The Story of a Japanese-china Dish

作者: sunny 11 年，3 月 ago

(0 comments)

My family used to have a beautiful china dish. Nobody ever told me it was a Japanese dish until one day I found the difference of words on the bottom. All dishes in my home had the word “China” except this one.

“Mom, where does this dish come from?” I asked and showed the dish to her.

My mom took it and observed it for a while. “It belonged to your grandmother. She picked it in Jinan rail station when I was a baby.” Mom’s slow and light voice seemed to come from many years ago.

"What does that mean?” I was even more confused: grandma, rail station, pick. How can these things connect together?

“OK,” Mom smiled to me and gently held me in the chair, “this is the story”------

My Grandpa was a railway worker and their small cabin was close to Jinan railway station, the biggest one in Shandong province in the east of China. In 1945, when my Mom was one year old, the Japans army finally surrendered to end the World War II. Japanese immigrants in China rushed back to Japan by any way they could find. The rail stations in many Chinese cities were crowded with these panicked Japanese. Not even having enough room for people, they left behind most of personal belongs. The stations were filled with abandoned stuffs like clothes, dishes and blankets. The poor Chinese people living around there then picked up any usable things and brought them back to their empty shelters. Eight-year China-Japan war had exhausted Chinese people, leaving desolated country and broken families.

“So, your grandmother had this dish and left it to me. Some Japanese even abandoned their babies in the station. And many of them were adopted by Chinese families.” Mom ended her story.

“How can they abandon their baby?” I was scared.

“Well, that was in war.” Mom gently kissed my cheek and said. “that’s the reason we love peace”.

• ← Little thing in memory
• Golden moment →