Canadian screening of “Abandoned: The Stories of Japanese War Orphans in the Philippines & China” (日本人の忘れもの フィリピンと中国の残留邦人)
December 7, 2024 | 3:00PM - 5:30PM
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In-person
This screening will be held at Innis Town Hall (IN112), 2 Sussex Avenue, University of Toronto. Doors open at 2:30 PM, but the screening will start at 3 PM.
About the Documentary Film:
Prior to the Asia-Pacific War, the Philippines had a prewar Japanese immigrant community numbering 30,000 people. Today, there are second-generation Japanese who were left behind in the Philippines that have been separated from their Japanese fathers and are currently stateless.
In China, children were also left behind in the Japanese colony of Manchukuo after the war. While many have returned to Japan decades later, these orphans have protested and sued the Japanese government for discrimination and economic hardship resulting from a lack of support in overcoming the language barrier and other social welfare issues as foreigners in contemporary Japan.
"Abandoned: The Stories of Japanese War Orphans in The Philippines and China" narrates a transnational, collective struggle for recognition from the Japanese state. As forgotten remnants of Japan’s imperial history, these war-displaced children continue to demand that the government acknowledge their existence almost 80 years after the end of the Second World War.
Event Sponsors:
Organized by the Filipino-Japanese Descendants Association
Sponsored by the Dr. David Chu Porgam in Asia Pacific Studies at the Asian Institute, the Cheng Yu Tung East Asian Library at the University of Toronto, and the Factor Inwentash Faculty of Social Work at the University of Toronto
Also supported by the Japanese Canadians for Social Justice and the Japanese Canadian Arts & Activism Project