Hasegawa Teru

Hasegawa Teru

Liú Rén and Hasegawa Teru

Hasegawa Teru ( Jap. 長谷川テル * 7. March 1912 as Hasegawa Teruko ( 長谷川照子 ), † 1947 in Jiamusi ) also known by their pseudonyms Midorikawa Eiko and Chinese Lǜchuān Yīngzǐ (both 緑川英子 ) and especially Verda Majo ( " Green May ”) was a Japanese author , activist , feminist , pacifist, and Esperantist .

biography

Hasegawa Teru was the daughter of Yone and the civil engineer Hasegawa Kōnosuke. She grew up with her parents, her older sister Yuki and her younger brother Hiro in the greater Tokyo area . In 1929 she graduated from middle school and began studying at the Nara College of Education ( 奈良 女子 高等 師範学校 , Nara Joshi Kōtō Shihan Gakkō ). Two years later she published her first works in a university magazine.

Hasegawa started learning Esperanto in mid-1931 . She joined a cultural association and came into contact with trade unionists and other political activists in Nara . In 1932 she was arrested as part of a nationwide police operation against socialist activists. Hasegawa was released after a week but was excluded from studying because of "dangerous thoughts".

Hasegawa returned to her parents in Tokyo and began typing training, which she completed in 1933. She began volunteering for the Japanese Esperanto Association ( 日本 エ ス ペ ラ ン ト 学会 , Nihon Esuperanto Gakkai ), became a member of the Japanese Research Society for Esperanto Literature (日本 エ ス ペ ラ ン ト 文学 研究 会) and campaigned for the spread of proletarian Esperanto literature, especially among women , held meetings of the Klara circle named after Clara Zetkin and Klara Samenhof in her apartment and wrote for several Esperanto magazines abroad, including La mondo ("The World") in Shanghai under the direction of Yè Làishì ( 葉 籟 士 , Ĵelezo). She first used the pseudonym "Verda Majo" for an article on "The Situation of Women in Japan" (Virina stato en Japanio) and "The Current Situation of Japanese Proletarian Literature" (Nuna stato de japana proleta literaturo).

Hasegawa was the first test for NHK - newscasters . However, she did not take the second exam because, based on her biography, she expected a rejection for political reasons. Her sister Yuki had also become an Esperantist. She met her future husband in 1934 at an Esperanto meeting in Nagasaki .

Hasegawa went to Osaka in early 1936 . In March she worked on an Esperanto theater production and met Liú Rén ( 劉仁 ) in the process. Liú had come to Tokyo as an exchange student from the Japanese-controlled puppet state of Manchukuo . In November, the two secretly married against Hasegawa's parents' wishes. In January 1937, Liú went to Shànghǎi to participate in the resistance movement against the Japanese occupation. Hasegawa followed him in June. She learned Chinese , worked for the Esperanto magazine Ĉinio hurlas (“China howls”), took part in demonstrations, established contacts with Japanese anti-war activists and Chinese nationalists, and became a member of the Japanese Against War Association ( 日本人反 戦 同盟 , Nihonjin Hansen Dōmei ).

Hasegawa wrote against Japanese nationalism and militarism and made a connection between revolutionary socialism and radical feminism . She saw the defeat of Japan in World War II as a prerequisite for real social and economic liberation and for the liberation of the sexes.

After the fall of Japan in the fall of 1937, Hasegawa and Liú made their way to Guangzhou , where at the end of the year a. a. met the writer Guo Moruo . However, the Japanese were viewed with suspicion, especially after the increasingly frequent Japanese air strikes on the city, and Hasegawa was eventually expelled to Hong Kong . During this time Hasegawa et al. a an article in Esperanto by the well-known Japanese writer and activist Kaji Wataru ( 鹿 地 亘 ), who fled to Hong Kong. In it, Kaji lamented the suppression or decline of cultural life in Japan.

