Marginal People of Two Motherlands: The “Abandoned Japanese” and War, Memory, and Gender.

The term “abandoned Japanese” refers to those Japanese left in China for various reasons in the wake of World War II. Most lived in Manchuria, and during the Chinese civil war they experienced life and death situations and many changed their identities to become Chinese. In the 1970s, when Japan and the China restored diplomatic relations, some of the “abandoned Japanese” reclaimed their original identities and returned to Japan, becoming marginal people of “two motherlands.”This article explores the identity of “abandoned Japanese” from the perspectives of war, memory, and gender. The first part of this article analyzes the meaning of war memory itself. The “abandoned Japanese” not only became a pawn in the Cold War era of diplomatic “war” but also their “Manchurian experience” became a site of the search for war responsibility. The second part analyzes their memories of a variety of experiences, including the frustration they felt at the bottom of society, as well as the terror of the “Manchurian experience” as they faced life and death situations at the conclusion of the war. Finally, gender differences played an important role in determining their choices about their future plans. It is clear that “abandoned Japanese” as marginal people produced by a particular time and place reflect the tragedy of war and possess complex identities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]