Chapter 21 Chapter 7 Savage
Liu Lianren—Chinese laborer at Showa Mining Institute of Meiji Mining Co., Ltd., Hokkaido, Japan
Kwata Seiji——At that time, he was a hunter in Tobetsu Town, Ishikari County, Hokkaido, Japan
Kiichiro Kiyayaji—a member of the Hokkaidobetsu Town Council at the time
Xi Zhanming——He was the head of the Overseas Chinese Association in Hokkaido, Japan at the time
Liu Huanxin - son of Liu Lianren
I wasn't thrilled when the episode hit 1 million views on its first day of release.As for the reason, it is not clear.
In May 2011, at the railway station in Gaomi County, Shandong Province, I met Liu Lianren's son Liu Huanxin. Compared with the interviews on TV a few years ago, he was much older.I always feel that in the past few years, many stories must have happened to him.
That afternoon, not long after the interview started, Liu Huanxin cried.I can't bear it.
Liu Huanxin is Liu Lianren's eldest son. He was still in his mother's womb when his father was taken to Japan. 40 days later, Liu Huanxin was born. In his childhood memory, he was just a wild child without a father.The entire 14 years were full of humiliation and grievances.
I tried hard to define myself as a listener, and tried my best not to touch his inner pain, but sitting in front of the camera, I was conflicted.
This is another kind of war. There are no bullets, no military orders, and no massacres, but it is enough to turn a civilian who should have lived a peaceful life into a savage.Living in caves in the mountains, drinking blood like hair, for 13 years.
In 1958, Liu Lianren was discovered by a Japanese hunter. After 14 years of suffering, Liu Lianren returned to his motherland.Although he has returned to a normal life, the experience of working as a laborer and fleeing in Japan still made him tortured.Those fears always appeared in his sleep, making him unable to fall asleep night after night.
When the story of such a real little person in the war was presented to me so truthfully, it not only hurt my nerves.
In 2000, Liu Lianren passed his life. In that year, he was 89 years old. Until his death, he never got the answer he deserved and a fair sentence.I have been trying to find out, what supported him to go through a difficult life?In the coal mine where life is worse than death, in the deep mountains of Hokkaido where the climate is harsh and wild beasts are swarming, in the confrontation with the unchallengeable authority.
In Liu Huanxin, I tried to find the shadow of Liu Lianren.Apart from interviews, we didn't have much contact, but there are two small things that I remember deeply.
In June 2011, Liu Huanxin came to Beijing. When dining together, he ordered a bottle of beer and three dishes: tofu mixed with shallots, bitter chrysanthemum mixed, and Kung Pao chicken.He said that there is no need for big fish and meat, such dishes are comfortable and delicious.
Then, he took out two photos from his bag, which were the work photos he took for us when the film crew was interviewing in Shandong.On the back of the photo, his message to the film crew was neatly written.This long-lost simplicity moved me, and it also made me sigh for a long time.
After Liu Lianren's death, Liu Huanxin followed his father's last wish and started a long journey of litigation. However, in 2007, the Japanese Supreme Court rejected the plaintiff's claim in the third instance, and it has not been accepted since then.
That night, watching Liu Huanxin's figure disappear into the vast crowd, I remembered Liu Lianren's last words before his death: "I am not fighting this lawsuit for myself, I am for the national laborers, not for the 40,000 laborers, but for the Let China speak up, you have to remember that a person must have backbone, ambition, and courage, and with these "three spirits" you can be upright."
On February 8, 1958, in the deep mountains of Ishikari County, Hokkaido, Japan, the cold wind was biting. When hunter Seiji Kwata was tracking a hare, he found a string of scattered human footprints on the snow leading to the depths of the forest.
Following the footprints, Kwata Seiji found a cave hidden in the snow.
Kwata Seiji recalled: "At first I thought it was a fox hole. I kicked the edge of the hole, and the snow fell in. It must be a hole tens of centimeters in size. I took a closer look, this hole is very strange, it doesn't look like Fox Hole. I thought, Is there anybody here?"
The mountain is seven or eight kilometers away from the residential area, and there are few trees on the mountain.
Kuata Seiji couldn't help but clenched his shotgun tightly, and shouted loudly at the entrance of the cave.
