Buried Voices--Yukiko: A Japanese in China´s army

cctv.com 09-02-2005 11:17

In 1922, Japan began sending thousands of settlers to China's Northeast, under the pretext of developing the region. After the Japanese surrender at the end of World War Two, Tokyo abandoned many of the settlers. Among them was a teenage girl, Yukiko Yamabe, and her family. They turned to local Chinese for help. Yukiko even joined the People's Liberation Army. She's made it her life's work to be an ambassador of peace between the two countries.

Yukiko was two years old when the Japanese troops invaded Northeast China in 1931. Now 70 years old, Yukiko lives in Tokyo. But part of her will always be in China.

The Japanes Yukiko Yamabe said, "60 years ago, my family lived in Northeast China. The Japanese there were very scared after Japan's unconditional surrender. But one day, a Chinese soldier came to borrow a pan from my family. My mother thought he'd probably never return it. To our surprise, one week later, the soldier returned the carefully cleaned pan with two precious radishes, and thanked us. This changed our view towards the army. And I enlisted."

Yukiko's six years as an army nurse took her to many places. And she married a fellow soldier--another Japanese.

She also said, "When I had my own children, I began to better understand the cruelty of the Japanese militarism and invasion. And I wondered how many lives the militarism killed and how many disasters it caused. I returned to Japan with these questions."

Yukiko returned to Japan in 1953 and later joined the Japan-China Friendship Association. She dedicated herself to the Japanese peace movement. And when the biological warfare crimes of the Japanese military Unit 7-3-1 were exposed in the 1980s, she wanted the world to know the truth.

And she also said, "People need to know history. So we've been investigating the chemical weapons abandoned by the Japanese troops and the victims of Unit 7-3-1. We're prepared for the difficulties and we're not afraid."

Yukiko is one of the principal investigators of the Unit 7-3-1 war crimes. She's interviewed many survivors and documented evidence in video and photographs.

But she says the current political atmosphere means the road to justice and peace is still long and complicated.

Editor:Liu Fengming  Source:CCTV.com