Japanese War Veteran Is Honored For Fighting For China
A Japanese soldier who switched sides to China after being captured in World War II was awarded a commemorative medal here Sept. 2.Kancho Kobayashi was one of 30 war veterans honored by Chinese President Xi Jinping for siding with China against imperial Japanese forces.
Kobayashi, 96, was in the Eighth Route Army, which was under the command of the Communist Party of China during the war. The awards ceremony was held at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on the eve of a huge parade to mark the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II in Asia and China's victory over Japan.
“I feel great honor and emotion about this,” said Kobayashi, who is from Gunma Prefecture and was a Buddhist priest before the war.
In 1941, while fighting in Shaodong province with the Imperial Japanese Army, he was captured by the Eighth Route Army. He tried to commit suicide, but was stopped by Chinese soldiers who befriended him.
Kobayashi is the president of an association of Japanese veterans of the Eighth Route Army and New Fourth Army, which also served as the party's military arm during the war.
Ten other foreign war veterans, including some from Russia and the United States, also attended the ceremony, which was apparently intended to impress the international community by emphasizing the contribution of foreign veterans to the communist-led war effort.
The ceremony was attended by all seven members of the CPC's Politburo Standing Committee.
“On the day the Japanese militarist invaders stepped on Chinese soil, a great struggle against the aggressors of the Chinese people began,” Xi said. “Those who participated in the Chinese People's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression are all war heroes.”
Xi presented a medal to each recipient and thanked them for their service.
