All her life, she was hurt by her loved ones, hurt by her country, hurt by her self-proclaimed lover.
Every city has its own urban legends, from terrifying to poignant.
In Yokohama, Japan, in the middle of the last century, there was a rather legendary urban legendMary Yokohama.
No one knew that Mary was from**, she wore white powder all over, thick black eyeshadow, red lips like blood, a white gauze dress, and a white wide-brimmed hat.
The evil Japanese Noh mask looks extremely weird, but it can't help but make people curious and want to take a second look.
She spends her days wandering the streets of Isesakicho, and even as she grows older, she still sticks to the familiar streets.
She integrates herself with Yokohama as if it were part of the cityscape.
However, because of the impact on the construction of the city's spiritual civilization, he was brought to the police station 22 times.
People hated her, they hated her, they thought she was mentally ill, or a ghost of hell.
In the winter of 1995, she disappeared.
She should have appeared on the street without thunder, but suddenly disappeared like water vapor, and no one knew if she went**, dead or alive.
Her disappearance did not make people breathe a sigh of relief, and a great sense of loss spread in Yokohama, and the legend about Mary intensified.
Until the documentary produced by Japanese director Takahiro NakamuraMary Yokohama. The release lifted the veil of mystery that had shrouded Mary for decades.
Marie Yokohama, formerly known as Yukiko Nishioka, was a Japanese prostitute without a home.
No one was born to be a prostitute, and Mary's fate changed in 1945.
On August 15, 1945, Emperor Hirohito accepted the Potsdam Proclamation, and Japan, which could no longer survive, finally announced its unconditional surrender.
Thirteen days later, under the leadership of Allied Commander-in-Chief MacArthur, nearly 320,000 U.S. troops landed in Japan one after another, and launched a seven-year indirect rule over Japan in the name of the Allied occupation forces.
At that time, Japan was in the same state as a defeated country, starving everywhere, the people were struggling to survive, and they were lying flat in the face of the strong invasion of the US army.
Fear that the United States will do the same atrocities they have committed in Asian countries, ** their own women.
In order to preserve the chastity of the Japanese royal family and the upper class of the aristocracy, and to maintain the purity of the Yamato national bloodline.
They came up with a way to exterminate humanity -Establish a special comfort facilities association to provide proper sexual services for the U.S. military stationed in Japan in accordance with the wartime system of the Japanese army.
The state has come forward to set up brothels to comfort the occupying forces, and this kind of thing has happened in history, but it has been to the point of last resort.
It's an eye-opener to be prepared for a rainy day like Japan, where people are ready before they even arrive.
But because it's Japan, it makes sense.
This decision was unanimously approved by Japan, and 50 million yen was also approved to build a comfort station.
This amount of money was not a small amount for Japan at that time, but they still spent it willingly"It's worth spending a sum of money, sacrificing some girls, and ensuring the chastity of more women. ”
As for how to make a small number of women "willingly" sacrifice their chastity, Japan** directly advertised:
"Be a new woman - foreign-related clubs recruit female clerks, including food, housing and clothing, high salaries, limited to women between the ages of 18 and 25. ”
At that time, a large number of women were on the verge of starvation because they lost their male relatives in the war.
Seeing such a high-paying and high-welfare position, it was also the most open recruitment, and more than 1,600 women applied on the same day, and more than 60,000 people were recruited in less than three months.
Mary, 24, is one of them.
Mary's father died on the battlefield, and after a marriage, she wanted to return home after the divorce, but was stopped by her brother.
In order to make a living, she came to Yokohama.
Not taken in by her family, Mary did not complain, but expressed apologetically in the letter:"It's a shame to come to a big city and achieve nothing, and I hope that one day I can mix in and return to my hometown. ”
Although she doesn't know the specific job of recruitment, Mary believes that it must be good to be able to work in **.
Mary, with a beautiful face, stands out from a crowd of applicants, but she doesn't know what abyss she is about to fall into.
On the day of her arrival, Mary was asked to draw delicate makeup, wear bright clothes, and was brought into the room with the girl who was also selected.
The room was dark, with iron bars on the windows, and before Mary could think twice, several American GIs walked in and began to take off their pants.
With nowhere to escape, Mary, who has no way to call for help, becomes a walking corpse.
