83-Year-Old VTuber Posts Wartime Memories of Manchuria

Kanazawa, Ishikawa Pref., Aug. 13 (Jiji Press)–An 83-year-old virtual YouTuber, or VTuber, who was born in Manchuria, now northeastern China, during World War II and returned to Japan at an early age, began to post videos of her and other people’s wartime experiences three years ago. Amid fading memories of World War II and repatriation of Japanese people, Kuniko Asai, who now lives in Kanazawa, the capital of Ishikawa Prefecture, central Japan, aims to hand them down to the next generation through her channel, “Manshu bachan” (Manchuria grandma). In her videos, Asai appears as Manshu bachan, a cat wearing glasses, and explains the history of Manchuria and the experiences of people who returned to Japan from the region, partly based on stories she heard from her family members and documents she read. She does everything about video creation by herself, from preparing materials to filming. Asai was born in May 1943 in the former Manchurian province of Jinzhou as the youngest of eight children in her family. Around when her father was called up shortly before the end of the war, rumors about an impending invasion by the former Soviet Union spread, and local Manchurians went on a rampage and poured into Japanese settlements. Preparing for eventualities, her mother carried a knife with her and told her children, “All of us will die if I so decide,” according to Asai. In May 1946, less than a year after the end of the war, Asai, who was 3 years old at the time, and her family returned to the port of Hakata in southwestern Japan. The family later headed by train for the Noto Peninsula in Ishikawa, where a distant relative of her mother was believed to be living. The family ended up living in Kanazawa. At 17, when she was reading a book about Manchuria with the aim of searching for her roots, Asai came to know about women who were assaulted by bandits and held captive on their way back to Japan. She found herself unable to finish reading the horrific tale and thereafter avoided stories about the war. A turning point came about five years ago, when an acquaintance put her in touch with a group that is working to hand down its members’ experiences in Manchuria. Asai then studied about a black market in Kanazawa, together with a university student she came to know through the group, and learned that her parents had been operating a restaurant called “Manshu-ya” in front of Kanazawa Station, which provided a place where returnees with no relatives could stay. Touched by her parents’ altruism, Asai decided to learn about Manchuria again. While engaging in activities as a storyteller later, Asai was looking for ways to convey the experiences of herself and other people to younger generations. One day, a friend living nearby who works as a graphic designer advised Asai to become a VTuber. After learning how to film videos from the friend, Asai began her activities as a VTuber three years ago. Asai has since posted more than 140 videos created based on the stories of people who faced hardships she learned from materials including notes written by returnees. Among them were orphans left behind in China, people who committed mass suicide and women who suffered violence at the hands of Soviet soldiers. She sometimes finds it painful to face things that happened in Manchuria, but she is also heartened by comments from viewers. “I hope my videos can move the hearts of viewers, even if only slightly, and motivate them to hand down the stories to the next generation,” she said. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]