"Suddenly a hand came out of the cave. It was really shocking. I'm afraid when I think about it now. A savage leaned out of the cave, looked up at me, and I shouted to him, come out." , but no matter how much you shout, he won’t come out.”
The roar of wild beasts came from the uninhabited mountains.It was getting dark, and in the silence of no response, the anxious Kwata Seiji slammed the shotgun at the entrance of the cave.
In December 1944, in the ice and snow of Hokkaido, a Chinese laborer named Liu Lianren was working in a dark mine in the Showa Mining Institute of Meiji Mining Co., Ltd.
"At that time, I worked 12 hours a day and ate one cornbread a day. I was very tired from work. If I couldn't do it, the Japanese would beat me with sticks." Liu Lianren recalled this before his death.
Liu Lianren is a resident of Caobo Village, Jinggou Town, Gaomi City, Shandong Province. At noon on September 2, 1944, 31-year-old Liu Lianren had just walked out of his house when he encountered a group of puppet soldiers. They held bayonets and tied Liu Lianren up with a rope without any explanation.During the tearing, Liu Lianren was hurriedly taken away before he even had time to say hello to his wife who was separated by a wall.At this time, his wife was 7 months pregnant.
Liu Lianren was escorted to Gaomi City.More than 80 people were arrested at the same time as him, all of whom were poor people in Gaomi, Zhucheng, and Jiaozhou.Unfortunately, they became Chinese laborers who would be taken captive to Japan.
Since Japan invaded and occupied Northeast China, it has used methods such as deception and arrest to send millions of Chinese to the puppet Manchukuo, where they are engaged in hard labor in coal mines, harbors and military projects.
According to the investigation and statistics of the Puppet Manchurian Labor Association at that time, from 1935 to 1941, a total of 4.8635 million Chinese laborers were recruited into Manchuria by the Japanese "Dadong Company" and the "Manchurian Labor Association" in a planned manner.
After the outbreak of the Pacific War in December 1941, a large number of Japanese men went to the battlefield, and the labor shortage in Japan was serious.
On November 27, 1942, the Japanese cabinet meeting passed a resolution on "Importing Chinese laborers into the country".This resolution unabashedly explained the intention and purpose of robbing Chinese laborers: "In view of the increasingly urgent demand for labor services in the Mainland, especially the obvious shortage of labor in the heavy manual labor sector, the Chinese laborers are moved into the Mainland according to the following essentials in order to make them Work together to complete the construction of the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere.”
From March to November 1943, the Japanese invaders "experimentally moved" 1,411 Chinese into Japan to engage in heavy physical labor.After a year of trial implementation, on February 28, 1944, the Japanese government promulgated the implementation rules of "Matters Concerning Promoting the Immigration of Chinese Laborers into China", and 30,000 people were included in the "National Mobilization Plan for 1944".From then on, the plan to arrest a large number of Chinese people for no cost and go to Japan to engage in heavy manual labor was officially implemented.According to Japanese official statistics, from March 1943 to May 1945, Japan forcibly moved 169 batches of 38,935 Chinese laborers to Japan.
According to the book "Records of the Forced Arrest of Chinese" compiled by Japan's Tanaka Hiroshi and others: "The Chinese who were actually caught on board and transported to Japan died of hunger, disease, and persecution before they were robbed by boat. The actual number of Chinese people should be 41,758. Most of them are young adults, 157 are children under the age of 15, and 248 are elderly people over the age of 60.”
Liu Lianren knew that once he was sent to Japan and joined the ranks of laborers known as the "army of death", there would be more bad luck than good luck. "At that time, my land hadn't been planted yet, and I was asked to do labor for Little Japan, no way! I had to run! On the way from Gaomi Railway Station to Qingdao Wharf, the villagers ran away seeing the opportunity. The devils used horse teams to block Many people died when they were stabbed with bayonets, but many escaped. I was shot on the top of the head, but I did not escape. Poor my wife, who was pregnant with a child and was about to give birth, but I was captured by the Japanese The invaders took it away."
The escape that almost killed him this time left Liu Lianren with a finger-long scar on his head. "If the bullet had been any lower, I would have been dead long ago."
