I am sure you know that World War ?ended on August 15.1945. However do you know that a new war started the very same day? Let me tell you about this war and the people involved. Have you ever heard the word, "Zanryufujin?" This is the name given to the Japanese women who were left in China or Korea after World War?. They lived in Manshu in China, which was colonized by the Japanese before and during the War. They did not need to speak Chinese. and they were treated well. However, after the war all the Japanese left in China became enemies and this was the start of a new war for those people.
I happened to learn this last summer when I was writing a report about World War ?. I knew that my grandmother had experienced the war in China and decided to ask her some questions about these experiences. "Grandma, will you tell me how your life was during the War? Was it very hard and trying?" She kept silent for a while, and then she said quietly, "It was much harder for me after the War than during war-time." I couldn't believe my ears! This was very surprising.
"What? You mean you had a much harder life after the War?"
I asked her again. Then, little by little, she started to tell me her story. It was sad and brought tears to my eyes.
My grandmother is one of the "Zanryufujins." She had a husband who was a Japanese Serviceman and a one-year-old son, but her husband was killed in the War. My grandmother and her son were taken into a custody home. They weren't given enough food to eat, and on release from this home, her son died from malnutrition. How much agony did the War cause her? She lost her husband and only son! What was worse, there weren't enough ships returning people to Japan and most of them only took men. She had no choice but to stay in China. She had a hard time without any knowledge of the Chinese language and felt humiliated just because she was a Japanese. She wasn't allowed to keep any photos or letters from Japan, so she had to throw them away. Eventually she remarried my grandfather, a Chinese man.
With the signing of the Japan-China Treaty of Peace and Friendship in 1978, it became much easier for the "Zanryufujins" to return to Japan. There are, however, still many people left in China and Korea now. These days it seems that we only learn the surface facts of the history of World War ?. There was a lot of suffering that many people do not know about. We need to also try and understand the background of it, like what I have learned from my grandmother. In the 21st century it is our responsibility not to make these mistakes again and to make the world a more peaceful place.