Eighty years after the end of World War II, a delegation of elderly Japanese visitors made an emotional journey to Harbin, northeast China's Heilongjiang Province in 2025.
Many were in their 80s, marking what they described as their "final pilgrimage" to their "second homeland." These individuals are among Japan's "war orphans," left behind in China in the chaos following Japan's defeat in its war of aggression, and raised by Chinese foster parents.
Their stories begin with Japan's aggressive expansion. In the 1930s and 1940s, alongside the Japanese Imperial Army that invaded and oppressed the Chinese people, hundreds of thousands of Japanese people were dispatched to China as part of colonial settler groups, known as "Kaitakudan," to seize farmland. When Japan surrendered in 1945, chaos ensued, leaving thousands of Japanese children stranded.
Sumie Ikeda, 81, was one of the Japanese war orphans. In an exclusive interview with China News Service, she spoke in the fluent northeastern Chinese dialect of her childhood, reminiscing about her upbringing in Heilongjiang. "How could I be Japanese?" she reflected, her early identity obscured by the war's aftermath. Separated from her biological family as an infant, she was raised in Mudanjiang. "My foster mother was truly the most exceptional Chinese woman," Ikeda shared, noting that memories of her mother's strength continue to sustain her.
A pivotal moment occurred when she was eight, as local Chinese authorities identified her Japanese heritage. "This child is mine," left an indelible mark on Ikeda. As an adult, her search for biological roots in 1980s Japan ended in hardship and betrayal, leaving her destitute and suicidal until rescued by the Chinese consulate.
"My first life was given by my birth parents; my second by my adoptive parents," she recounted. "In the most difficult times, it was always Chinese people who reached out to us."
Her journey culminated in a miraculous encounter in a Tokyo café years later, where she met two women who turned out to be her long-lost biological sisters.
Ikeda's story reflects a broader experience. Official Japanese records recognize 2,818 such "war orphans." Their lives, Ikeda stresses, are a living indictment of the catastrophes caused by Japanese militarism. "The war launched by Japan caused us to be separated from our families, but it was the Chinese people who raised us, the children of the enemy," Ikeda emphasized.
She held the Japanese government accountable for their plight, citing the failure of timely repatriation and subsequent support. Over 90 percent of the orphans, she noted, joined lawsuits seeking governmental responsibility. Many faced discrimination, bureaucratic neglect, and poverty upon returning to Japan.
Despite these challenges, their enduring sentiment is one of profound gratitude towards China. "Though Japanese by birth, we would not have survived without Chinese people," Ikeda expressed.
Their collective narrative delivers a dual message of profound gratitude and solemn warning. It pays tribute to the extraordinary compassion of ordinary Chinese people—a love that chose nurture over vengeance—while serving as a living rebuke to the militarism that created their plight. "We must never have war again. Situations like ours must never be repeated," Ikeda urged.
"We are a group with the dual identity of both perpetrators and victims," she concluded, embodying a complex legacy of history, humanity, and a plea for lasting peace.
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