According to Liu Lianren's recollection during his lifetime, he and his fellow sufferers were sent to Qingdao, where they were locked up in the fake "Labor Association" for six or seven days, and some people died of illness.Later, the Japanese forced them to change into military uniforms, took pictures, and stamped their fingerprints on the documents.In addition to those captured in other places, a group of more than 800 compatriots were taken as captive soldiers, boarded a cargo ship at Dagang Wharf, and robbed to Japan. "When I went, I thought that there would be no day to come back."
The ship sailed for 6 days and docked at Moji Port at the southwestern tip of Japan.This group of laborers was divided into two groups. 200 people, including Liu Lianren, traveled to Hokkaido, the northernmost point of Japan, and entered the Showa Mining Office of the Meiji Mining Company in Numata Village, Uryu County.This day is November 3, 1944.
Regarding the living conditions of Chinese laborers, Japan’s internal instructions are: “There is no need to have a heart of kindness and love; there is no need for bathing equipment; in terms of dormitory, after sitting down, there is only one or two inches of space above the head.”
Liu Lianren recalled that in the icy and snowy conditions in Hokkaido, Chinese laborers wore the single military uniform issued in Qingdao, and their legs and feet were frozen.Going to the mine to work, there is no lighting, no safety equipment in the mine, and the air is dirty and smelly.Countless sticks support the crumbling roof of the mine.The Japanese say "work 8 hours a day", but in fact they stipulate an excessive production quota. To complete the quota, it is not bad to be able to finish it in 16 hours.If you fail to finish, you will be beaten and starved at the slightest, and your life will not be guaranteed if you are serious.The Japanese supervisors used whips to lift their hands and riding boots to lift their legs. Chinese laborers were often beaten to pieces with blood flowing from them.
The coal in the mine fell down from time to time, hurting the Chinese workers.Coal dust corrodes wounds, festers and pus, and no one treats them, and they are not allowed to take leave to recuperate. Many people are disabled due to injuries.In the endless coal mine accidents, many people were killed.Liu Lianren recalled that sometimes, when he was called to dig up dead bodies, the dug up faces were purple, with bared teeth and protruding eyeballs, which made people feel chilling.
Hunger, fatigue, beatings, illnesses, and landslides took the lives of compatriots like devils.In less than 8 months, only 70 of the 200 workers remained. "It's really a living hell! Wowotou is only the size of a duck egg, and it's also mixed with wood powder and acorn noodles. However, we are not soft eggs. We protest together when we are not full. Everyone takes care of anyone who is sick. Run away if you have the chance," Liu Lianren said.
In June and July of 1945, after the snow in the deep mountains of Hokkaido melted, incidents of escape of Chinese laborers from the Showa Mining Works occurred from time to time.The Japanese are preparing to pull the grid around the coal mine, and the stakes have all been nailed.
An incident that happened at this time accelerated the escape of Liu Lianren, who had long wanted to escape.
At noon on July 31, Liu Lianren was beaten by a Japanese supervisor. "He beat me up, and I got fucked up, and then there was a conflict, so let's fight!" Liu Lianren said, and he fought back, "It's useless to beat this bastard, and we have one life. Killing one is enough. It’s better to kill three or five, anyway, I’m going to save my head.”
At this time, the other supervisors were taking a lunch break. Liu Lianren overthrew the supervisor, and escaped from this living hell of eating people together with fellow sufferers Chen Zongfu, Deng Zhuanyou, Chen Guoqi and Du Guiyang.
Immediately, a shrill siren sounded, and the Japanese gendarmes stationed nearby immediately assembled and began searching.
Liu Lianren and fellow sufferers fled to the northwest.They once heard that through the forest over there, they could embark on a path leading to northeast China.However, as soon as they got deep into the rolling mountains, they lost their way.
Liu Lianren recalled: "I don't know the north and the south, what can you do? What to eat? Eat the leaves. People are not animals, the leaves are not good, and it is not bitter to eat. Find some grass, find some wild vegetables, and eat it until you lose your face." Swollen."
After calming down, they identified the northwest direction based on the amount of green moss on the big trees and the appearance of the sun.They climbed mountains and ridges, passed through forests, but stopped at the vast sea.In the fabled northwest, there is no way home.
