Chinese woman has Japanese bullet removed from her head 64 years on
Bizarre news from China:
BEIJING (Reuters) – A Chinese woman’s 64-year-old headache has ended after doctors removed a bullet that relatives said lodged in her skull when Japanese soldiers shot her during World War Two, state media reported on Monday.
Jin Guangying, now 77, lost consciousness after a Japanese patrol in Jiangsu province fired on her in 1943 as she went to meet her grandfather, a guerrilla fighter, the Beijing News said.
[...]
Later, she would regularly have headaches, foam at the mouth and “talk nonsense… like she had gone mad”, the paper said.
Jin’s family had thought her symptoms were due to a tumour, the paper said, quoting Wang Zhengping, the woman’s daughter.
“Because our family was poor, we were never able to have her taken for a thorough check-up,” Wang said.
A military expert in Nanjing, the Jiangsu capital, had identified the bullet as one used by Japanese soldiers at that time, the newspaper said.
Jin’s relatives planned to seek redress for her more than 60 years of suffering.
“As her children, we will soon go to Nanjing to consult with relevant experts as to how to seek compensation from the Japanese government, and will definitely be seeking a public apology,” the paper quoted Wang as saying.
Is the family of this woman, who was shot by the Japanese while apparently communicating guerrilla fighters, actually expecting that they can get compensation and a public apology from the Japanese government? Haven’t they heard about the numerous failed attempts of other Chinese individuals seeking compensation? The Japanese government regards all individual claims from Chinese citizens to be a settled matter, as the People’s Republic of China apparently abandoned the right of its citizens to seek compensation from Japan when it signed a treaty normalizing relations with Japan. I’d say the chances of this woman getting compensation are nil, and the chances of a special apology just for her are also pretty slim. This woman’s 60+ years of suffering were a terrible thing, but her family shouldn’t unrealistically believe that they are going to get compensation from the Japanese government, especially if an “expert” tells them that they are sure to cash in…
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They just want to try to make the Japanese look bad by asking for a public apology. Its a bunch of crap. The Chinese should let the past be the past and get over it. The United States got bombed at Pearl Harbor and we are bitching about it anymore, are we?
While I understand that it was an act during a time of war, and she may not necessarily be eligible for monetary compensation, an apology for a lifetime of suffering as a result is absolutely not too much to ask. the japanese are guilty time and time again of refusing to atone for its atrocities, and i would think that it would be in the government’s best interest to distance themselves from that past as much as possible.
by your logic, maybe you should write to studio execs in hollywood to stop making films about the holocaust and just “get over it.”
capice?
Which Japanese are guilty? My wife? My wife’s father? My brother-in-law?
The Japanese should have apologized after the war. Apologizing for something people’s grandfathers did, using the name of the Japanese government, damns all the people who are alive today for the crimes of their predecessors.
This is wrong.
Now, before claiming that the Japanese government is unrepentant, please look up the Japanese foreign development fund. There you will find the Trillions of yen paid in reparations to Korea and China over the last 25 years, in interest-free infinite-term “loans”, aid packages, and plain ol’ gifts. Being uninformed in the age of the Internet is unforgivable.
Jamie,
Absolutely right… it is unforgivable. I apologize… my comment, though not even close to as eloquently stated as Everlasting’s, was not intended to include the entirety of the Japanese population. I should have quoted specifically the words of Japan’s nationalist prime minister Shinzo Abe, in which he denied certain atrocities in WWII. His later semi-apology in which he states that “he was sorry for the situation those people found themselves in” was simply not good enough. If it is far-fetched to take the words of the current Japanese PM as representative of the government, again, I apologize. From my perspective however, its pretty damned shameful.
In my earlier comment, I did say that the lady may not be eligible for any monetary compensation. But how about at the very least an acknowledgement that she suffered more than any of us can ever come close to knowing for 60 years, at the hands of the Japanese?
Dave
I guess you are talking Abe’s apology to the former cofort women.
The Austraillian woman who demanded apology has a differnt perspecitve from you.
“SYDNEY, March 27 Kyodo
An Australian grandmother who was forced into sexual slavery by the Japanese military during World War II has welcomed Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s apology to so-called ‘’comfort women.’’
Speaking on local television, 84-year-old Jan Ruff O’Herne said Monday night the apology had given all such sexually exploited women their dignity back.
