Editor's note: Nakajima Yohachi, a 73-year-old Japanese war orphan who was brought up by a Chinese family, recently returned to the town where he spent his childhood: Mudanjiang, in northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, to pay respects at his foster parents' tomb and visit his friends and teachers. Nakajima was born in Tokyo. At the age of one, his parents took him and his sister to Heilongjiang as members of the Japanese "pioneer group." In 1945, the family lost touch with the father, who served in the army, when Japan surrendered in World War II. They became refugees, suffering from hunger and cold. In despair, his mother entrusted him to a Chinese family. His foster parents endured no end of hardships, struggling to bring up the Japanese child. At the age of 16, Nakajima returned to Japan and reunited with his mother and sister. His recently published memoir tells the story of his relationship with his Chinese foster parents.

Nakajima Yohachi, a 73-year-old Japanese war orphan who was brought up by a Chinese family, pays his respects at his Chinese foster parents' tomb in Mudanjiang, northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, on August 10, 2015. [Photo by Wang Kai/Xinhua News Agency]