Then & Now: The China lover

The recent death in Tokyo of singer Yoshiko Yamaguchi, aged 94, stirs controversial memories of the Sino-Japanese war, and highlights the identity issues that still linger from the half-century-long Japanese colonial experiment in northeastern China and Taiwan.

China's northeastern provinces - better known then as Manchuria - became a Japanese sphere of influence after Japan was granted "most favoured nation" status at the end of the 1894-95 war. In the following decades, in this region, the Japanese built an extensive railway network, opened mines and factories, and developed an enormous, state-controlled narcotics network.

After years of involvement, Japan launched an all-out invasion of Manchuria in 1931. This provoked international outrage and Japan withdrew from the League of Nations. When "Manchukuo" was declared independent in 1932, the "state" was an international pariah, only recognised diplomatically by Japan and - predictably - the Vatican, then a habitual supporter of right-wing dictatorships.

Born in Manchuria in 1920, when her father worked for the Japanese-owned South Manchuria Railway, Yamaguchi's family story embodies the ambiguities implicit in the Japanese presence in China.

Recent mainland political agendas have created a powerful black-and-white historical narrative that maintains the Japanese in China were all hated intruders. The reality was more nuanced.

Yamaguchi was known in China, and among the overseas Chinese diaspora, as Li Xianglan - "Fragrant Orchid". This name was bestowed by her Chinese godfather, a friend of her father.

One of China's most popular recording artists in the late 1930s, Yamaguchi was a soprano who had been professionally trained by the Italian wife of a White Russian family friend. As her film roles show, she could not only sing beautifully, she also knew how to sing - quite a different skill set.