Lost army veteran finally back home

By Huang Zhiling (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-06-10 08:29

YUECHI, Sichuan: Liu Zhaohui, 88, has never had so many visitors.

Ever since the army veteran, who was stuck in Myanmar for 67 years, returned to his village Taojiago in Sichuan province's Yuechi county last Tuesday, there has been a queue of villagers outside his house eager to meet "the man who finally came back".

"I've been away from the village for 72 years, 67 of which I've spent in Myanmar," Liu almost shouts out. "I obviously appear to be a foreigner among the villagers here."

In March 1942, some 100,000 Chinese soldiers marched into Myanmar and freed about 7,000 British soldiers and 500 American missionaries and journalists held by Japanese troops after a fierce battle in Yenangyuang, reopening an all important Yunnan-Myanmar roadway.

Liu was one of them.

"We wore straw sandals, lived in tropical forests and often had nothing to eat," he told China Daily.

Once Liu and some 300 Chinese soldiers held their post on a mountain against more than 2,000 Japanese troops.

"We confronted the enemy for nearly half a month untilreinforcements arrived and eliminated the attackers," he said.

In 1944, Liu was separated from his army after a battle and lost all contact. He settled in Lashio, Myanmar, chopping firewood and digging fields to earn his bread. Returning to China was beyond his budget.

Ten years later, Liu had bought a plot of land in Myanmar, married a Chinese woman from Yunnan and had four sons and a daughter.

All his letters to his parents and siblings were returned, as the township, where his village was located, had changed its name.

"I thought I would never be able to return home. Whatever money I had was not enough for a trip to China," he said.

But Sun Chunlong, a reporter with the Beijing-based Oriental Outlook, reversed the fate of Liu and 21 similar veterans when he learned of more than 1,000 veterans, ignored by the country they promised to serve, who had struggled for decades doing odd jobs to stay alive in Myanmar.

By the time he uncovered the truth, only 21 of the veterans were alive.

"All of them have just one common wish, which was to return home before they die," Sun said.

Last month, Oriental Outlook weekly announced it would sponsor the Chinese veterans' return to their homeland.

Nine of them, including Liu, arrived in China on May 30.

"We didn't believe our ears when Sun phoned and asked me if I wanted to meet my long lost uncle. He had been gone for 72 years. How could they have found him, I wondered," said Dai Zhengshu, Liu's nephew.

Dai's father, Dai Mingjin, 87, recognized his brother-in-law Liu the second he saw him. "It's the scar on his head. He got that after he hit his head on a rock when we had gone fishing down to the river," Dai said.

Liu had two elder sisters and two younger brothers, all of whom are now dead. Dai Mingjin and Zhou Weifang, 60, his brother's wife, are the only family he has left.

Liu recognizes the taste of his favorite dish - double-cooked pork - cooked almost every day in Zhou's house since his return, but cannot recognize his village.

"The houses are so much better now. Even the roads are a lot wider," he said.

Zhou's house might be simple, but it's enough for Liu to keep warm and happy.

"What can I say? I just feel very lucky to be back after so many years," he said.