永遠的異鄉人 在韓國孤獨終老的日本婦女

GYEONGJU, South Korea — She spends hours a day watching the Japanese broadcaster NHK. Her bedside table is stacked with Japanese magazines and figurines in kimonos. The walls bear pictures of Mount Fuji.

韓國慶州——她一天花數個小時觀看日本電視臺NHK。牀頭櫃上堆放着日文雜誌和身着和服的小雕像。牆上掛着描繪富士山的圖畫。

Shizue Katsura, 96, is among 19 Japanese women who are spending their final days in an unlikely place: a nursing home in South Korea, where lingering anti-Japanese sentiment has helped keep the women in obscurity.

現年96歲的香貫靜枝（Shizue Katsura，音）是在一個出人意料的地方度過人生最後時光的19名日本婦女之一：一家韓國療養院。在那裏，徘徊不去的反日情緒令這些婦女一直無人問津。

“There is no use looking back on my life,” Katsura said. “Home is where you are living. Japan is a foreign country to me.”

“回顧過去是沒有用的，”香貫說。“你生活的地方就是你的家。日本對我來說就是異國。”

Thousands of Japanese women like Katsura married Korean men during Japan’s colonial rule, which lasted from 1910 to 1945. When World War II ended and Korea was liberated, many stayed with their husbands in Korea, while others fled back to Japan, fearing violence from those looking to avenge the brutal colonial rule.

在1910至1945年的日本殖民統治時期，有成千上萬的日本女人嫁給了韓國男人，香貫是其中之一。隨着第二次世界大戰結束，朝鮮半島獲得解放，她們中有許多跟隨丈夫留在了朝鮮半島，有些則逃回了日本。後者擔心，想報復殘酷殖民統治的人會對她們動用暴力。

Or, as in Katsura’s case, they followed their husbands from Japan to Korea.

還有一些人和香貫一樣，跟隨丈夫從日本來到朝鮮半島。

Once in Korea, these women often discovered that their husbands’ families had found them Korean spouses in their absence. Many also lost their husbands during the Korean War, which lasted from 1950 until 1953.

一旦來到朝鮮半島，這些女性往往發現丈夫的家庭在他們離開期間已經爲他們找好了本國配偶。也有不少人在1950年至1953年的朝鮮戰爭期間失去了丈夫。

By the time many tried to return to Japan, it was too late. Japan and South Korea did not re-establish ties until 1965, and, even then, some of the women had no relatives to sponsor their return and resettlement.

及至很多人試圖返回日本，已經太晚。直到1965年，日本和韓國才重建外交關係，而即便在那時，有些女性也沒有親戚可以資助她們返回日本，在家鄉重新安頓下來。

Emotions run high when South Koreans talk about their country’s historical disputes with Japan, especially the enslavement of Korean “comfort women” in front-line brothels for Japan’s Imperial Army during World War II. But society has paid little attention to these Japanese women, some of whom were abandoned by their families in both countries and had to live with neither a Korean nor a Japanese passport.

談及本國與日本的歷史爭端，尤其是二戰期間韓國“慰安婦”在前線的軍妓所裏被日本帝國陸軍奴役的歷史，韓國人往往情緒激動。但社會很少關注這些日本婦女。她們有些被自己在兩國的家人同時拋棄，必須在既沒有韓國護照也沒有日本護照的情況下生活。

“When they arrive here, they all have made-up Korean names,” said Song Mi-ho, head of the nursing home, Nazarewon, which takes its name from the biblical Nazareth. “One of the first things we do is to call them by their Japanese names. When this happens, they are in tears, as if they are getting their life, their identity, back.

“來到這裏時，她們都有編造的韓文名字，”療養院負責人宋美河（Song Mi-ho，音）說。這家療養院名叫“拿撒勒”院(Nazarewon)，取自聖經。“我們首先做的一件事就是用她們的日文名字稱呼她們。當時她們流下了眼淚，就好像找回了自己的生活和身份。”

“Once we give their real names back, it’s amazing how quickly they regain their Japaneseness, the decorum, the way they fold their hands before them when they greet others,” Song said.

“一旦獲得了原先的真名，她們恢復自己日本特性和禮儀的速度是非常驚人的，比如向其他人打招呼時雙手交疊在胸前的方式，”宋美河說。

While sitting in a wheelchair, Katsura perked up when telling a visitor how she met a “kindly” Korean man more than seven decades earlier, when they worked in a power station in her hometown, Ebetsu, near Sapporo in northern Japan.

