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40,000 Chinese laborers "immigrated" to Japan, but mysteriously disappeared, and 50 years later, the truth was exposed, which brought tears to people's eyes.
China and Japan are separated by a strip of water, but they have a long-cherished grudge. During World War II, China was invaded by Japan and fell into the most difficult period in 5,000 years. Countless Chinese people died under the butcher's knife of the Japanese army and suffered the cruel suppression and management of the Japanese.
However, during this period, about 40,000 Chinese laborers chose to "emigrate" to Japan. After arriving in Japan, these 40,000 Chinese laborers mysteriously disappeared. Fifty years later, the appearance of a survivor revealed the truth that had been hidden for many years.
Why did the Chinese people emigrate to Japan? After arriving in Japan, why did they mysteriously disappear again?
Click to pay attention and walk into the tragic story of the mysterious disappearance of Chinese laborers.
Immigration policy
40,000 Chinese laborers "immigrated" to Japan, but mysteriously disappeared, and 50 years later, the truth was exposed, which brought tears to people's eyes.
Japan, as an island nation, has had natural limitations on its development since ancient times. In the past feudal times, because of the economic development of water
The demand for land, population, and resources can still be met.
However, with the advent of modern times, the wave of industrialization and modernization has made the Japanese government deeply feel its own limitations.
Since the United States opened the door of the shogunate of Japan, Western ways of life and ways of thinking have entered Japan. As a country with a strong ability to "imitate and learn" in East Asia, Japan soon began to learn from Western systems and promote its own changes.
After the Meiji Restoration, Japan deeply realized its backwardness and embarked on a path of total westernization. In the process of Westernization, a group of politicians with far-reaching ideas and insights began to envision the future of Japan.
Under the influence of the idea of maritime expansion, Japan's thinkers and politicians in the early modern period established the basic national policy of invading other countries and developing into the mainland.
Since then, Japan has been carrying out the process of modernization and on the other hand, it has stepped up its military buildup in preparation for a war of aggression. After basically completing the task of industrialization, Japan, a newly-born second-rate imperialist country, began to launch a war of aggression against Korea, China, and Russia.
In the process, Japan successfully seized control of the whole of Korea and seized part of Russia's rights and interests in Northeast China. In this regard, Japan naturally carved up the Northeast with Russia and began its plan of deep aggression.
The later story, all Chinese know very well, the Japanese brazenly launched a surprise attack and occupied the entire northeast. After many years of operation, Japan once again launched an attack into the heart of China, intending to annex all of China.
Southeast Asia in the western Pacific region also quickly fell into the hands of the Japanese and became an important part of its colonies.
Throughout World War II, Japan occupied and controlled more than 7 million square kilometers of land and sea in East Asia based on an island nation. Nominally, the so-called "Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere" has indeed been established.
But it is clear that circles exist, but the so-called co-prosperity is just a façade. In order to smoothly assimilate the occupied areas, Japan began to come up with many methods.
One of the most important was the large number of workers in the colonies who were required to go to work in Japan.
Because of the needs of foreign wars of aggression, most of Japan's working-age labor force was fighting abroad. Even if, for some reason, they were not able to enter the army, the Japanese government would arrange them as pioneer regiments to help the government run the colonies.
Under such a policy, the vast majority of Japan's small island nation has been assigned political assignments, leaving the country or taking up important jobs. There are a large number of vacancies in the labor industries that sustain the country's industrial development.
If left unchecked, Japan's economic development will inevitably slow down, and eventually its economy will be unable to sustain its huge war needs, which will inevitably lead to the collapse of Japan as a whole.
In order to keep the imperial machine running, Japan had to find a way to obtain cheap labor from the colonial areas and put it into the development of local industry to keep the fascist war machine alive.
As a result, it became an important task for the Japanese government to recruit a large number of colonial laborers of working age to "immigrate to Japan."
In this way, the Japanese people will not only be able to pour into the colonies and quietly change their cultural background, but also provide a large number of labor for the development of the Japanese mainland, so that the local development will not be slowed down due to the needs of conscription and colonization.
