Love survives half-century of separation
Published: October 10, 2005
In the closing days of World War II, Xuan fell in love with a Japanese soldier. He remained with her and fought in the resistance until he was ordered home. Thanh Phong meets a woman who has waited 50 years for her lover’s return.
The days of August 1945 will never fade in Nguyen Thi Xuan’s mind – when she fell in love, at the age of 21, with a 24-year-old Japanese soldier named Shimizu Yoshiharu.
Xuan, 81 and a resident of Vinh Thanh Village in Vinh Ngoc Commune of Dong Anh District in Ha Noi, has an extraordinarily acute mind and beautiful white hair. Her story starts in the year of 1944, when she worked at a Japanese restaurant in Hai Phong’s Grand Theatre. The two met in the restaurant, and talked on many occasions, and one day found they had fallen for each other. Through their conversations, their mutual affection gathered strength.
However, the couple was separated, and had to wait 50 years for a reunion.
During World War II, Shimizu had joined the military service under the general mobilisation order from the Japanese Government and was later dispatched to Viet Nam. His father and older brother died in the war. Only his mother and younger sister were left.
In August 1945, Japan surrendered to the Allies, and its army in Viet Nam had to withdraw. Shimizu went with the forces to Quang Ninh to take a ship back to Japan.
But Shimizu and four other Japanese troops decided they would stay, and rented a boat to return to Hai Phong. The five reported to the city authorities voluntarily, and asked to join the self-defence force of the port city to fight the French who had begun their re-occupation of Viet Nam. At the time, there were many Japanese, French, German and Italian soldiers who willingly joined the Vietnamese resistance army. This breed of soldier was known collectively as the “new Vietnamese”.
Xuan gave Shimizu a Vietnamese name: Nguyen Van Duc. They were married shortly thereafter.
He was transferred to Regiment 51 and then to Regiment 59, all the while fighting with the resistance force against the reoccupying French legions.
He also helped to train the nascent Vietnamese army in Thai Nguyen and Bac Giang provinces, and for his contributions gained membership with the Communist Party of Viet Nam in 1949. During these tumultuous years, Xuan travelled with her husband, bringing the children and serving as a first-aid worker, but after 1949, settled down with the children.
In the summer of 1954, after fighting in Dien Bien Phu, Duc asked for a two-month leave. Xuan and their two children lived in Thanh Hoa Province at the time, and cried with worry, hoping for Duc’s safe return.
Duc, a few days after requesting leave, told Xuan that he would soon go away for a new mission. A day before his departure, he took the family out to have photos taken. Xuan was, at the time, pregnant with their third child.
The following morning, Duc paced throughout the house, looking, with much pain on his face, at Xuan. He said he had to go away, but promised to return soon.
Only on the day of his departure did he tell her the truth: the Japanese Government had ordered the repatriation of all Japanese serving with the Vietnamese army. Xuan, however, didn’t imagine that the separation would last for half a century.
The following years of the fierce American War in Viet Nam separated them completely from communicating. She, alone, took the three children back to her home in Dong Anh of Ha Noi to start a new life. Overcoming the hardships throughout those years, she continued to write to Duc regularly, without knowing if the letters would even reach him.
She continued for the entire 50 years of separation, sending letters through the address of Shimizu’s friend in Japan, receiving no response. She had a beautifully embroidered pillow with his jacket hidden inside. Night after night, she took the pillow to bed and cried quietly, whispering words of love to her absent husband.
Xuan was resigned to never hearing from her husband again until early this year, when a group of Japanese reporters sauntered to her doorstep. They told her that her husband was still alive and handed her a handkerchief that he sent as a gift – for her tears.
Unfortunately, Duc has been paralysed for some time and cannot travel, and Xuan doesn’t have the finances to go to Japan to see him. However, the reporters exchanged videos between the two, so they have at least seen each other.
Their children, who Xuan raised alone, are now working and on their own. August 19 was the star-crossed lovers’ 60th anniversary. They haven’t seen one another for 50 years, but their love still shines.
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