ID :
90319
Wed, 11/18/2009 - 12:23
Auther :
Shortlink :
https://www.oananews.org//node/90319
The shortlink copeid
Only 1 war-displaced orphan in China visits Japan to search for family+
TOKYO, Nov. 17 Kyodo - A woman who was left behind in China when she was an infant by her Japanese family after World War II arrived in Japan on Tuesday to search for her family members through a face-to-face interview.
The woman, identified as Qu Meiqin, presumed to be 64, is scheduled to meet
with a man in Ibaraki Prefecture, possibly her older brother, on Thursday.
She is the only member of the tour arranged by the Japanese welfare ministry
this fiscal year, the smallest number since the ministry launched a program in
1981 to organize trips to Japan for the war-displaced Japanese in China.
Qu said at Narita airport in Chiba Prefecture upon her arrival, ''I have
finally come to my home country and I really appreciate my foster parents who
raised me to be a doctor, as well as the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare
which helped me to come to Japan.''
Also at a press conference held at the ministry later in the day, Qu said, ''My
wish is to return to Japan for good together with my nursing mother and
family.''
In the spring of 1946, Qu, who was only about four months old, was handed over
to a Chinese woman in what is now Changchun, Jilin Province, who became her
nursing mother, by a Japanese woman who was an acquaintance of her mother.
The ministry has set up a meeting with the Ibaraki man as he claimed Qu was
about the same age as his younger sister from whom he was separated in China
when she was about four months old at the end of the war, after the ministry
disclosed Qu's background information.
During her stay, Qu is also scheduled to visit a facility in Tokorozawa,
Saitama Prefecture, which helps war-displaced people from China to live in
Japan, and make a two-day trip to Tateshina, Nagano Prefecture, before leaving
Japan on Nov. 28.
Up to now, 2,816 people, including Qu, have been recognized as war-displaced
orphans, of whom 1,282 have been identified. The ministry has been cooperating
with its Chinese counterpart in conducting a series of interviews to identify
those who were left behind in China.
The welfare ministry says it has become difficult to recognize Japanese
nationals stranded in China as war-displaced and to confirm their identities
due to the aging of their relatives as well as limited material evidence and
information, now that more than six decades have passed since the end of the
war.
==Kyodo
2009-11-17 23:34:12
The woman, identified as Qu Meiqin, presumed to be 64, is scheduled to meet
with a man in Ibaraki Prefecture, possibly her older brother, on Thursday.
She is the only member of the tour arranged by the Japanese welfare ministry
this fiscal year, the smallest number since the ministry launched a program in
1981 to organize trips to Japan for the war-displaced Japanese in China.
Qu said at Narita airport in Chiba Prefecture upon her arrival, ''I have
finally come to my home country and I really appreciate my foster parents who
raised me to be a doctor, as well as the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare
which helped me to come to Japan.''
Also at a press conference held at the ministry later in the day, Qu said, ''My
wish is to return to Japan for good together with my nursing mother and
family.''
In the spring of 1946, Qu, who was only about four months old, was handed over
to a Chinese woman in what is now Changchun, Jilin Province, who became her
nursing mother, by a Japanese woman who was an acquaintance of her mother.
The ministry has set up a meeting with the Ibaraki man as he claimed Qu was
about the same age as his younger sister from whom he was separated in China
when she was about four months old at the end of the war, after the ministry
disclosed Qu's background information.
During her stay, Qu is also scheduled to visit a facility in Tokorozawa,
Saitama Prefecture, which helps war-displaced people from China to live in
Japan, and make a two-day trip to Tateshina, Nagano Prefecture, before leaving
Japan on Nov. 28.
Up to now, 2,816 people, including Qu, have been recognized as war-displaced
orphans, of whom 1,282 have been identified. The ministry has been cooperating
with its Chinese counterpart in conducting a series of interviews to identify
those who were left behind in China.
The welfare ministry says it has become difficult to recognize Japanese
nationals stranded in China as war-displaced and to confirm their identities
due to the aging of their relatives as well as limited material evidence and
information, now that more than six decades have passed since the end of the
war.
==Kyodo
2009-11-17 23:34:12
