RIGHTS-JAPAN: War Orphans Feel Unwanted in Their Own Homeland

By Suvendrini Kakuchi Reprint | | Print |

Suvendrini Kakuchi

TOKYO, Oct 21 2003 (IPS) - Separated from her parents who were fleeing the Russian invasion in northern Manchuria at the end of World War II, Hideko Murata, now 69, grew up in a foster home dreaming of the day when she could return home to Japan.

Her dream came true in April 1994, after 18 years of trying desperately to gain entry into this country. She was finally given the green light by Japanese authorities under a belated official programme launched in 1981, launched to help thousands of surviving Japanese war orphans in China to return home if a relative acts as guarantor.

Murata’s story, however, does not have a happy ending. Her efforts to integrate into Japanese society were what she calls ”a long and very painful process because of government red tape” that kept them in China till they were too old to be rehabilitated and piece back their lives in Japan.

After years of appealing for better services and not getting it, Murata, along with hundreds of ageing war orphans are now suing the state for compensation – 300,000 U.S. dollars each – and demanding an apology to boot.

The 1, 260 plaintiffs, all of them between 58 and 71 years, claim that the government failed in its obligation to help the civilians, mostly women and children, who were left in Manchuria, China after Japan was defeated in August 1945.

Japan had colonised Manchuria in the thirties and enacted a policy to resettle tens of thousands of poor farmers in the region.

Fumio Hagonoshita, a 61-year-old plaintiff who was finally able to return to Japan in 1995, insists that only an apology from the government can ease the pain he has suffered.

Hagonoshita lives with his Chinese wife in Gifu here in Japan, and waited almost 20 years before he could be accepted back to his country. But this was only made possible after he managed to find a Japanese sponsor, a requirement before he could become a recipient of government assistance for returnees.

At one point after he returned to Japan, Hagonoshita says he was duped into working at a ranch by his sponsor, who was only looking for a cheap labourer.

The ranch owner never paid him and Hagonoshita had to survive by selling vegetables, working in construction sites, and in a poultry farm.

Deprived of a stable income because of discrimination and isolation, Hagonishita and others like him are suing the government, tired of being forced to depend on welfare handouts. The situation has created bitterness and depression among Japanese returnees, who feel cheated by their own country.

”If the government had brought us back when we were younger, we could have been able lead better lives,” says Hagonoshita. A placard he held at a recent, packed rally said, ‘We want to lead lives like other ordinary Japanese’.

Kohei Niitsu, an official at the Health, Welfare and Labour Ministry, refutes claims of not looking after the returnees enough.

He says the government has spent more than 17 million U.S. dollars so far on repatriation to help returning Japanese children, including paying for visits and resettlement programmes.

”We have set up centres to help them, provided language programmes and extended preference in state policies to them. It is up to them to study hard and make use of the opportunity,” he explains.

But statistics are proving otherwise. Surveys by the ministry indicate that more than 65 percent of the almost 20,000 war orphans and their family members who have settled down in Japan are on the dole. Eighty-four percent of them live in public housing.

The average monthly income recorded for a retired couple is around 1,300 dollars, or about half of what their Japanese counterparts in the same age group make.

Volunteers working with returnees also report a high rate of suicides and depression among family members.

In a poll conducted by the Federation to Help Japanese Orphans Left in China, language problems, followed by discrimination because they are not able to adjust to Japanese customs, were cited as the most pressing reasons for why returnees had difficulty becoming self-reliant.

The children of war-displaced returnees are also struggling to cope. Guan Lingxian, who opted to come to Japan with his parents and maternal grandmother, a Japanese war orphan, faced constant bullying in a Japanese school, and now has to work to help his family make ends meet.

”Japan’s rigid social rules and poor help from the state work against these people. Many of them, who returned eagerly to their motherland, find themselves and their Chinese spouses only continuing a miserable existence,” says Yuwane Tayama, spokesman for the group.

Takatoshi Onodera, a lawyer appearing for the plaintiffs, compares their situation to the tens of thousands of ageing victims of Japan’s former Asian colonies who have filed lawsuits against Tokyo, seeking compensation and an official apology.

”While the new lawsuits are by Japanese, the issue is the same. Both sides are seeking to define the Japanese government’s responsibility in enacting policies that denied the human rights of ordinary civilians, marking an important chapter in Japanese history,” he points out.

The returns have so far filed four lawsuits, and Onodera says four more are being planned for later this year.