在向訪客講述自己如何在逾70年前認識了一名“和善的”韓國男子時，坐在輪椅裏的香貫瞬間活躍起來。當時他們都在位於她的家鄉的一座發電廠工作，那是日本北部離札幌不遠的江別市。

But she became taciturn when asked about her life in South Korea.

但是在被問到她在韓國的生活時，香貫變得沉默起來。

Her husband died of alcoholism decades earlier, she said. She once raised tobacco and livestock in southwestern South Korea, and then sold vegetables in the capital, Seoul, before failing health forced her to move into the nursing home nine years ago.

她說丈夫在幾十年前死於酒精中毒。她曾在韓國西南部種植菸葉、養殖牲畜，後來到首都首爾賣菜。九年前，因爲健康狀況惡化，她不得不住進了這家療養院。

“My son, he died early,” she said, declining to elaborate.

“我兒子很早就死了，”她說，不願講述詳細的情況。

A South Korean philanthropist named Kim Yong-sung was operating orphanages in Gyeongju in southeastern South Korea when he traveled to Japan and saw what looked like Korean women protesting in front of the Japanese emperor’s palace. They turned out to be Japanese women with South Korean passports demanding that Japan help them regain their citizenship and return home.

韓國慈善家金永成（Kim Yong-sung，音）在該國東南部的慶州開設了數家孤兒院。有一次，他在日本看到樣貌像是韓國人的女性在日本皇宮前舉行抗議活動。後來才知道，她們其實是持韓國護照的日本婦女，在要求日本幫助她們重新獲得日本公民身份，以便返回家園。

Kim opened Nazarewon in 1972 as a way station for these women, providing them with lodging, as well as legal and financial aid. A total of 147 returned home through Nazarewon, the last one in 1984.

到了1972年，金永成設立拿撒勒院，作爲這些婦女停駐的小站，給她們提供住宿，以及法律和財務援助。總計有147人通過拿撒勒院返回了日本，最後一名是在1984年。

Nazarewon has since become a nursing home for women who either could not or did not want to return to Japan and had no family support.

之後，拿撒勒院成爲療養所，收留的女性要麼不能或不想返回日本，要麼缺乏家庭支持。

After 70 years in South Korea, some women preferred living here to ending up at a nursing home in Japan. “They like umeboshi,” Song said, referring to the ubiquitous Japanese dish of pickled plums. “But they can do without it, but not without the Korean kimchi.”

在韓國居住70年後，一些人寧願在這裏生活，也不願在日本的一家療養院了卻餘生。“她們喜歡吃梅乾，”宋美河說。這是日本的一種常見食物，爲醃製的梅子。“只不過，沒有梅乾她們也可以過活，而沒有韓國泡菜她們就受不了。”

More than 80 women have died at Nazarewon during the past 35 years. The average age of the 19 current residents is 92. Many suffer from Alzheimer’s disease and were not available for interviews.

在過去的35年裏，有超過80人在拿撒勒院離世。目前這19名居民的平均年齡爲92歲。其中有不少患有阿爾茨海默病，無法接受採訪。

The nursing home’s existence rankles some South Koreans.

這家療養院的存在令一些韓國人耿耿於懷。

“I still get angry calls, asking: ‘What do you think you are doing? Don’t you know what the Japanese did to our comfort women?'” Song said. “I hope what we do here will, in its small and silent way, help heal the ties between the two nations.”

“我還會接到一些憤怒的來電，質問：‘你覺得自己在幹什麼？你不知道日本人對我們國家的慰安婦做了些什麼嗎？’”宋美河說。“我希望我們在這裏做的事，可以用它微小而無聲的方式，幫助彌合兩國之間的裂痕。”

On a recent afternoon, Nazarewon was shrouded in silence. Women sat motionlessly in wheelchairs, gazing at NHK on a large screen. A few played a card game, counting their scores in Japanese but otherwise speaking Korean. Azaleas blossomed in the front yard.

不久前的一個下午，拿撒勒院沉浸在一片寂靜之中。老人們一動不動地坐在輪椅裏，盯着大屏幕上播放的NHK臺。有幾人在玩紙牌，用日語計算她們的分數，講其他話的時候則用韓語。前院裏，杜鵑花正在盛放。

“I don’t know anything about politics,” said Katsura, who declined to discuss Korean-Japanese relations. “What I do know is that if you do well to others, they will do well to you, too. That’s true between people, between nations.”

“我對政治一無所知，”香貫說。她拒絕討論韓日關係。“我知道的是，如果你對別人好，他們也會對你好。不管是人與人之間，還是國家與國家之間，都是這樣。”