Another Heart Warming Story from Japan

[Savonarola]

Despite attack, 'war orphan' family intact
BY MAKI OKUBO, ASAHI SHIMBUN SENIOR STAFF WRITER

This family is off to a new start in Omura, Nagasaki Prefecture. (MAKI OKUBO)
NAGASAKI--In their apartment in Omura, Nagasaki Prefecture, a couple chopped food in the kitchen while their children played on the living room floor. It was Jan. 31, and the couple was preparing dinner for a family reunion.

Just two days earlier, such a normal family scene would not have seemed possible, when the Nagasaki District Court found the 40-year-old Chinese man guilty of attempting to murder the woman, his ex-wife, by stabbing her in the neck.

Prosecutors had sought a four-year sentence for the defendant. But then something unexpected happened.

The citizen judges for the trial helped in deciding on a prison term of three years, suspended for five years, to give the couple another chance.

The lay judges said they were moved by the words of compassion by the family, including the victim, and the hardships they faced as kin of a war-displaced Japanese.

The ex-wife's mother, 73, was a Japanese child when she was left behind in China in the chaos at the end of World War II.

"I wanted the ruling to provide a sense of warmth," a citizen judge in his 60s said at a news conference. "They (the couple) supported each other, and hated each other, and through all that became strongly attached. I felt they had to help each other."

Many children of Japanese who had settled in Manchuria in northeastern China were left behind at the end of World War II.

Since 1972, when Japan and China normalized diplomatic relations, 2,536 of these so-called war orphans have returned to Japan permanently. As of November 2009, 6,779 of their family members had joined them in Japan.

The Japanese government has set up programs to help the war-displaced adapt to life in their homeland. But given their unfamiliarity with the Japanese language, customs and traditions, many of the war-displaced Japanese and their Chinese families have struggled to adjust.

The ex-wife came to Japan with her daughter, now 15, in 1998, after her mother was recognized as a war-displaced Japanese and started living in Japan.

The woman's Chinese husband had refused to move to Japan and divorced her.

But when their daughter started missing her father, he reinstated the marriage and came to Japan in 1999. In 2005, the couple had a son, now 4.

Life in Japan was difficult, especially for the man, who had not completed elementary school in China and had problems learning Japanese, according to the family.

Nevertheless, he found work at construction sites and did his share of chores.

But the stresses in life led to a drinking problem, and in drunken rages, he beat on his wife, his family said.

In 2006, after his employer went bankrupt, the man moved out to seek work in the Kanto region in eastern Japan.

The couple went through their second divorce, this time at the request of the wife. However, the children remained close to their father, so he visited the home in Nagasaki Prefecture several times a year, they said.

Jobs became scarce with the prolonged recession, and the man moved back to the woman's home, promising to remarry her.

But his drinking continued. In May 2009, at the apartment in Omura, the woman scolded the man for being drunk yet again. Angrily, he grabbed a kitchen knife with a 12-centimeter blade and stabbed her in the neck, according to the ruling.

The woman's wounds took two months to heal.

During the trial, the woman and the daughter pleaded with the judges for leniency. "I bear no grudge," the woman said.

A citizen judge in his 30s said he felt torn between "the former wife's feelings and the thought of how long it would take for the man to rehabilitate himself."

Emerging from the courthouse after the ruling, the man pledged never to drink again and bowed deeply to his ex-wife and others who gathered to welcome him back.

"I was partly to blame for using such harsh language," the ex-wife said. "He promised never to drink again--and I believe him."

After the family returned home, the couple's son refused to leave his father's knee. The couple stayed up until the morning talking about their future.

The family said their new chance at life was thanks to the citizen judges.

As the family reunion started, the woman's mother said, "It's good to see the family together and things the way they should be."

The extended family raised a toast with apple juice.

I'm sure that will work out fine.   

[BuddhaRhubarb]

makes me all nostalgic.

[garbon]

Oh my.