China, as the largest Japanese colony and operational target in East Asia, is naturally the focus of this plan.
In April 1938 and July 1939, Japan successively promulgated the "National General Mobilization Law" and the "National Requisition Order", and began the so-called labor requisition program.
In November 1942, the document "On the Matter of Chinese Labor Migration from China" issued by the Japanese government for Chinese laborers was officially promulgated, which opened the curtain on the "immigration" of Chinese laborers to Japan.
Chinese laborers
40,000 Chinese laborers "immigrated" to Japan, but mysteriously disappeared, and 50 years later, the truth was exposed, which brought tears to people's eyes.
Although nominally, the Japanese government is requisitioning laborers to help them "immigrate" to Japan and obtain job opportunities. But in reality, these laborers are nothing more than coolies in the eyes of the Japanese.
However, in order to deceive more Chinese people, the Japanese government had no choice but to adopt a combination of deception and forced abduction.
At that time, China was in flames of war, and there was a long-term contest between different forces such as the Japanese, the Kuomintang, the Communist Party, warlords, bandits, and landlords.
Under such an uninterrupted war, the lives of the Chinese people can be described as miserable. Natural disasters and man-made disasters are not something that ordinary people can bear. In those days, the people were struggling to survive.
It is precisely because of this that as long as the people of that era were given a little hope, they would firmly hold it as a basis for life.
The Japanese government seized on this characteristic and used traitors to coax the Chinese people to go to Japan to work. Although they are all descendants of the Chinese nation, these traitors regard the victimization of their compatriots as their first priority and unconditionally obey the orders of the Japanese invaders.
They knew that the Chinese and Japanese governments were forcibly recruiting laborers, but they still walked the streets and alleys, falsely claiming that they could arrange jobs for the people.
In the mouths of these traitors, Japanese companies are simply "paradise places, not only are they not very labor-intensive, but they can also get good remuneration and adequate rest."
Such conditions were unimaginable to the Chinese people at that time. Although most of them were a little suspicious, under the deception of the traitors, they still signed a deed of sale and became laborers in Japan.
According to relevant information, during World War II, the Japanese government coaxed tens of thousands of Chinese people to go to Japan to work as laborers through major puppet government regimes and colonial labor organizations.
In addition to these laborers who were deceived by the puppet government and traitor organizations, the Japanese army and the major puppet military organizations also directly carried out forced abductions in the colonial areas and threatened the Chinese people to go to Japan to participate in labor.
There are also some Chinese prisoners of war and prisoners who were captured by the Japanese army or puppet army organizations.
In general, the Japanese army took more than 40,000 civilians from China to Japan.
These people mainly traveled to Japan on Japanese commercial or military ships, and worked in various civil engineering, mining, and mechanical processing plants.
According to the statistics of later generations, more than 30,000 of the nearly 40,000 Chinese people are between the ages of 16 and 40, and are in the prime of life, making them the most considerable labor force.
Most of these people are from Shandong, Hebei, Henan, Northeast China and other places, and most of them were honest people who worked as farmers before they left for Japan.
These people traveled to Japan on a ship with the hope of a better life. But what awaits them is a painful and miserable future.
For the nature of "coolies" had already been set for them before the laborers were called. Therefore, the moment these people set foot on the Japanese sea-crossing ship, they were in fact bound to meet a tragic fate.
Under the coordination of the Japanese government and the local chaebols, the 40,000 Chinese laborers were dispersed to various parts of the country after arriving in Japan.
The largest numbers are in Hokkaido, Kyushu and eastern Japan, all of which have more than 5,000 people.
Hokkaido, the region with the highest concentration of Chinese workers, has more than 15,000 Chinese workers in 58 workplaces, accounting for almost half of the total number of Chinese workers.
However, such a large group of workers quickly disappeared after arriving in Japan. In the end, these tens of thousands of people seemed to disappear into the fog of history, and there was no trace of them again.
It wasn't until 50 years later that everything was restored. What happened to China's 40,000 workers?
Tragic experience
40,000 Chinese laborers "immigrated" to Japan, but mysteriously disappeared, and 50 years later, the truth was exposed, which brought tears to people's eyes.
