Front cover of a book by Sylwia Szarejko: Polish Children in the Land of the Rising Sun

In 1920, July 23 fell on a Friday. The sun was shining. The first ship from Vladivostok was just arriving in Japanese Tsuruga and had exceptional passengers on board – little Poles.

In total, over 700 kids had reached the Land of the Rising Sun by 1922. Their first stops were the cities of Tsuruga or Osaka. The Japanese authorities immediately took care of the “Siberian children”. Halina Nowicka, who came to Tsuruga at the age of nine, always remembered the taste of bananas and oranges, which she had tried for the first time in her life. In the memoirs of witnesses of those events, we read that many children had swollen tummies from hunger and suffered from dizziness even when walking “normally”. In addition, they suffered from typhoid fever, colds and whooping cough. They received immediate hospital treatment. The others were sent to the “Fukudenkai” care center on the outskirts of Tokyo. The Japanese Red Cross took care of new clothes, underwear and shoes for everyone.

Apart from accommodation, food, treatment and rehabilitation, the children were also provided with school, extracurricular activities and trips. They were under the care of nurses and carers; they played with Japanese children and felt almost at home. For the “Siberian children”, their stay in Japan appeared to be the most unusual and beautiful time of their lives and was deeply engraved in their memory.