In the summer of 1938, Hasegawa was able to return to mainland China. She went to Hankou , where she mainly worked as a radio announcer on programs in Japanese against the invaders. After three months, Hankou also fell, and the Japanese occupiers exposed Hasegawa, who had already fled to Chongqing via Guilin with Liú . The Japanese magazine Miyako Shimbun ( 都 新闻 ) published an article about Hasegawa, “the traitor ”. She was also referred to as a " communist " even though she worked for the Guomindang Propaganda Department .

In a letter on Ludwig Zamenhof's birthday in 1938, Hasegawa appealed to the Esperantists of the world:

“The whole world is now divided into two great irreconcilable camps: a camp of peace and a camp of aggression. There is no need to repeat which one we must belong to. An intermediate position is completely excluded. How can you, unnamed fighters for peace, fall silent at such a bad hour? Is the green star still shining on your chest? "

- Verda Majo: Al la tutmonda Esperantistaro.

The daily newspaper Xīnhuá Rìbào ( 新華 日報  - "New China") published Chinese translations of Hagesawa's articles under the pseudonym Lǜchuān Yīngzǐ ( 緑 川 英 子 ).

In 1940 Hasegawa gave birth to their first child, a son. She continued to write for Esperanto magazines, including the Heroldo de Ĉinio , and a summary of some of her articles and translations appeared under the title Flustr 'el uragano ("A Whisper from the Storm").

Despite the existing united front against Japan, tensions between the Guomindang and the Chinese Communist Party became more and more apparent. Hasegawa expressed sympathy for the CCP and Máo Zédōng , and others. a. in the article Batalante ili iras antaŭen (“Fighting They Advance ”), a review of a film about women in China. Her most important work at this time was an Esperanto translation of the novel Ikiteiru heitai ( 生 き て い る 兵 隊 , "Living Soldiers") by Ishikawa Tatsuzō .

Immediately after the end of the war in August 1945, Hasegawa was disappointed with the collaboration between the USA , which was marked by the beginning of the Cold War , with the defeated Japanese elite. She wrote an article in which the post-war regime in occupied Japan sharply and proactively criticized:

“In the west, most of the Nazi criminals have been arrested and those who have not been arrested have to flee to the end of the world ... But here in the east the Japanese fascists are still free ... and they can easily take off their warrior uniforms and instead wear a costume of Create peace and democracy. ... They did not surrender because their military strength was exhausted or because they had mercy on their own people. They had clearly seen the example that the surrender of the Nazis set. ... They didn't want to be destroyed. In short, they surrendered quickly because they wanted to preserve as much of their power as possible. "

After Japan surrendered in 1945, Hasegawa and Liú made their way to Manchuria, northeast China, the home of Liú, but the civil war between the CCP and the Guomindang made a normal life impossible. They ended up briefly in Shànghǎi and then moved around Manchuria fleeing the civil war. Hasegawa gave birth to a second child, a daughter. When she became pregnant a third time, she decided to have an abortion . Due to her poor health and an infection, she died at the age of 35. Liú died shortly afterwards, in April 1947, of kidney failure and pulmonary edema . The two were buried in a local hero cemetery.

children

Hasegawa's two children grew up in an orphanage in China. The son studied a. a. in Japan and became a lecturer at the Physics Department of Beijing Technical University ( 北京 工业 大学 ). The daughter studied at the Tangshan Railway Institute ( 唐山 铁道 学院 , Tángshān Tiědào Xuéyuàn ), at the University of Communication Technology ( 電 気 通信 大学 , Denki tsūshin daigaku ) in Chōfu near Tokyo and became a lecturer in mathematics at a university of the Chinese Ministry of Railways in Beijing as well Adviser to the Japanese-Chinese Society for Scientific and Technical Exchange ( 日中 科学 技術 交流 協会 , Nitchū kagaku gijutsu kōryū kyōkai ).

Works

Lists of works by and about Hasegawa can be found in:

• Hóu Zhìpíng ​​侯志平: Shìjiè yǔ yùndòng zài Zhōngguó《世界 与 运动 在 中国》 (The Esperanto Movement in China). Beijing, 1985, pp 156-160.
• Jorge Camacho: Verkoj de Verda Majo. In: Beletra Almanako 10 (February 2010); ISBN 9781595691910

Work editions:

• Verkoj de Verda Majo . Beijing, 1982 (Esperanto).
• Miyamoto Masao 宮本 正 男 (ed.): Hasegawa teru sakuhinshū『長谷川 テ ル 作品 集』 / Elektitaj verkoj de Verda Majo . Aki shobō 亜 紀 書房, 1979 (Japanese).