‘’It’s just fantastic news, I could hardly believe it,’’ Ruff O’Herne said.
‘’It means the comfort women, they’ve got their dignity back. We’ve been waiting for this for 60 years,’’ she said.
Abe reiterated Monday afternoon that his administration stands by a 1993 statement admitting that the Imperial Japanese Army was ‘’directly or indirectly’’ involved in setting up and running the brothels and transferring women to them.
Asked if the government has no intention of issuing an official apology, Abe told the parliamentary committee meeting, ‘’As the prime minister, I am apologizing here.’’
And here are some list of apologies to the comfort women.
Kato hief Cabinet Secretary 1992
The Government again would like to express its sincere apology and remorse to all those who have suffered indescribable hardship as so-called “wartime comfort women”, irrespective of their nationality or place of birth.
Kono the Chief Cabinet Secretary 1993
The Government of Japan would like to take this opportunity once again to extend its sincere apologies and remorse to all those, irrespective of place of origin, who suffered immeasurable pain and incurable physical and psychological wounds as comfort women.
Murayama Prime Minister 1995
The problem of the so-called wartime comfort women is one such scar, which, with the involvement of the Japanese military forces of the time, seriously stained the honor and dignity of many women. This is entirely inexcusable. I offer my profound apology to all those who, as wartime comfort women, suffered emotional and physical wounds that can never be closed
Hashimoto Prime Minister 1998
Recognizing that the issue of comfort women, with an involvement of the Japanese military authorities at that time, was a grave affront to the honor and dignity of large numbers of women, I would like to convey to Your Excellency my most sincere apologies and remorse to all the women who underwent immeasurable and painful experiences and suffered incurable physical and psychological wounds as comfort women.
Koizumi Prime Minister 2001
As Prime Minister of Japan, I thus extend anew my most sincere apologies and remorse to all the women who underwent immeasurable and painful experiences and suffered incurable physical and psychological wounds as comfort women.
………………………………………………………………………..
Back to the topic, I am sorry for this Chinese woman, And you are right that she suffered in the hands of Japanese soldiers.
But I wonder why I don’t hear the Chinese media pick up the story of the victims of nationalists party, CCP. for which no apology was made.
Yes, Dave, she suffered for a long time and it was the fault of the Japanese man who shot her.
I think this woman’s story is illustrative of the complexity of the issue of apology and compensation.
Legally there is a good case to be made about the sufficiency of Japan’s apologies, and certainly in terms of actual behavior (no real likelihood of warlike behavior, by international standards comparatively large financial contributions to neighboring countries, etc.). However, looking at this woman’s case in a more nuanced light would show that her asking for an apology isn’t a black and white issue.
Legally there is some ambiguity regarding the language of the bilateral agreement between China and Japan. The actual language of the agreement itself doesn’t mention the citizens of China, only the Chinese state. Thus a legal argument can be made that China only gave up state claims, and not those of its citizens. On the other hand a more practical interpretation would tend to show that such waivers typically are meant to cover all forms of reparations, even if the actual language does not state this. I think the Japanese Supreme Court, faced with the political repercussions from allowing more foreign suits, for practical purposes deferred to the latter interpretation.
However these long and rambling legal explanations seem more suited for diplomacy than for individual persons, and this woman’s case is illustrative of that. As an attorney, I often have to tell people that the legal solution doesn’t always solve all real-life exigencies. This woman was on her way to see her grandfather. In her mind her grandfather was probably a guerrilla fighter, fighting Imperial Japan, an invading force. She was shot at, and for the next 60 years endured extreme agony and discomfort. On an individual level she was wronged, and suffered immensely because of that wrongdoing. On a national level, bilateral agreements may have addressed the issue. But for her and those similarly situated, the past is simply not done with, but a familiar part of their present day lives. In her mind she was harmed and no remedy has been given to address her specific problem. This isn’t particularly new, many legal rulings have had the effect of removing a legal remedy from large numbers of people for the sake of political practicality (think tort-liability, condemnation, etc). But you are still left with a significant number of people who will never have their wrongs righted, which seems live a perverse outcome of the law.
I used to see this issue quite cynically, but as I approached the issue on a more personal light I’ve come to conclude that it is this individual sentiment, expressed collectively, which animates part of the apology/reparations debate.