After the Chinese laborers were transported to the enterprises, they were immediately reorganized to facilitate the management of the enterprises. Under the management of Japanese companies, Chinese laborers were divided into several levels, such as brigades, squadrons, squads, and teams.
After officially entering the work link, the Japanese showed their fox tails.
After the Chinese workers completely entered the control of the Japanese companies, the Japanese government soon issued the so-called Chinese management guidelines, which explicitly prohibited the Chinese workers from contacting the outside world and blocked all contact information of the Chinese workers with the outside world.
In this way, China's 40,000 laborers were completely isolated from the world and disappeared from the public's sight.
In order to manage Chinese laborers more effectively, the Japanese government specially dispatched police stations for direct management. The main job of these police officers is to prevent the workers from escaping and to carry out post-arrest operations.
Once these Japanese policemen are dispatched, no matter what reason the Chinese workers have, they will not escape the fate of death.
These people were either killed directly, died suddenly in the process of fleeing, or simply disappeared. But anyone who dares to flee will eventually die.
But even though they knew that fleeing was a dead end, the Chinese workers continued to flee one after another. There is no other reason than that the Japanese do not treat Chinese laborers as human beings at all.
Although Chinese workers are employees of Japanese companies, they do not enjoy the so-called employee treatment at all.
Most of the houses they live in are made of makeshift wood, and many of them are not even completely finished, and are completely repurposed from abandoned houses.
These "staff dormitories" are not only poorly equipped, but also very small, with each of the Chinese workers having only about 0.6 square meters of floor space.
Some Japanese companies, even more excessively, have placed at least 660 Chinese laborers in dormitories with a total area of only 130 square meters.
In addition, Japanese companies have joined forces with the government to relocate Chinese laborers in deep mountains, river valleys, and cliffs far from residential areas. Sentry posts were set up around the work park, high-voltage power lines were erected, and heavily armed sergeants were deployed.
In terms of food, the Japanese government, which could not even properly supply its own front-line soldiers, did not take the Chinese workers into account. Each of them is fed a diet of multigrain rice, noodles and a few pickles.
Under the high-intensity work, it is simply not enough to fill the stomach. Even the food provided by Japanese companies is simply moldy and spoiled. Once you eat these foods, you will suffer from gastrointestinal discomfort or direct poisoning and death.
When the Chinese laborers fell ill, they were not treated by the Japanese side at all, but were directly abandoned.
And when it comes to dressing, the Japanese are even more indulgent. Most of the Chinese workers who joined the Japanese company wore their summer clothes before leaving for Japan.
After the wear and tear of labor, it is common to wear clothes in rags and be barefoot and shirtless. Even in winter in northern regions like Hokkaido, Chinese laborers never received any clothing assistance.
In addition, Japanese companies and related management organizations are also frantically squeezing the value of the work of Chinese workers. Not only did they deny the reasonable needs of the vast majority of workers, but they also maximized their working hours.
In the course of their work, workers are insulted, scolded, and deliberately made difficult. Many Japanese even deliberately devised schemes to induce workers to make mistakes in order to meet their own conditions of violence.
Unable to bear the humiliation, the Chinese workers launched a series of rebellions, escapes, and strikes. The Japanese, on the other hand, responded directly by means of repression and arrest. In the process, thousands of Chinese laborers were killed.
Others have committed suicide, died of illness, and died of work-related injuries due to the harsh environment.
After Japan's surrender, the surviving laborers finally saw the light of day and were repatriated one after another.
However, after the incident, the Japanese government directly destroyed the relevant evidence and denied the crime of forcibly abducting laborers and causing a tragedy. In fact, when it comes to publicity, Japan has always used the term "immigration".
But the surviving laborers and some of the incriminating evidence that did not have time to be destroyed were finally exposed. The workers banded together to collect evidence of the crime, and finally brought this dusty past back into the public eye.
The years have passed, and it seems that everything is far away. However, those painful pasts will always remain in the memory of the Chinese nation and be engraved in the hearts of the Chinese nation. Don't forget the national shame and forge ahead!
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