Photo/Illutration Hidekatsu Furihata is greeted by two younger sisters at Asahikawa Airport in Hokkaido on March 20. (Daijiro Honda)

A Japanese-born man who was stuck in the Russian Far East after World War II landed in Japan this month to escape a new war.

Hidekatsu Furihata, 78, fled the Russian bombing of Ukraine and arrived at Narita International Airport in Chiba Prefecture on March 19, where his older brother and a younger sister were waiting.

It was the first time Furihata had set foot in Japan in 11 years.

He then took another plane that landed shortly after 1 p.m. on March 20 at Asahikawa Airport in central Hokkaido, where he was greeted and embraced by two other younger sisters.

“I am happy to be united with them again,” Furihata said in Russian.

He is the only sibling who hasn’t returned permanently to Japan.

Furihata has lived in Zhytomyr, about 130 kilometers west of Kyiv, according to the Japan-Sakhalin Association, a nonprofit organization that is seeking support for him.

He has survived his Polish wife, who was originally from Ukraine, and only son, the NPO said.

After the area near his home was shelled by Russian troops, Furihata on March 5 fled to Poland by car with his 17-year-old granddaughter, his grandson’s 27-year-old wife, and their 2-year-old daughter, the association said.

The car ran into a severe traffic jam near the border area that had become filled with Ukrainians fleeing the Russian onslaught.

The family finally arrived in Poland on March 8, and then flew to Japan.

However, his grandson has remained in Ukraine to fight the Russian invasion, the NPO said.

“He is there to protect the town, but I am worried,” Furihata said.

20220321-home3-L
Hidekatsu Furihata as a child standing on his father’s right in a family photo taken in Sakhalin after World War II (Provided by Japan-Sakhalin Association)

FAMLY COULDN’T RETURN TO JAPAN

Furihata was the second son of nine children, five of whom are still living.

The four others had lived in Sakhalin or Ukraine and permanently returned to Japan during the period from 1999 to 2009. They have all moved to Hokkaido.

Their father was a lighthouse keeper on Cape Nakashiretoko, southern Karafuto, on Sakhalin island.

After Japan’s surrender in World War II in 1945, Karafuto became occupied by the Soviet Union.

Many Japanese nationals returned to Japan from Sakhalin after the war, but Furihata’s family could not travel from Minami-Karafuto because his mother was pregnant and his brother was injured.

When the parents obtained Soviet nationality in 1954, their children, including Furihata, automatically became Soviet citizens, according to the Japan-Sakhalin Association.

Furihata moved to Ukraine in 1971 and worked as a machinist. He became Ukrainian after the country gained independence.

However, his Ukrainian passport expired, and since he hasn't been to Japan since 2011, he had to renew his passport and apply for a visa to enter Japan.

But that became impossible after the Russian invasion.
So the association and the Japanese Embassy in Poland made arrangements to issue a special visa.

“I will talk with my siblings to decide if I should return to Ukraine or settle in Japan permanently,” he said.

20220321-home2-L
Hidekatsu Furihata, third from left, and his family members at Narita International Airport on March 19 (Daijiro Honda)

Related News