OMG WW2 happened along time ago…they have already apologized many times. GET OVER IT!
She would have far better chance of an apology if she tracked down the surviving members of the unit that shot her: many ex-soldiers are profusely apologetic about their actions in China, and while she wouldn’t get money (unless she sells the bullet on Yahoo Auctions Japan) she would perhaps get a ,ore personal and meaningful apology than some faceless government doublespeak.
I want compensation from China for the suffering I endured after eating Chinese-imported shrimp.
I must agreed that it is very unfortunate that this women have to suffer all these years but I must say that it is not the fault of that soldier that bullet remain in her for all these years. It is not like she was being forced to keep it. She should feel lucky that she did not die from that bullet.
The fact that she does not have proper medical care is not the fault of the Japanese government either. More Chinese in South East Asia have suffered alot more then she had. Thousand of them lost their arms and legs during the war. They suffer too even after the war. Thousand others were tortured.
China was also in the war, Chinese soldiers killed Japanese soldier too. Did China apologies too those Japanese who lost their husband or father during the war? Do they not suffer too?
It is the fact that the Chinese government has not been able to rise the education level of its people, as well as not able to provide better medical care for its people. Till date, alot of people in China still do not have proper medical care (Dentist care) or whatsoever. This is why she have to suffer all these years………
Thinker, your comment displays several patterns, notably, ignore causality and blame the victim. You sound just like a criminal defense attorney.
You begin by slyly stating sympathy for this woman, but then blame her for her inability to afford medical care. You are blaming her for her poverty.
You then absolve the soldier who shot her and caused this situation in the first place, ignoring causality. A soldier from an invading army shoots a civilian: I guess those facts should be ignored. Instead of feeling anger that she was shot and suffered a great deal of pain, you think that she instead blame herself and feel lucky that she’s alive.
You then launch into a mind-numbing tangent about how really, it’s the fault of China that it suffers from inadequate medical care, and really that is the reason why this woman suffered all these years. Again you blame the victim. Then you blame Chinese for killing Imperial Japanese soldiers, who were really after all in China on holiday and sipping tea.
You’re comment was by far the most interesting “revisionist” work I’ve read. Thanks for providing some insight into what goes on in the mind of a revisionist.
He does touch on at least one legitimate point however: the issue of firing at a “civilian”. The article notes that her grandfather was a guerilla fighter: not a uniformed member of the regular army (and thus not, I understand, covered by the Geneva Convention). There were considerable numbers of guerillas in China dressed in civvies (not to mention reports of fleeing Chinese soldiers changing into civvies to avoid getting shot at), so, much the same way the US in Vietnam could never know if the peaceful-looking farmers approaching them were indeed peaceful farmers, or would suddenly shoot them, the Japanese in China could not trust anyone either. Given that this woman was on her way to meet a guerilla fighter, there could be mitigating circumstances behind the shooting in the first place.
In a socialist state, by the way, is not medical care socialised and either free or nearly so? What does and did medical care cost in China?
Interesting enough! One would think the Chinese media must be exploiting this story to the fullest by now, but I could not find any mentioning of it anywhere in the Chinese media. On the contrary, it’s all over the places in western media.
I am not sure if it is Chinese media or the western media that want to use this incident politically. But it seems to me it is not this women who came upon the idea of getting compensation and apology from Japan,
“Later, she would regularly have headaches, foam at the mouth and “talk nonsense… like she had gone mad”, the paper said.”
Under this condition, it seems a bit hard to imagine that this women suddenly came up with the idea of demanding compensation from Japan after the recovery.
As in the comfort women’s case where political group pressured comfort women not to accept the fund and apology in order to hold the status to keep demanding apology, I think it should be kept in mind that there are cases where it is people around the victims with hidden political agenda who are more eager to use the issue.
poor old woman. Japan should send her some $$$ or may be bring her over to japan for free holiday
i want compensation for being smoked into coming to China … its not as peachy as its being marketed to the world … well, at least i woke up and realized why my ancestors left when the commies took over
the woman should demand her money from the Chinese goverment…seeing as how like Jamie mentioned of the money that was given to them after the war (its insane to give compensations to individuals, unless of course, the money was taken by some corrupted officials and now theres no money left)