At this time, in Liu Lianren's home in the motherland on the other side of the sea, the son he hadn't seen was already 9 months old.The child was born 40 days after Liu Lianren was arrested. Ripan's wife named the child Liu Pan (later renamed Liu Huanxin).
Liu Huanxin said: "As long as I can remember, I have never heard anyone say what my father does. I only saw my mother sitting on the kang, weeping silently, and she didn't say anything else. My grandma hugged me and wept too. Washing my face, I saw tears dripping down on me."
Liu Huanxin, who has never seen his father since he was born, is dependent on his mother.In his childhood memory, "father" is just a title that will bring him humiliation. "Sometimes children fight, you have no father, he insults you. After I was eight or nine years old, I asked my mother, where did my father go? She said he went to a far away place."
Far away from his hometown, Liu Lianren and his fellow sufferers struggled hard.
In September 1945, Hokkaido entered winter early, and the temperature was often minus 40 degrees Celsius. The single clothes on Liu Lianren and his fellow victims were already in tatters.In order to be able to survive, they cuddled together in the snow to keep warm.They knelt down to the sky, became brothers, and made an oath: "Share the blessings together, and share the troubles together."
The brothers who shared weal and woe were soon forced to separate.
Liu Lianren recalled: "After about 20 days, they were ordered to disperse. Two were arrested, and three were left. After a winter, two more were arrested, and I was left alone."
In fact, Liu Lianren's four brothers were not all captured by the Japanese.According to Chen Zongfu's recollection, he was separated from others when several people were running to avoid the Japanese, and then lived in a cave in the deep mountains of Hokkaido, where he was a savage for nearly three years. At the beginning of 1948, he was discovered by Japanese hunters and brought to the police station. The police regarded him as a spy and imprisoned him for more than four months. He was released under the interference of local overseas Chinese. On the eve of the Spring Festival in 1948, he returned to his hometown of Gaomi, Shandong.
After his brothers were separated, Liu Lianren hid in the snowy mountains alone.What made him desperate was that no matter which direction he went out, he could only see the sea. Without a boat, he would never be able to return to his motherland.
Liu Lianren fell into a desperate situation. "No one to keep company, no one to talk to, wild beasts in the mountains want to eat me, Japanese devils want to kill me."
Liu Lianren lost the courage to live.In the dark night, he untied a straw rope around his waist, tied it in a circle on a tree, knelt down facing the motherland, and shouted: "Brothers, wait for me, I'm coming to you!" He closed his eyes , stuck his head into the rope loop.
In December 1945, in the uninhabited deep mountains of Hokkaido, a few Chinese with haggard faces came, and they shouted Liu Lianren's name loudly. These people were Liu Lianren's fellow sufferers.
Half a month after Liu Lianren and other five escaped, on August 15, 1945, the Emperor of Japan broadcast the "Edict of Armistice".In December of that year, all Chinese workers were notified that they could return to China.Before leaving, the fellow sufferers of the Showa Mining Institute thought of Liu Lianren.
The fellow sufferers have searched many places, but found nothing.The vast forest, like a huge and silent dark hole, swallowed Liu Lianren without a trace.With regret, these Chinese laborers boarded the ship back home.
On the other side of the sea, at Tanggu Wharf in Tianjin, among the crowd, a young Liu Pan in his mother's arms is looking at the ship that is docking.Father didn't come back.
Liu Huanxin said: "My father and brother Zhang Tongsheng came back. He came to my grandma and mother and said, 'My eldest brother is enough. They ran to the mountains and some came back, but they didn't see him back. I hope he won't be called a beast." Eat, and I hope I don't freeze to death, starve to death.'”
Liu Pan, who entrusted her mother and grandma's hope for her father, gradually grew up.After knowing the situation in his family, the head teacher felt that the word "pan" expressed a passive thought, and suggested that he change his name to "Huanxin".
Liu Huanxin recalled: "My grandma led me to a blind man to tell a fortune, and to calculate my fate. The blind man said that this child is blessed, and his father is not dead outside."
Liu Huanxin's father is indeed not dead.In the bone-chilling cold, Liu Lianren woke up and found that he was still lying in the snow, and the grass rope used to hang himself was broken due to long-term decay and could not bear his weight.
