Japanese people paying homage at the Japanese Cemetery in Fangzheng County
Hello everyone, I am Lantai.
Today Lantai will introduce to you a new county for overseas Chinese living in Japan - Fang County, Heilongjiang.
Call it "new" because this county is not a traditional county for overseas Chinese in Japan; the traditional hometown of overseas Chinese in Japan is Qingtian County, Lishui City, adjacent to the west of Wenzhou City, Zhejiang Province. The main hometown of overseas Chinese in Japan and Europe.
Founder County It was only after the reform and opening up that a large number of people born in the county began to choose to go to Japan for development.
The reason why Founder County has become the "new hometown of overseas Chinese" is because according to an academic paper jointly created by Chinese and Japanese scholars in 2014, as of 2014, there were 38,000 Chinese born in Founder County in Japan, and among them, they had become Japanese citizens. There are 12,000 people, and 26,000 people still maintain Chinese nationality, but many of these 26,000 people are preparing to naturalize.
Do you think that 38,000 people came to Japan and 12,000 people became Japanese citizens, which are not too many from the data point of view?
But you may not know that as of 2009, there were only 220,000 "Founders" in Heilongjiang's Fangzheng County. The "Founders" in Japan accounted for 17% of the total population of the county, and the "Fangzhengs" who had become Japanese nationals accounted for They account for 5% of the county's total population, and "Founders" who have naturalized Japanese nationality account for 31% of "Founders" living in Japan.
These three data have become "the best in the country".
So, why does Heilongjiang Fangzheng County have such a high proportion of visitors to Japan and naturalization rate?
The Japanese Pioneer Corps during World War II
This starts from Japan's surrender in 1945..
As we all know, since the September 18th Incident, Japan has adopted a policy of "appropriation" of the three northeastern provinces of China and immigrated a large number of Japanese from Japan. This is the notorious "Northeast Development Corps" in history.
According to Japanese statistics, at its peak, there were approximately 1.55 million Japanese living in the three northeastern provinces.
In August 1945, the Soviet Union declared war on Japan . The Soviet army crossed the Sino-Soviet border and began to attack the Japanese Kwantung Army.
The Japanese Kwantung Army, which was already weakened at the time, had too much time to take care of itself and could not control the Japanese expatriates in the three northeastern provinces; and the Japanese expatriates in the three northeastern provinces also began to spontaneously flee to the seaside and to the big cities controlled by the Kwantung Army.
This also includes Japanese expatriates in Heilongjiang.
Fangzheng County of Heilongjiang Province was under the jurisdiction of Sanjiang Province during the Puppet Manchukuo period (now the northeastern part of Heilongjiang Province). Surrounding Fangzheng County, there are the Daluomi Development Group, Yihantong Development Group, Yongjian Development Group, and Baobao Development Group. There are 4 development groups, including the Xingxiang Nagano Development Group, with a total of 2,114 Japanese and 456 households living near Fangzheng County.
To be honest, although these Japanese expatriates are innocent themselves, their so-called "exploitation" is actually to forcefully occupy the mature land that has been cultivated by the local Chinese, and then drive the Chinese people to real land reclamation.
Therefore, these Japanese expatriates may not subjectively have the will to invade and exploit, but their settlement in the three northeastern provinces is a kind of invasion and exploitation in itself.
Back to the topic, another special thing about Fangzheng County is that Fangzheng County was a food supply base for the Japanese invaders in Heilongjiang Province at that time, and it was also the only way to Harbin, so there were a large number of people living in Jiamusi and other places close to Sino-Soviet In order to escape the Soviet attack, Japanese expatriates in the border areas passed through Fangzheng County to Harbin in an endless stream.
According to statistics from Japanese scholars, by the time Founder County was completely controlled by the Soviet army, there were a total of 15,000 Japanese expatriates stranded near Fangzheng County; Although the Soviet army also set up a so-called Japanese refugee shelter in Fangzheng County, this shelter had the worst conditions among the refugee shelters established by the Soviet Union at that time.
As a result, in order to survive, more than 2,300 Japanese women married Fangzheng County residents, and an additional 3,420 Japanese expatriates stayed in Fangzheng County as tenants, servants, or odd jobs.
The most typical one is the Japanese woman Matsuda Chie. Her story was reported by Wenhui in 2018 and became widely known to everyone.
In 1941, after Chie Matsuda and her family arrived in China, they were photographed in front of their house in the village of Shantun Village in the north where they settled.
Her then Japanese husband was forcibly captured by the Kwantung Army, and his life or death was unknown; she took her children with her, and in order to survive, she chose Married to a Chinese farmer in Fangzheng County.
Matsuda Chie is also able to live in Fangzheng County because of her kind-hearted Chinese husband.
Chie Matsuda also did a big thing in the 1960s: She took the initiative to find relevant departments, hoping to contain the remains of Japanese people who were basically exposed in the wild at that time. Yes, you read that right, although it was passed Nearly 20 years later, the bones of many Japanese expatriates are still exposed in the mountains around Fangzheng County.
Later, the relevant departments agreed to Matsuda Chie's request and built a "Fangzheng Area Japanese Cemetery"; according to Wenhui Po, the cemetery is located in the east of Fangzheng County, about 5 kilometers away from the county seat, in a sunny place at the foot of Fortress Mountain. On the slope, it occupies a large area of โโland and is surrounded by a pine forest. The base and tombstone of the tomb are made of cement. In the middle of the tombstone is written "Fangzheng District Japanese Cemetery", and at the bottom left is "Erected in May 1963" There are eight eye-catching characters written on each side of the cemetery entrance, which are "China-Japan friendship will never war again" and "Sincere friendship will be passed down from generation to generation."
This also led to a large number of descendants or relatives of Japanese expatriates coming to Fangzheng County to pay their respects after the reform and opening up. Japan also took the initiative to strengthen ties with Fangzheng County.
At the same time, with the normalization of Sino-Japanese relations in 1972, beginning in 1973, the return of Japanese survivors and their families to Japan began. Since then, families united by special geographic and blood relationships have continued to immigrate to Japan from Fangzheng County.
This also resulted in many Chinese residents in Fangzheng County suddenly having many Japanese relatives.
A photo of Chie Matsuda with her son, daughter-in-law and two granddaughters, taken in 1991
Take Chie Matsuda reported by Wenhui Po as an example. Although her son Cui Fengyi still works in Fangzheng County, it stands to reason that Cui Fengyi is Fully meeting the conditions for moving to Japan at that time, assuming Cui Fengyi chose to move to Japan at that time, he could obtain Japanese citizenship that year.
Cui Fengyiโs wife and his wifeโs relatives can apply to study or work in Japan in the name of โJapaneseโ Cui Fengyiโs relatives.
For a long time after the reform and opening up, there was a big gap in income levels between China and Japan, so it is understandable that many people in Fangzheng County chose to use their "relative relationships" to work, study and live in Japan.
At the same time, because there are many Chinese-Japanese mixed families in Founder County, and many Chinese-Japanese mixed families even have third generations, it is also understandable that these Founder people with a certain proportion of Japanese ancestry choose to naturalize in Japan when they travel to Japan. things.
Tokyo in Japan in the 1980s
And according to relevant data, although the economy of Fangzheng County can only be regarded as average among the counties under the jurisdiction of Harbin, the per capita deposits in Founder County are more than double that of Harbin; similarly, the postal and telecommunications business volume The coefficient is also 1 to 2 times that of Harbin, which shows that the flow of money, materials, etc. between Founder County and foreign countries through postal services is very active.
Looking at the changes in various indicators in Founder County between 1980 and 2010, the per capita regional production was 73 times more, the per capita tax revenue was 30 times more, and the year-end deposits of financial institutions increased 357 times. This shows that although Founder County Many people choose to travel to Japan or even become naturalized in Japan, but they have not forgotten their "roots." Such high deposit data shows that these people living in Japan frequently remit money to their hometowns.
In short, although the proportion of people living in Japan and naturalized Japanese in Fangzheng County is very high, looking at data such as postal remittance , it seems that these people living in Japan in Fangzheng County cannot be said to have "forgot their roots."
I donโt know what you think, please leave a message in the comment area for discussion.
References:
"The Development of Fangzheng County, the Hometown of New Chinese Overseas Chinese in Japan", [Japanese] Yamashita Kiyomi, Ogi Yufumi, Zhang Guimin, Du Guoqing, "Nanyang Materials Translation Series" 2014.3
"Pure Conscience - Remembering a "Remnant" "Japanese Women in China", Xinli, "Archival Spring and Autumn" 2018.5
In 1941, after Chie Matsuda and her family arrived in China, they were photographed in front of their house in the village of Shantun Village in the north where they settled.
Her then Japanese husband was forcibly captured by the Kwantung Army, and his life or death was unknown; she took her children with her, and in order to survive, she chose Married to a Chinese farmer in Fangzheng County.
Matsuda Chie is also able to live in Fangzheng County because of her kind-hearted Chinese husband.
Chie Matsuda also did a big thing in the 1960s: She took the initiative to find relevant departments, hoping to contain the remains of Japanese people who were basically exposed in the wild at that time. Yes, you read that right, although it was passed Nearly 20 years later, the bones of many Japanese expatriates are still exposed in the mountains around Fangzheng County.
Later, the relevant departments agreed to Matsuda Chie's request and built a "Fangzheng Area Japanese Cemetery"; according to Wenhui Po, the cemetery is located in the east of Fangzheng County, about 5 kilometers away from the county seat, in a sunny place at the foot of Fortress Mountain. On the slope, it occupies a large area of โโland and is surrounded by a pine forest. The base and tombstone of the tomb are made of cement. In the middle of the tombstone is written "Fangzheng District Japanese Cemetery", and at the bottom left is "Erected in May 1963" There are eight eye-catching characters written on each side of the cemetery entrance, which are "China-Japan friendship will never war again" and "Sincere friendship will be passed down from generation to generation."
This also led to a large number of descendants or relatives of Japanese expatriates coming to Fangzheng County to pay their respects after the reform and opening up. Japan also took the initiative to strengthen ties with Fangzheng County.
At the same time, with the normalization of Sino-Japanese relations in 1972, beginning in 1973, the return of Japanese survivors and their families to Japan began. Since then, families united by special geographic and blood relationships have continued to immigrate to Japan from Fangzheng County.
This also resulted in many Chinese residents in Fangzheng County suddenly having many Japanese relatives.
A photo of Chie Matsuda with her son, daughter-in-law and two granddaughters, taken in 1991
Take Chie Matsuda reported by Wenhui Po as an example. Although her son Cui Fengyi still works in Fangzheng County, it stands to reason that Cui Fengyi is Fully meeting the conditions for moving to Japan at that time, assuming Cui Fengyi chose to move to Japan at that time, he could obtain Japanese citizenship that year.
Cui Fengyiโs wife and his wifeโs relatives can apply to study or work in Japan in the name of โJapaneseโ Cui Fengyiโs relatives.
For a long time after the reform and opening up, there was a big gap in income levels between China and Japan, so it is understandable that many people in Fangzheng County chose to use their "relative relationships" to work, study and live in Japan.
At the same time, because there are many Chinese-Japanese mixed families in Founder County, and many Chinese-Japanese mixed families even have third generations, it is also understandable that these Founder people with a certain proportion of Japanese ancestry choose to naturalize in Japan when they travel to Japan. things.
Tokyo in Japan in the 1980s
And according to relevant data, although the economy of Fangzheng County can only be regarded as average among the counties under the jurisdiction of Harbin, the per capita deposits in Founder County are more than double that of Harbin; similarly, the postal and telecommunications business volume The coefficient is also 1 to 2 times that of Harbin, which shows that the flow of money, materials, etc. between Founder County and foreign countries through postal services is very active.
Looking at the changes in various indicators in Founder County between 1980 and 2010, the per capita regional production was 73 times more, the per capita tax revenue was 30 times more, and the year-end deposits of financial institutions increased 357 times. This shows that although Founder County Many people choose to travel to Japan or even become naturalized in Japan, but they have not forgotten their "roots." Such high deposit data shows that these people living in Japan frequently remit money to their hometowns.
In short, although the proportion of people living in Japan and naturalized Japanese in Fangzheng County is very high, looking at data such as postal remittance , it seems that these people living in Japan in Fangzheng County cannot be said to have "forgot their roots."
I donโt know what you think, please leave a message in the comment area for discussion.
References:
"The Development of Fangzheng County, the Hometown of New Chinese Overseas Chinese in Japan", [Japanese] Yamashita Kiyomi, Ogi Yufumi, Zhang Guimin, Du Guoqing, "Nanyang Materials Translation Series" 2014.3
"Pure Conscience - Remembering a "Remnant" "Japanese Women in China", Xinli, "Archival Spring and Autumn" 2018.5