Guarded by special people, he waited day and night for the ravages of American GIs.
"55 times a day, I don't feel like a human at all. ”
They treated their own women in the same way they treated East Asian countries in wartime, and used their bodies and tears to "pay off debts" for the sins created by the country.
This is the "good method" that the Japanese top brass has come up with.
In order to appease the emotions of the victimized women and put a fig leaf on themselves, the Japanese ** said that this is"In order to maintain the purity of the nation and the future in a hundred years, it will be used as a breakwater to block the raging tides and an underground pillar of the post-war social order. ”
Defining forced sacrifice as an effort to build a new postwar Japan is a virtue to be celebrated, and women are required to "cooperate and endure as much as possible" when facing American soldiers.
However, the "RAA" still did not stop American soldiers from running rampant in Japan, and various cases occurred frequently.
Because the vast majority of American soldiers are reluctant to use condoms, in less than a year, various sexually transmitted diseases have been rampant in comfort stations, and more than 90 percent of women have been infected.
The incident was widely publicized and reported in the United States, and was unanimously reported by the families of the US military, and under pressure, the US military command finally demanded that Japan ** close all comfort stations on the grounds of "blatant betrayal of democratic ideals".
Overnight, 55,000 comfort women were herded out into the streets without compensation, like discarded garbage.
was already notorious and infected with venereal diseases, and in the general environment at that time, they became an existence that everyone avoided, and it was difficult to return to a normal family.
Under pressure to survive, he can only continue to engage in the industry.
Wearing cheap lipstick and naked clothes, they stood on both sides of the road where the US military passed, waiting for the US military to choose, and the "service fee" was only 15 yen each time, which was not as high as a pack of cigarettes.
These women have a common name called "panpan".
There is no conclusive conclusion about the ** of this word.
The most common explanation is that the Japanese troops stationed in Saipan during the war had local women to serve them as long as they clapped their hands.
In addition to "Pan Pan", there is also the more advanced "An Li" (only transliteration), similar to Thailand's "rented wife", who only served one US soldier for a period of time and lived a relatively stable life.
But even so, after the departure of the American army, they will still become abandoned women, and if they give birth to mixed-race children, the situation will be even more difficult, as depicted in the Japanese movie "Human Witness".
Unlike other panpans, who are willing to give up everything for the sake of their livelihood, Mary always puts dignity first.
She walked on the street with her head held high, wearing a neat and ironed Western-style dress, painting delicate and perfect makeup, and her temperament was noble and elegant, like a noble lady.
People called her the Empress of Yokohama, and compared her to Her Majesty the Empress of Extraordinary Talent, who belonged to Mary's time alone.
Her elegant temperament quickly attracted the attention of a beautiful ** official, and he walked towards her affectionately.
He didn't get straight to the point like other men, but chatted with Mary without a hint of frivolity, and the smile on his face was clean and sincere.
Mary's heart was moved.
She falls in love with the man who doesn't see her as a cheap prostitute.
Sweet love is like gurgling water, infiltrating her already dry heart, she ignites the hope of life, and begins to look forward to a better future.
But God doesn't seem intent on ending Mary's suffering.
The Korean War broke out, and officers were sent to new battlefields.
In the face of Mary's tears and reluctance, he slowly put a jade ring on her hand.
Tell her that he will definitely come back and marry her.
The officer left, relying on the small amount of money left by the officer, Mary spent some time, but as her savings dwindled, Mary, who could not make ends meet and could not find other means of livelihood, could only return to the street girl and wait for her lover to return.
For this commitment, Mary no longer accepts long-term service requests from other men.
In order to keep her last bottom line for her lover, when picking up customers, Mary added an extra rule that she couldn't let the other party kiss her.
In 1978, Isesaki Street, which Panpan used to pick up customers, was transformed into a luxury commercial street.
These women, who were forced to go on stage because of the war, gradually chose to leave silently.
Only Mary remained there, working as a prostitute, but as she grew older, there were no more customers willing to patronize her.
She wears heavy makeup every day, and moves closer to ghosts day after day, but she always holds her head high and puts her dignity first.
