are concerns about a decline in citizens’ exchanges between the two countries amid an anti-Japanese campaign that has been growing in China recently. Some 90 people, including former orphans and their children, joined the delegation to show gratitude to China, where the orphans were raised by local foster parents. Hideya Takahashi, 80, a member of the delegation, was taken to foster parents in Ning’an, Heilongjiang, when he was about 6 months old. His identity was confirmed in 1967, and he moved to Japan in 1982. In the chaos immediately after the end of the war, his father went missing. Three of nine siblings of the family became orphans in China. “We mustn’t start a war,” he said. “I can’t forget about China, even while in Japan.” Tomiko Nakamoto, 80, another member of the delegation, was born in Changchun, Jilin Province, northeastern China. Right after the war ended, she was entrusted to a Chinese family, which her real mother asked for help. Nakamoto found out that she was Japanese during a conversation with her foster parents. After their deaths, she started searching for her real parents in 1995, but could not find them. “It feels like something is missing, as I don’t know my real parents,” she said. “I feel so much hatred toward war.” The Tokyo nonprofit has shown plays on the theme of war orphans during visits it has arranged for them to China, where they have met senior government officials, telling Chinese people of what they went through. This time, however, the nonprofit’s performance was temporarily at risk of cancellation after the Chinese side put obstacles in the way of it. The delegation had to give up a plan to visit a cenotaph in Heilongjiang to mourn their Chinese foster parents, as the local government did not approve. Those moves by the Chinese side appear to reflect an anti-Japanese campaign by the administration of Chinese President Xi Jinping to mark the 80th anniversary this year of the country’s victory over Japan in the war. “Japanese and Chinese civilians are the ones who suffered damage from the war. Citizens’ exchanges should continue, regardless of the political situation,” a member of the delegation said. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]