"Who do I blame when I die? I die in the open. If I die like this, my family doesn't know, and the Japanese devils don't know how or why I died." Liu Lianren said to himself, "I can't die yet. Hold on Kill me at most, if you can’t catch me, I will announce the cruelty of the Japanese devils to the Chinese when I go home. I am determined to live.”
The winter in Hokkaido is long and cold. The snow has just melted in June, and snowflakes are falling again in September. The sky and the earth are white, and wild animals often appear in the forest.Liu Lianren, who was determined to survive, had nothing to protect him from the cold. "It's so cold, it's hard to say." Liu Lianren said, "The place I live is not a cave. I dare not go into a cave. I dug a hole myself."
In this earth cave, where he could neither lie down nor stand up, Liu Lianren squatted in it day and night, and even slept in a squatting position.He dared not go anywhere except to go out in search of food.
According to Liu Lianren’s recollection during his lifetime: When he occasionally saw peasant women working in the fields, he thought that the men were still fighting at the front; when he heard the gunshots from the hunters who went hunting in the mountains, he thought that the military police who were chasing him were coming again .In fear, he was forced to hide in a deeper mountain forest, and has since turned into a disheveled, hairy and blood-drinking caveman.
Liu Lianren later recalled: "At night, the howling of wolves was creepy. I climbed up a big tree and took shelter on a branch. It was dawn, and I was so hungry that I was about to come down from the tree to find something to eat. A big snake was entangled on the opposite branch of the tree. It stood upright and spit out its core at me. I slowly drew out the knife and slashed at it... I slipped down the tree, picked up the snake, and skinned it without caring too much. , Putting the bloody snake meat into my mouth, I felt the intestines turning up together. After eating the snake, I looked at the sun and looked for the direction. I stepped forward and suddenly saw a big man not far away. I was shocked and pulled my legs I ran away. After running for a while, no one was chasing me. I braved up and moved closer, and then I saw clearly that it was a straw man protecting the crops. I quickly took off the clothes of the straw man and put them on myself, feeling much warmer gone."
Liu Lianren hid on the mountain during the day, and went to the mountainside to dig some potatoes to eat at night.He once found a box of matches in a small field hut, was ecstatic, roasted some potatoes, and devoured them. "That was the only full meal I had in 13 years, and it was also the first time I ate cooked food after escaping from the mine," Liu Lianren said.
In the second year of fleeing, Liu Lianren got a stove and a small iron pot of good quality. With cooking utensils, he could at least have a sip of hot soup.
In the third year of fleeing, Liu Lianren found an umbrella and raincloth, so he was not afraid of the rain; The American army coat miraculously appeared in his life, it is both clothes and quilt.In this way, year after year, Liu Lianren miraculously survived in the deep mountains of Hokkaido where the climate is harsh and wild animals are swarming.
Although he really wanted to go home, Liu Lianren never dared to go out of the mountains. "The Japanese devils are stronger than wolves. They either fight or kill. They dare not come out. Then live his whole life in the deep mountains, and forget it if he dies!"
In this way, Liu Lianren has been living in a cave in the deep mountains for 13 years, becoming a savage far away from the motherland and human beings.
On February 8, 1958, the hunter Kwata Seiji inadvertently broke into Liu Lianren's 13-year cave life.
The gloomy deep mountains, strange caves, and silent figures all made Kuata Seiji terrified. After he clicked the shotgun in his hand, he left in panic.
Liu Lianren in the cave was also panicked.He recalled that that night, braved the severe cold, he crawled out of the shelter hole in that tattered military overcoat.His legs had become so stiff from living in the cave that he could barely bend his knees.In the cold of minus 40 degrees Celsius, he only climbed less than 100 meters all night.
The next day, Kwata Seiji brought in the police.Following the traces of crawling outside the cave, they quickly found Liu Lianren.
Kiichiro Kiichiro, who was a member of the Hokkaidobetsu Town Council at the time, recalled: "When we saw Liu Lianren, he was about 30 meters away. After we found him, two policemen chased him. At that time, Liu Lianren didn't realize it. The police arrived at a distance When he was 10 meters away, Liu Lianren found (us) and wanted to run."