Movie

Hasegawa's life was filmed under the title Bōkyō no hoshi (「望 郷 の 星」) with Komaki Kurihara as Hasegawa.

literature

• Erik Esselstrom: The Life and Memory of Hasegawa Teru: Contextualizing Human Rights, Trans / Nationalism, and the Antiwar Movement in Modern Japan. In: Radical History Review 101 (Spring 2008), pp. 145–159.
• Ge Baoquan: Rememoro pri Verda Majo, kunbatalantino de la ĉina popolo. In: El popola Ĉinio 1980/9, pp. 12-13; 1980/10, pp. 14-16.
• Gong Peikang: Verda Majo en Ĉinio. In: El popola Ĉinio 1979/3, pp. 16-19; 1979/4, pp. 33-37; 1979/5, pp. 24-27.
• Gotelind Müller: Hasegawa Teru alias Verda Majo (1912–1947). A Japanese Esperantist in the Chinese anti-Japanese resistance. In: Denise Gimpel, Melanie Hanz (eds.): Cheng - All in Sincerity. Festschrift in Honor of Monika Übelhör . Hamburg 2001, pp. 259-274.
• “Hasegawa teru” henshū iinkai 「長谷川 テ ル」 編 集 委員会 (ed.): Hasegawa Teru - Nitchū sensō-ka de hansen hōsō o shita Nihon josei『長谷川 テ ル - 日中 戦 争 下 で 反 戦』 日本 を し し 戦 』日本 を し し 反 戦』 日本 を し し 戦 』日本 を し し Seseragi shuppan せ せ ら ぎ 出版, 2007; ISBN 488416167X .
• Hasegawa Yone 長谷川 よ ね, Nishimura Kōko 西村 幸 子: Nikki no naka no Hasegawa Teru日記 の 中 の 長谷川 テ ル.
• Liu Ling: Ŝi amis ne just sian patrion. In: El popola Ĉinio 1983/2, pp. 16-18.
• Takasugi Ichirō 高杉 一郎 : Chūgoku no midori no hoshi Hasegawa Teru hansen no shōgai『中国 の 緑 の 星 長谷川 テ ル 反 戦 の 生涯』. Asahi Shinbunsha 朝日 新聞 社, 1980.
• Tone Kōichi 利 根 光 一: Teru no shōgaiテ ル の 生涯. Tokyo, 1969; ² 1980.

Web links

• Works by and about Verda Majo in the Austrian National Library
• Verda Majo - A Sincere Friend Dedicated to China (China Internet Information Center)
• Biografieto de Verda Majo (El popola Ĉinio / Ĉina Interreta Informa Centro)
• Hu Guozhu: Karmemore al Verda Majo (El popola Ĉinio / Ĉina Interreta Informa Centro)
• Internaciisto pli verda ol ruĝa (Libera Folio)

Footnotes

1. ↑ Verda Majo: Virina stato en Japanio. In: La Mondo , March / April 1935. Reprinted in Verkoj de Verda Majo , pp. 165–171.
2. ↑ Verda Majo: Nuna stato de japana proleta literaturo. In: La Mondo , March / April 1936. Reprinted in Verkoj de Verda Majo , pp. 194–197.
3. ↑ Verda Majo: Al la tutmonda Esperantistaro. December 15, 1938. Reprinted in Verkoj de Verda Majo , pp. 387–394, here p. 391. “Fighters for Peace” is perhaps an allusion to the text Esperanto hymn “ La Espero ” ( pacaj batalantoj ), and the green star is the symbol of Esperanto.
4. ↑ Reprinted in Verkoj de Verda Majo , pp. 420-426.

Japanese name: As is common in Japan, the family name comes before the first name in this article . So Hasegawa is the family name, Teru the first name.