Japanese War Orphans in Manchuria Previous Publications

Japanese War Orphans in Manchuria Previous publications

Globalization of Japan: Japanese Sakoku Mentality and U.S. Efforts to Open Japan (St. Martin’s Press, 1998). The Hatoyama Dynasty: Japanese Political Leadership Through the Generations (Palgrave-Macmillan, 2003). Japanese War Orphans in Manchuria Forgotten Victims of World War II

Mayumi Itoh JAPANESE WAR ORPHANS IN MANCHURIA Copyright © Mayumi Itoh, 2010. Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2010 978-0-230-62281-4 All rights reserved. First published in 2010 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN® in the United States—a division of St. Martin’s Press LLC, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010. Where this book is distributed in the UK, Europe and the rest of the world, this is by Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited, registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS. Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies and has companies and representatives throughout the world. Palgrave® and Macmillan® are registered trademarks in the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries. ISBN 978-1-349-38435-8 ISBN 978-0-230-10636-9 (eBook) DOI 10.1057/9780230106369 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Itoh, Mayumi, 1954– Japanese war orphans in Manchuria : forgotten victims of World War II / Mayumi Itoh. p. cm. ISBN 978-1-349-38435-8 (alk. paper) 1. Abandoned children—China—Manchuria. 2. Orphans—China— Manchuria. 3. Japanese—China—Manchuria. 4. World War, 1939–1945— Children—China—Manchuria. I. Title. HV887.C552M3645 2010 305.23086′94509518—dc22 2009031045 A catalogue record of the book is available from the British Library. Design by Newgen Imaging Systems (P) Ltd., Chennai, India. First edition: April 2010 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 For the voiceless people who perished in the frozen earth of Manchuria This page intentionally left blank CONTENTS

List of Photographs and Tables ix Preface xi Acknowledgments xiii Notes on the Text xv List of Abbreviations xvii

1. Introduction 1 2. Background: Illusory Empire and Great Migration Campaign 11 3. Ill-Fated Diaspora of Japanese Farmer-Settlers 27 4. Early Postwar Era: Repatriation of Japanese and International Politics 39 5. Plight of Orphans During Postwar Era 61 6. Initial Search for Orphans: Volunteer Groups and Official Missions 73 7. Barriers to Repatriation: Reestablishing Identity and Domicile 85 8. Barriers to Repatriation: Guarantor/Receiver Requirement 101 9. Japanese Women Left Behind in China 115 10. Orphans’ Struggles for Settlement 129 viii Contents 11. Struggles of Orphans’ Spouses and Offspring 145 12. New Obstacles: Retirement and Pensions 159 13. Class-Action Lawsuits 173 14. Verdicts 185 15. Conclusion: Orphan Issue and Sino-Japanese Relations 205

Appendix 219 Notes 225 Bibliography I 241 Bibliography II 249 Index 255 PHOTOGRAPHS AND TABLES

Photographs

1. Coronation of Pu Yi, March 1934 xix 2. Armed Farmer-Settlers, 1933–1934 xix 3. First and Second Dispatch Members of Yasuoka Branch Village Settlement in 1938 xx 4. Farmer-Settlers Sail to Manchuria aboard the Saiberia-maru xx 5. Yasuoka Branch Village Settlers Work in the Field xxi 6. Young Women’s Volunteer Corps for Manchuria-Mongolia Settlement xxi 7. Shinoda Kinji’s Family (Kinji, second from left; the sole survivor in the family) xxii 8. Repatriated Orphans at Shinagawa Station, Tokyo, December 5, 1946 (the white cloth hanging from a girl’s neck contains a wooden box with her family’s bones) xxiii

Tables (in appendix)

1.1 Sino-Japanese Relations and Orphan Issue (1946–2009) 219 6.1 Official Missions to Search for Orphans’ Kin in Japan (1981–1987) 221 6.2 Supplementary Search Missions (1987–1999) 222 13.1 Orphans’ Class-Action Lawsuits (2002–2006) 222 15.1 Japanese Permanent Repatriation from China (1972–2008) 224 This page intentionally left blank PREFACE