At this time, Liu Lianren was already very weak. Seeing the uniformed policemen chasing him, he was terrified to the extreme.
Kiichiro Muyaji recalled: "There was a ravine there. He fled towards the ravine. The police caught up with him. All three of them fell down. Then he fled again and was caught by us."
In a photo taken when Liu Lianren was found by the police, his bloodshot eyes were full of fear, two foot and a half long twisted braids were on his head, and a dirty and torn army coat was stained with dirt. Mud and bare cotton wadding. Inside the overcoat were miscellaneous rags and pieces of paper sewn together with various materials. He wore a pair of distorted and dilapidated high-top rubber shoes. His legs were red and swollen from the cold. Multiple ulcers formed due to severe frostbite.
"We wanted to communicate with him, but we couldn't speak the language," said Kiichiro Kiyaji.
Based on his accent, the Japanese police judged that he was a Chinese, and they put Liu Lianren in the police station.
One morning not long after that, Xi Zhanming, head of the Overseas Chinese Association in Hokkaido, Japan, opened the newspaper as usual.He was surprised by the news that an unidentified Chinese was found in the mountains.
Xi Zhanming recalled: "The newspaper initially suspected that he was a spy. After the US military occupied Japan, there was a radar base there. He was found near the radar base, so the Japanese suspected that the Chinese was a spy. Let's take a look. ,impossible."
Xi Zhanming immediately called the police station, hoping to meet the unidentified Chinese. "When we met for the first time, we were wearing suits. We told him that we were also Chinese, and he doubted it." Xi Zhanming said.
Although Xi Zhanming speaks Chinese and has repeatedly identified himself, Liu Lianren, who has spent 13 years on the run in panic, no longer trusts anyone.The first communication failed.
In order to let Liu Lianren put down his guard, Xi Zhanming decided to take Liu Lianren out of the police station first and find a hotel to settle him down first. "It's difficult to take a bath. He can't take off his clothes, so he has to cut them with scissors."
In the hotel that Xi Zhanming arranged for Liu Lianren, some local Chinese helped him cut off his long braids, took a bath, and put on clean clothes.It wasn't until this moment that people really saw what he looked like.
However, people's goodwill still could not let Liu Lianren relax his guard.Xi Zhanming said: "He always couldn't fall asleep, his eyes opened after only ten minutes of sleep, and vigilance became a habit."
Liu Lianren's appearance made Xi Zhanming realize that he might be a laborer who was arrested back then.In order to make him let go of his psychological guard, Xi Zhanming recruited a Shandong native who had also worked as a laborer.
This Shandong fellow who had a similar experience and accent with Liu Lianren finally made Liu Lianren gradually relieved of his guard.It took a lot of effort for Liu Lianren to say intermittently, "I am Liu Lianren, a laborer from Gaomi, Shandong Province," and then burst into tears.
The savage who lived in the deep mountains for 13 years finally returned to the world.
The communication between Liu Lianren and others gradually became smoother.Xi Zhanming recalled: "We went to the hotel every day after get off work, and slowly told him about the situation in China. He asked what is liberation and what is New China, and he didn't understand it at all. Only when I mentioned Eight Roads did he say he knew."
The identity of the Chinese savage in Hokkaido was revealed, and various local newspapers reported one after another, but as soon as the news came out, Liu Lianren was judged as an illegal immigrant by the Japanese government.
Confirming Liu Lianren's identity has become an urgent task.The problem facing Xi Zhanming is that Liu Lianren can no longer remember the location and name of the coal mine he worked in, and the Japanese government refuses to provide any archives about the arrested workers on the grounds that "the administration has been disbanded and the whereabouts of the documents are unknown."
In order to help Liu Lianren, Xi Zhanming mobilized all his connections and tried his best to find useful clues. "There is a Hokkaido Capital Corporation in Hokkaido, which still existed at that time. We found that company, and the company took out the labor list of that year."
After several days of searching, Xi Zhanming and the others finally found Liu Lianren's name on the 65th item of the Japanese Foreign Ministry's "Investigation Report on Employment of Chinese Laborers", and added the words "unknown".According to the ownership unit on the roster, Xi Zhanming approached the Hokkaido Meiji Mining Company and asked them to immediately send someone to confirm Liu Lianren's identity.
