Depictions of Japanese Children Left Behind in China through the Perspective of Japanese and Chinese Female Writers: Based on Toyoko Yamasaki’s The Son of Earth and Yan Geling’s Auntie Duohe (Tazuru)

Abstract

This paper describes a comparative study of The Son of Earth, a novel by Toyoko Yamasaki and Auntie Duohe(Tazuru), a novel by Yan Geling. Even though the same topic was used in these two novels, the method of novelization was different. The Son of Earth by Toyoko Yamasaki describes the life of Lu Yixin, a Japanese war orphan left in China, who grew up as a son of the Earth, being tossed about by fate, and it is also a novel that tries to shed a light on Chinese contemporary history, such the Great Cultural Revolution. On the other hand, Auntie Duohe(Tazuru) by Yan Geling is a novel that describes the issue of Japanese war orphans left in China not as a social problem, but as the destiny of an individual, and it describes a symbiotic story crossing the race barrier in an enclosed space. In consideration of these differences, the things that were not visible become visible.

Keywords

• Japanese children left behind in China at the end of World War
• Social party novel
• Toyoko Yamasaki
• Auntie
• Symbiosis