It is a little known fact that the highest death toll of Japanese civilians in World War II occurred in Manchuria. Out of 1,550,000 Japanese civilians in Manchuria, 245,000 died. In comparison, 140,000 fell to the atomic bombing in Hiroshima, and 74,000 in Nagasaki. In addition, 84,000 people died in the massive air strikes in Tokyo, and 94,000 civilians died in the Battle of Okinawa. The tragedy in Manchuria was that the civilian victims were concentrated among the farmer-settlers. The Kwantung Army took all healthy male settlers in the last minute nekosogi doin (“uprooting conscription”) as late as August 9, 1945, the day the Soviet Army invaded Manchuria. It was also the day the United States dropped an atomic bomb on Nagasaki, and three days after the U.S. atomic bombing on Hiroshima. This “uprooting conscription” left women, children, and the elderly defenseless in the settlements. Consequently, out of 270,000 farmer-settlers in Manchuria, 78,500 died.1 At the end of World War II, about 6.6 million Japanese residing or stationed overseas were awaiting repatriation. About half of them were military personnel, while the other half were farmer-settlers as well as civilian employees in the administration of Japanese-held territories (gaichi), including Manchuria and Southeast Asia. The influx of these Japanese repatriates was such that the population in Japan increased by 8 percent between 1945 and 1948. It was the largest mass migration in the nation’s history, and one of the most “expansive” collective population transfers in world history.2 About 1,235,000 Japanese civilians in Manchuria, who survived the Soviet Army invasion, were repatriated between 1946 and 1948. However, more than 60,000 were left out from this collective repatriation. Then, 30,000 to 35,000 were repatriated between 1953 and 1958.3 Nevertheless, the rest were left behind in China for four decades until xii Preface their repatriation resumed in 1981. Some are still seeking repatriation as of the writing of this book, sixty-four years after the end of the war. Why were they not repatriated earlier? Why were they obliged to live in a hostile country for decades that had waged brutal political liquida- tion campaigns unparalleled in world history? This book analyzes the reasons why the Japanese civilians were left behind in China, and how they were forgotten for decades in the light of Sino-Japanese relations. Recently, there has been a rise in literature in Europe and the United States on the Holocaust, such as Irène Nèmirovsky’s Suite Française, Elie Wiesel’s Night Trilogy: Night, Dawn, Day, and H. G. Adler’s The Journey, just to mention three.4 The same phenomenon is taking place in Asia. The victims of Japanese imperialism during the Asia-Pacific War have broken their silence and spoken out in the final stages of their lives. The so-called “comfort women” of various nationalities have spoken the unspeakable. The Chinese and Korean forced laborers and war veter- ans who were conscripted into the Imperial Japanese Army (IJA) have also stood up and told their stories. In addition, Japanese children and women left behind in Manchuria have spoken out and recounted the “living hell” that they had gone through. These were the survivors’ last efforts to leave accurate accounts of the part of history that they lived through and its aftermath. Thus, this study constitutes an integral part of the literature on World War II, which passes down the true record of the war to future generations. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Among the many people to whom I am indebted in writing this manuscript, I would first like to thank Tsuneo Akaha, Kent E. and Toshiko Calder, Chalmers Johnson, David Leheny, Barbara Mori, Stephen Roddy, Richard J. Samuels, and Donald S. Zagoria for insightful comments on the manuscript and continuous encouragement. I thank Kanazawa Takeshi of Kokusai zenrin-kyokai, Ikeda Mariko of Manshu Yasuoka-bunson henshuiinkai, and Saruta Itsuo of Asahi shimbun for the loan of valuable photographs and a map. I also thank Editorial Director Farideh Koohi-Kamali, Editorial Assistant Robyn Curtis, as well as Gregory Rewoldt, my parents, Ito Shigeru and Asako, and my daughter Megumi for generous support. This page intentionally left blank NOTES ON THE TEXT

This book uses the modern system of Romanization for Chinese names, with the exception of historical figures, which are given in the Wade- Giles system, with their modern spellings shown in parentheses—for example, Chang Tso-lin (Zhang Zuolin). This work uses the traditional Hepburn system for Japanese, with macron; however, macrons are not used for names known in English without macrons, as in Ichiro and Tokyo. The McCune-Reischauer system is used for names in Korean, with the Revised Romanization of Korean spellings shown in parentheses—for example, Pusan (Busan). Chinese and Japanese names are given with the surname first, except for those who use the reversed order in English. The ages and titles of individuals in the text were as of the time of the occurrence of the event in the passage, unless specified otherwise. The exchange rate for Japanese currency is calculated at US$1 = ¥110 and that for the Chinese currency is at US$1 = 7.29 yuan RMB, as of January 2008, unless specified otherwise. All translations were made by the author in the form of paraphrases, not as direct translations or direct quotations. This page intentionally left blank ABBREVIATIONS

CCP Chinese Communist Party DP displaced persons DPJ Democratic Party of Japan GHQ General Headquarters HC House of Councillors HR House of Representatives IGH Imperial General Headquarters IJA Imperial Japanese Army IRC International Red Cross KMT Kuomintang (Nationalist Party) LDP Liberal Democratic Party MOFA Ministry of Foreign Affairs PLA People’s Liberation Army POWs Prisoners of War PRC People’s Republic of China ROC Republic of China SCAP Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers UNHCR United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees UNRRA United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration Source: Constructed by the author from official Japanese map, courtesy of Kokusai zenrin- kyokai. 1. Coronation of Pu Yi, March 1934 Source: Courtesy of the Kokusai zenrin-kyokaiiinkai.

2. Armed Farmer-Settlers, 1933–1934 Source: Courtesy of the Kokusai zenrin-kyokaiiinkai. 3. First and Second Dispatch Members of Yasuoka Branch Village Settlement in 1938 Source: Courtesy of the Manshu Yasuoka-bunson henshuiinkai.

4. Farmer-Settlers Sail to Manchuria aboard the Saiberia-maru Source: Courtesy of the Manshu Yasuoka-bunson henshuiinkai. 5. Yasuoka Branch Village Settlers Work in the Field Source: Courtesy of the Manshu Yasuoka-bunson henshuiinkai.

6. Young Women’s Volunteer Corps for Manchuria-Mongolia Settlement Source: Courtesy of the Manshu Yasuoka-bunson henshuiinkai. 7. Shinoda Kinji’s Family (Kinji, second from left; the sole survivor in the family) Source: Courtesy of the Manshu Yasuoka-bunson henshuiinkai. 8. Repatriated Orphans at Shinagawa Station, Tokyo, December 5, 1946 (the white cloth hanging from a girl’s neck contains a wooden box with her family’s bones) Source: Courtesy of the Asahi shimbun.