Xi Zhanming said that 13 years have passed, and Liu Lianren still clearly remembers that when he was at the Showa Mining Institute, the Japanese supervisor did not call his name, but called his work number, and his work number was 76.
Liu Lianren's protest against the Japanese side soon won the support of overseas Chinese in Japan and many kind-hearted Japanese. Some Japanese media also strongly demanded that the government give Liu Lianren a fair treatment.
On April 15, 1958, after 14 years of suffering, Liu Lianren finally boarded the ship home.
Liu Huanxin still vividly remembers the moment when his father disembarked from the ship returning home. "After the siren sounded, a man came down slowly from the gangway. He was wearing a top hat and was tall. Who is this? I don't know him. He is the father. I heard him say a few intermittent words in a hoarse voice. , together it is: 'Motherland, I'm back.' He probably couldn't yell out. It seems that he has walked down more than 20 steps from the gangway, and he didn't finish the sentence."
Liu Lianren, who failed to stay by his wife's side and watched the birth of his son, finally became a real father after waiting for 14 full years.
"My mother just cried and said to me, 'This is your father', and nothing else. I have been wronged for so many years, thinking how happy I am to call my father, let me be happy, no one bullied me. I My father and mother wanted to run out, but the sea of people couldn’t run away. After we squeezed out, the three of us hugged each other. I called Dad, and I tried hard to call Dad, but no one could hear me. The three hugged each other. Together. My uncle also came and hugged into a bunch. Everyone started crying, expressing past resentment and present joy with tears." Liu Huanxin said.
For Liu Huanxin, this is a father who still lives in the shadow of the past. "After he came back, he didn't like to see people. He slept curled up on the kang at night, and sometimes sat up, as if he had woken up from a nightmare, and it seemed that a Japanese had discovered him. In the first three years after returning home, he almost I wake up every night when I go to sleep."
33 years later, in May 1991, accompanied by his son, Liu Lianren returned to the mine in Hokkaido, Japan.
Liu Huanxin recalled: "We were there, and he stood at the entrance of the mine for 10 minutes without saying a word."
In March 1996, 83-year-old Liu Lianren formally filed a lawsuit with the Tokyo District Court, demanding that the Japanese government make an apology and pay 20 million yen in compensation.
After the prosecution, Liu Lianren said: "I hope this problem can be solved. Why do you say that, I am over 80 years old, and it is not easy to come to Japan. Once I come, I will be punished once. It is resolved, I have no such worries , I closed my eyes, and that’s it. I think this matter must be resolved, and there is no struggle in my mind. After I die, my son, my grandson, and grandchildren will resolve this matter.”
Since 1996, Liu Lianren has entered the Japanese court three times, telling his experiences and expressing his complaints.
On September 2, 2000, Liu Lianren died of illness at the age of 87.Until his death, he never waited for a fair verdict.
"He knew he was dying, so he grabbed my hand all day long and said, 'I'm dying. I'm not fighting this lawsuit for myself. I'm fighting for the more than 40,000 laborers across the country, and I'm also fighting for China.'" Liu Huanxin said.
On July 12, 2001, Liu Huanxin walked into the Tokyo District Court with his father's portrait in his hands, and placed his father's portrait on the plaintiff's bench respectfully.
On the same day, the Tokyo District Court pronounced that the Japanese government recognized Liu Lianren's inhuman experience in Hokkaido as a historical fact, and assumed responsibility, and compensated Liu Lianren's family with 20 million yen in compensation.
The Japanese government refused to accept the verdict and immediately appealed to the Tokyo High Court.
On June 23, 2005, the second instance of the Liu Lianren case was pronounced in the Tokyo High Court. The court reversed the plaintiff's claim on the grounds that "the compensation liability does not apply to the Japanese National Compensation Law" and "the lawsuit exceeded the time limit".
The court was in an uproar.A Japanese friend who went to observe the trial immediately asked the presiding judge loudly: "Do you still have humanity? It is extremely shameful to make such a judgment!"
After Liu Huanxin walked out of the court, he said angrily that the reason for the Tokyo High Court's change of sentence was completely based on the logic of militarism, which is an extremely unfair judgment.He then appealed to the Supreme Court of Japan.
