I visited the district Chiburi where
people of Manchuria development team pioneered near the resort Mt. Nasu.
Manchuria is a country that puppet
government of Japan established in northeastern China before the Second World
War. Manchuria was symbol of Japanese imperialism in world history, but it is also
the place that remind the common people of our Japan about the tragedy of the development
team. Development team is the farmers who were sent to Manchuria for security
and reclamation. They went abroad in Manchuria with dream of large scale
agriculture. When the Soviet Union declared war against Japan with breaking the
neutrality pact in the closing days of World War II, August 1945, the situation
has changed completely. Japanese troops in Manchuria could not fight back against
invasion of Soviet troops. People of development team were abandoned ,and they
had to run away by themselves towards Talien that is an escape port to Japan.
Since 1933, more than 1,000 farmers and
their family of the development team had lived in the district Chiburi. It is a
region of northernmost of Manchuria, there was a distance of 1000 km or more to
Talien. After the invasion of Soviet troops, about half people of the development
team died in the land of Manchuria. About 100 people out of the people who
arrived in Japan with losing their family were settled at the foot of Mt. Nasu,
They named the land Chiburi. About 70 families have been farming and maintain a
pioneering union today.
Chiburi district has a proud history but it`s
location is not well known. I visited at Chiburi district one day about 7 years
ago, and finally arrived in front of the stone monument of development. I tried
to read the inscription of Chiburi historical tale, but could not finish
reading just one sentence because my eyes were misted with massive tears. I
dropped into deep thought why they had strongly managed to focus on their
second development. I wonder what they found the light in and how they were aroused
themselves, or only for the requiem minded to their lost family. Here is the settlement
of heroes beyond my imagination.
My face was swollen with runny nose and
tears. I took pictures of the stone monument and read the inscription of epic
heroes the other day.
Chiburi
inscription of the stone monument
We had left the foot of Mt. Honguh in north
Manchuria and arrived at the mt. Nasu in November 1946.
We all had been wounded and poor.
Thinking of lovely children, brothers and
sisters,
more than 1,000 people who passed away in
Manchuria,
we lost the power to stand up.
But we all were hugged warmly by the people
lived in the village and Mt.Nasu.
Tackling a great deal of roots of pines and
oaks,
We reclaimed the wasteland in the moon
light.
We sowed wheat seeds, but we had gotten
only a poor crop.
Yet without being discouraged,
We have been reclaiming and cultivating our
own lands until now.
The thick smoke rising on Mt. Nasu trails
gently today, too.
It is also the same as two decades before.
The voice of cows are heard from green
pasture.
Here is the fertile land that heartbroken
people from Chiburi Manchuria encouraged.
The prosperity moreover of 2 generations,3
generations and so on,
is wished to grown into this earth as the
honorable Japanese farmer as the good villager.
The pioneering never dies.