Unwilling to accept the handouts and sympathy of others, Mary was always alone, wandering around, living in no fixed place, like a ghost after the war, she slept in the square, the park, the aisle, and became a homeless wanderer.
Compared with the nowhere to return to the flesh, being abandoned by the times is more suffocating.
In the eyes of the new generation of Japanese who have not experienced the war, Mary is like the garbage of the times, and she will emit a choking fragrance.
Countless shops turned *** away, and all kinds of ridicule and contempt were more like an overwhelming net, which caged her fiercely.
No one knows how Mary felt when she was driven and rejected, but she never left.
Because she was not registered as a resident and had no permanent residence, Mary did not have access to social assistance in Yokohama.
Fortunately, there are people who hate her, and there are also well-wishers who are willing to help her.
The owner of a business building was willing to let Mary sleep in the hallway of the building, and left her a special chair in the corner with the words "I love you" written in Chinese, supposedly by a Chinese girl working in Japan.
Feeling the kindness of the people in the building, Mary became an elevator lady in the business building.
She sat at the entrance of the elevator, got up and bowed when a guest entered, and helped the other person press the floor she wanted to go to with a smile.
Some guests will also tip Mary.
The money was carefully folded by her and carefully put away.
Being able to support herself and earn money with her hands made Mary very happy.
Life has entered the nineties in a blink of an eye, and in the second half of her life, 70-year-old Mary met a person who could be willing to truly understand her treatment of her, singer Motojiro.
Motojiro dreamed of becoming a singer when he was young, so he came to Tokyo to wander around, worked as a service for the same sex for a few years, and saved money to open a bar called "Black Cat" in Yokohama.
"I was seven years old, my sister was four years old, my father was missing, my mother worked hard to support us, and once, I felt ashamed, so I scolded my mother for being a shameless prostitute. ”
Young and ignorant, he didn't know the suffering, and Motojiro said a lot of things that made his mother sad.
It wasn't until I grew up and experienced all kinds of rain and frost in the world that I understood my mother's suffering.
It's a pity that by the time he wanted to make amends, his mother had already passed away due to illness.
In Mary's body, Motojiro saw the shadow of his mother, and he pinned his guilt and love for his mother on Mary.
They would meet once a week to eat and chat together, and every time Genjiro performed, he would reserve a seat closest to the stage for Mary.
Feeling sorry for Mary's adriftness, Genjiro tried to give her money, but Mary didn't want to accept it, so Genjiro had to say, "Take the money and buy some flowers!."”
So, when she came to the bar later, Mary would always hold a bouquet of flowers and give it to Genjiro.
In the winter of 1995, the whole of Yokohama was covered in snow, and the ghost Mary was gone.
The ghosts and evil that should appear at the corner of the street every day disappeared completely in an instant.
Why did she disappear, who was she, she went.
These questions have always been on the minds of the people of Yokohama.
And Genjiro was also extremely disappointed because of Mary's departure, and the day before Mary left, she handed Genjiro a letter: If you give me another thirty years, I will try to be a good old lady. I still have a lot of dreams ......
Although the elderly Mary still did not mix, she finally chose to return to her hometown, and with the help of her relatives, she was placed in a nursing home to spend her old age.
After a bumpy life, Mary was extremely happy to have such a peaceful life at the end of her life.
She stopped wearing rich makeup and used her real name, Yukiko Nishioka.
She can draw and write as much as she wants, and paste paintings all over her room, and she has a room where she can sleep in bed.
She participated in the dance team organized by the nursing home and danced happily with everyone on a sunny and sunny day.
When she is in a good mood, she will go out for a walk alone and enjoy a moment of silence.
"There is love in my heart, so I don't feel bitter. ”
Motojiro once asked her why she painted herself with white makeup
Mary said she hoped that when the officers returned, they would notice her in the crowd at a glance.
"I spend my days walking the streets just to meet him one day. ”In fact, the prostitute has a heart, but the general does not believe it.
Mary passed away in 2005.
At the airport, there was never a ship, and Mary did not wait for her sweetheart until she died.
Many people say that Mary was not a prostitute, she was just a historical tragedy that was deliberately forgotten.
The ruthlessness of the war is confirmed in them, they have witnessed the times, but they have also been forgotten by the times.
But it is undeniable that it is they who have really lived to support this rickety world.