On April 27, 2007, the Supreme Court of Japan ruled that Liu Lianren's case should not be accepted.
On May 15, 2007, 13 Shandong laborers and their survivors, lawyers from the Shandong Legal Aid Group, experts, scholars, and Japanese friends held a press conference in Jinan to express their strong protest against the Japanese Supreme Court.
On December 20, 2009, 5 survivors of the first batch of 38 victims of Chinese laborers who were kidnapped to Japan during World War II and the families of other laborers were accepted in Jinan by the Japanese Nishimatsu Construction Company that kidnapped Chinese laborers during World War II. The "compensation" of 600,000 yen (more than 45,000 yuan) per person delivered by the party.The reconciliation compensation lasted 16 years and went through 3 lawsuits. According to the agreement, Nishimatsu Construction Company will provide 250 million yen in compensation to 360 injured workers.
On the Ching Ming Festival in 2004, Liu Lianren's tombstone was completed in his hometown.This Chinese farmer, who has endured hardships for freedom and dignity, left a sentence to his son Liu Huanxin when he was dying: "You must remember that a person must have backbone, ambition, and courage. With these 'three spirits', you can be upright. "
On June 22, 1994, Yu Kawashima, director of the Asian Bureau of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan, admitted for the first time in the House of Representatives when answering the question from the Socialist Party member Sumiko Shimizu that according to the "Investigation Report on Employment of Chinese Laborers" compiled by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan in 1946, During the Japanese war of aggression against China, the Japanese army was instructed by its government to abduct 38,935 Chinese people to serve as laborers in Japan, and 6,830 of them died tragically under extremely harsh working conditions.Kakizawa Koji, who was Japanese Foreign Minister at the time, also said in response to the question that this historical fact was "undeniable" and that he "deeply regretted" the sufferings of the Chinese laborers who were forced into Japan.Previously, some political parties and groups in Japan had discovered the report of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, but the Japanese government has never acknowledged the existence of the report.
Among the Chinese laborers who were plundered to Japan, the youngest was only 11 years old, named Wang Dianmei (Kui?), who was born in Nanhuzhuang, Huai County, Shandong Province. died on the 1st; the oldest was 78 years old, named Zhang Zhaolun, who was born in Yanggu County, Shandong Province, and was looted to the Kamui branch office of Utachi Nei Railway Industry Co., Ltd. in Hokkaido.The birthplace of Chinese laborers is the largest in Hebei Province, followed by Shandong, Henan, Shanxi and other provinces.In addition, there are Hubei, Shaanxi, Shanghai, Guangdong, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Northeast China, etc.In terms of the status of laborers, peasants are the most, in addition to businessmen, captured Chinese officers and soldiers (including the Kuomintang Army and the Eighth Route Army), as well as the puppet army, security forces, police and former laborers, workers, teachers and students.
According to the report of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan, 310 of the 969 Chinese laborers at the Muroran Branch Office of the Kawaguchi Group in Hokkaido died, and the cause of death was all diseases.However, among the remains of 125 Chinese laborers who died in the Kawaguchi Group unearthed at the local seashore in the autumn of 1954, "the doctors present determined that 'someone was still breathing, and they were put into the pit'. There were bullet holes, and some had sharp wounds and cracks in the skull." In the summer of 1955, the remains of 73 Chinese laborers were unearthed in Xiaguan City. Witnesses at the time of the burial also confirmed: "There are still quite warm bodies. Due to the deterioration of the condition, although they are not dead, they are considered dead. Although they are still alive, they are thrown into the In the tomb...at the bottom of the tomb, there are seriously ill people struggling desperately among the rotting corpses."
From October 1945 to February 1946, the U.S. occupation forces and the Japanese government repatriated a total of 31,917 Chinese laborers (including 1,180 repatriated during the war), accounting for 82% of the number of people on board during the robbery.Including the 6,830 people who died, there was still a difference of 188 people compared to when they were on the boat.Of the 188 people, 100 are missing, including 35 hospitalized and escorted, 42 in prisons, and 23 who wish to stay in Japan; 88 are unaccounted for, of which 21 were unaccounted for before the end of the war. 67 people fled after the war.
Notes:
Notes: