Many people in the village came to attend the funeral. She came to China as a teenager and concealed her true identity for decades. Even her husband, relatives and neighbors around her didn't know that she was Japanese.

text | Dawei Youji

Edit | Dawei Youji

On this day, an ordinary village in Danfeng County, Shaanxi Province was holding a funeral.

The one who died was an 89-year-old grandmother named Wang Yulan. I have been married to Shaanxi for decades.

Many people in the village came to attend the funeral.

But soon, everyone discovered a strange place, why is her last photo of a photo wearing a Japanese kimono?

Several young villagers couldn't help but talk.

Isn’t Wang Yulan a Chinese? Why wear Japanese clothes?

When Japan invaded China, it is still so annoying that people are talking about it. And there is actually a Japanese in my village?

That’s right, Wang Yulan is a Japanese.

She came to China as a teenager and concealed her true identity for decades. Even her husband, relatives and neighbors around her didn't know that she was Japanese.

What kind of story does this old man wearing a kimono named Wang Yulan have? Why did she come to China? Why didn’t you choose to go back to Japan?

01

1929, Wang Yulan was born in a small fishing village in Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan.

At that time, her Japanese parents named her " Mizusaki Hideko ".

Because of Xiuzi's arrival, they were all very happy, and the family of three lived a simple and warm life.

When Xiuzi was 10 years old, her mother died of serious illness.

The father married another woman. I thought Hideko could continue to be loved by someone and could make up for the pain of losing her mother.

As a result, the stepmother doesn’t like Xiuzi and often beat and scolds the child.

What's even more hateful is that this woman took the opportunity to sweep away all the money in the family and disappeared.

Without money, he was still a big man, so his father decided to send Xiuzi to Changchun, China and join his own sister.

3-year-old Hideko Mizusaki was unwilling to leave her father. She cried and begged her father: "Don't send me away, I don't want to leave you, Dad."

The father looked at his young daughter and felt extremely reluctant.

But there was no way, and in the end he sent Xiuzi away.

942, under the occupation of the Japanese army, the Chinese people lived in dire straits.

At that time, in order to occupy Chinese land in depth, Japan also migrated millions of people from its own country to Northeast China.

They live in the Northeast all year round, work here to farm, open shops, marry Chinese people, and reproduce offspring, in order to achieve the purpose of assimilation.

And Hideko Mizusaki's aunt and uncle are one of these people.

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In order to attract more Japanese women to China, the Japanese government also filmed movies to beautify their life after coming to China, saying that they can be a landlord and their life is very comfortable.

The father insisted on sending Xiuzi over because of the temptation of the Japanese government's plan.

Xiuzi spent three simple years here with her aunt.

She has adapted to life in the Northeast and can also speak authentic Northeast dialect .

Aunt also gave her a Chinese name "Wang Yulan".

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But, in that era of war, how could there be a long and stable life?

In 1945, Japan was defeated and declared unconditional surrender. Japan's plan to invade China completely failed.

After China took back the Northeast, these Japanese who originally wanted to take root in the Northeast were also deported.

These Japanese people rely on the support of the Japanese government and the army to occupy the land of the people and harm the local people all year round.

Northeast people naturally hated them to the core. They smashed various shops opened by the Japanese and drove away the Japanese.

The defeated Japanese could only escape with their tails and boarded the ships returning to Japan.

, but Xiuzi was lost with her aunt in panic.

16-year-old Hideko Mizusaki stood on the street in a mess, crying for a while, her eyes full of fear and fear.

can't board the boat home, so will I never be able to see my father and aunt?

The poor little girl was left in a foreign country like this.

Can't go back to Japan, Hideko can only find a way to survive in China.

She lied that she was Chinese and was just working for the Japanese. Because of her accent, everyone believed it true.

That's it, Hideko Mizusaki settled here.

Soon, she was at the age to get married. As an adult, Hideko Mizusaki is graceful and has a gentle and considerate personality. Her neighbors and neighbors all love this little girl very much.

So, enthusiastic neighbors introduced Xiuzi to her blind date.

Finally, Hideko Mizusaki married an Kuomintang officer - Zong Kaiguo.

Zong founded the country with a good appearance and a gentle personality. He is very good to Xiuzi. She also likes this officer very much.

So, not long after, the two got married.

founding country held a grand wedding to marry Xiuzi.

This husband is both cultured and romantic, and he loves Xiuzi very much, which makes her feel the long-lost love.

Xiuzi, who thought she could live the rest of her life, was once again hurt by fate.

A comfortable and happy life didn't take long, and my husband went to the battlefield, but he didn't expect that he would never come back.

The young Xiuzi lost her husband and family.

After the founding of the country was gone, others introduced her to another soldier, Lei Guoshun.

Lei Guoshun was also very good to her, and the New China was established at that time, and the two of them lived a good life together, so they no longer had to worry as they were before.

However, the marriage did not last long, so Xiuzi filed for divorce.

Because she found out that her husband Lei Guoshun had a wife in her hometown.

The upright Hideko couldn't accept this and chose to leave.

Hideko Mizusaki, who is only 20 years old, has already had two unfortunate marriages. She doesn't understand why her life is so bad.

She became very depressed and often cried.

After leaving Lei Guoshun, she had nowhere to go and stayed in a small village in Shaanxi Province.

An enthusiastic villager in the village saw Xiuzi alone and introduced her to a man named Song Zhifu from the neighboring village, thinking that she could make her settle down here without having to live a hard life alone.

Xiuzi knew that she was a woman, wandering outside and had no support. It would be great if she could stabilize.

So, she agreed to her marriage with Song Zhifu.

Song Zhifu is an authentic farmer, honest and honest. Although the life of the two of them after marriage is hard and simple, they finally feel at ease.

She did not tell her husband that she was Japanese and that the villagers were just Japanese. She only said that she was called "Wang Yulan".

so she lived in Danfeng County in Shaanxi Province without hiding her true identity.

More than twenty years later, when Hideko Mizusaki was 47 years old, Song Zhifu died of illness.

In the same year, she married her fourth husband Li Mingtang.

years old and over 50 years old, Hideko Mizusaki has experienced four marriages. Although the first half of her life is ups and downs, if she can spend the second half of her life smoothly, even if she is incognito and stays away from her relatives and hometown, she will be satisfied.

However, she never thought that she would return to her hometown one day.

02

When the national population census, the "black household king Yulan" who had never registered was found.

In the past, in order not to be discovered by others, Hideko avoided the matter of getting a household registration many times.

Later, the staff and villagers came to persuade him many times, and finally convinced Hideko Mizusaki.

She told the staff about her true identity and experience. After explaining the problem clearly, the staff applied for an foreigner residence permit for Hideko Mizusaki according to the policy.

Hideko Mizusaki has always been reluctant to tell the truth because she knew the mistakes made by the Japanese army against China, and was afraid that after they knew their identity, they would be driven away by the villagers and despised by her husband and family.

So I have been avoiding the staff’s questioning and the persuasion of the villagers.

After knowing that Wang Yulan is Japanese, the villagers were also shocked. Before, they simply thought she was a foreigner. I didn’t expect that this woman who speaks Shaanxi dialect every day would be a Japanese.

However, although the villagers were surprised, they still treated her as usual.

Over the years, Xiuzi has been kind, down-to-earth and capable, and has a good relationship with everyone. In fact, the villagers see it.

At that time, Hideko Mizusaki who came to China was only in her teens, and many things were not something she could decide, just a little girl.

In fact, Hideko Mizusaki can also conceal her identity and show her to the staff that she is a Chinese.

The reason why she didn't do that was because her missed relatives and her hometown were in Japan. She was worried that if she really joined the Chinese household registration, she would not be able to recognize her relatives.

It is her always obsession.

She missed the small fishing village she lived in when she was a child, and even more so her father and aunt. For Hideko Mizusaki, it is her real hometown.

In 2002, Hideko Mizusaki's child helped her apply to go back to Japan to visit relatives.

The nervous Hideko Mizusaki was waiting for the news. She couldn't wait to return to Japan and see the land she missed day and night.

But unexpectedly, the Japanese Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare rejected Hideko Mizusaki's request for the reason that "fake" .

Wang Yulan was very shocked. She could already remember things when she left Japan, and it was impossible for her to remember her identity and name incorrectly.

After some trouble, I found out the reason: It turned out that in 1995, an old lady had already settled in Japan as Hideko Mizusaki.

Since I knew someone was impersonating me, Wang Yulan submitted an application to Japan to explain the situation.

This matter has attracted the attention of the Japanese government.

They conducted multiple investigations, and also went to Wang Yulan's house to collect blood, and compared DNA.

After a series of investigations, the truth finally came out:

At the time of 1993, a Chinese woman bought the information of "Hideko Mizusaki" from others and verified her identity with the Japanese government.

In 1995, he took his family to formally settle in Japan.

This person also applied for the "Japanese post-war orphans" subsidy and received the residence issued by the government. After the incident of

was found out, the family was also deported by the Japanese government.

Things are clear. This time, the Japanese government finally approved Wang Yulan's application to return to China to visit her relatives.

So, Wang Yulan and her husband Li Mingtang embarked on a journey back home together.

returns to Fukuoka Prefecture , but there is not much familiarity.

That small fishing village had long been turned into a small building, and most of the family members I missed had passed away, only my aunt's daughter returned to the world, and there was the sea.

Seeing this sea, Wang Yulan remembered the situation of her father going out to sea to fish, and a warm current couldn't help but burst into her heart.

Wang Yulan held her cousin's hand and burst into tears.

She still remembers that when they were in the Northeast, they often played together, but now when they see each other, they are already full of children and grandchildren, with gray hair.

Wang Yulan has lived in China for decades and has long forgotten how to speak Japanese. Talking with my cousin with can only rely on translation.

She gradually realized in her heart that although she was a Japanese and her relatives were in Japan, she had long since no longer belonged to this place.

She has become Qinling people on the loess land in Shaanxi.

She can speak Shaanxi dialect , familiar with everything in Danfeng Prefecture, and now Fukuoka Prefecture in Japan is more like a strange place to her.

So, she rejected her cousin's invitation to let her stay in Japan for life.

choose to continue back to China.

Last

In 2018, 89-year-old Wang Yulan died.

According to Wang Yulan's instructions, the family buried her remains on Chinese land, but the photo of her husband was wearing a kimono.

For Wang Yulan, Japan is her concern and her hometown, but China has long become her real home.

In fact, there are many war orphans like Wang Yulan.

According to news reports, there are three such orphans in , Shangluo County, Shaanxi.

Wang Yulan is unfortunate because of the war, her life has become very bumpy.

But she was also lucky to survive in that war-torn era and enjoy her old age.

Of course, this is because China is a kind and tolerant country.