Rediscovering Imperial Japan’s little-known Manchuria university for elite Chinese, Korean, Soviet students

Students from Japan, China, Korea, the Soviet Union and Mongolia learned at Kenkoku University under the banner of ‘the harmony of five ethnicities’

Sometimes-surprising friendships were forged at the Japan-run institution, even as imperial Japanese troops brutalised much of the region

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Shigeru Imaizumi, a 96-year old graduate of Kenkoku University, points to himself in a school photo. Photo: Kenkoku University via AP

Published: 1:01pm, 28 Sep 2022Updated: 1:21pm, 28 Sep 2022

Growing up, Fumina Oka knew little about the mysterious university her Taiwanese grandfather attended in northern China’s Manchuria during Japan’s occupation in the early 20th century.

But as the 28-year-old journalist studied the little-known Kenkoku University, she became fascinated about a place that started out as a grand piece of imperial propaganda meant to celebrate Japan’s pre-war colonisation of large swathes of Asia.

In recent years, the dwindling number of surviving students, their families and those who have researched its history have come to share a sense of cross-national unity. It is built on sometimes surprising friendships forged at the Japan-run university, which glorified official notions of pan-Asian harmony even as imperial troops brutalised much of the region.

Documentary reporter Fumina Oka (right) with former Kenkoku University student Haruo Murata at the grave of Oka’s grandfather Qiu Laizhuan in Japan’s Matsudo city. Photo: Asahi Television Broadcasting Corporation via AP

The university is a unique footnote in the rocky relationship between Japan and China, which are marking their 50th anniversary of diplomatic relations this week.

Kenkoku University operated from 1938 to 1945. It selected elite male students from Japan, China, Korea, the then-Soviet Union and Mongolia, according to a book by Hideyuki Miura, a reporter for the Asahi newspaper. The students lived and studied together in Manchuria under the banner of “the harmony of five ethnicities”.

Among the university’s 1,400 or so graduates were some who played major roles in Asia’s rise over the last 80 years, including former South Korean Prime Minister Kang Young-hoon.

Eager to learn more about her late grandfather, Qiu Laizhuan, Oka began a documentary project aimed at finding alumni now in their 90s and 100s in Japan.