Tracing Her Shadow

In 2005, some Japanese orphans raised by Chinese parents and orphans’ descendants live in Nara, Japan. Back in the 1990s, these orphans were returned to Japan from China, but it was difficult for them to accommodate to the Japanese life due to differences in languages and ideas. Ozawa’s father is a Japanese orphan who chose to stay in China. As a second generation of a Japanese orphan, Ozawa decided to return to Japan when she was 26. She was diligent and hardworking, trying to assimilate into Japanese society. But one day, Mrs. Chen changed her life. Mrs. Chen is an adoptive mother of Japanese orphans and also a benefactor who raised Ozawa’s father. Her foster daughter Li Hua returned to Japan to seek her biological parents but, ever since she left in 1996, Mrs. Chen had not heard a word from her. The worried Mrs. Chen decided to go to Japan to find Li. Ozawa had to help Mrs. Chen. Yet, Ozawa thought that all she needed to do was to show Chen around for a couple days, and then Mrs. Chen would soon return to China. But grandma kept looking. One day the duo met Kazuo, a retired policeman, in a restaurant. Kazuo was deeply moved by their story and wanted to help them to find the left-behind orphan Li Hua. Since they did not know Li’s Japanese name and had little information about her, the search moved in a slow pace. Through messages and photographs, they searched from urban cities to rural areas, from factories to workshops. Finally, the truth of war-displaced Japanese orphans surfaced. Ozawa and Kazuo were moved by the love between the two people from the two countries. The search for Li Hua became a journey to search for their own values.

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