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Abstract: »Yoshiko Yamaguchi (Chinese name Li Xianglan) was a Chinese-born Japanese actress and singer. Her parents were settlers in Manchuria; from an early age, Yoshiko learned Chinese and received vocal education from a famous soprano. She came to prominence by several famous movies and songs, and was one of the Seven Great Singing Stars in China in the 1940s. She was considered as a traitor to the Chinese people and was imprisoned during the postwar period due to her participation in Japanese propaganda films. Her Japanese nationality was not divulged in the Chinese media until the end of Sino-Japanese War. After she went back Japan, she always expressed her guilt for her roles in early movies and had a strong sense of mission of restoring the history and proposing for peace. Despite her controversial identity, she had influenced many popular singers such as Teresa Teng and Fei Yu-Ching, as well as Jacky Cheung who wrote a hit Cantonese song bearing her name in 1990. This paper looks into her biography, especially the parts related to her memories in China, the China-Japan diplomatic relation and her devotion to politics and civil activities in her late years. Her story provides a different perspective as she was a carrier of wartime memory in between China and Japan and presents the opportunity to investigate the picture behind the screen. She contributed to the postwar reconciliation by campaigning for greater public awareness of the history and also advocated paying reparations to comfort women.« (Source: Online Program)

Wikipedia: History of Asia: History of Japan / Shōwa era | History of Asia: History of Korea / Korea under Japanese rule | Prostitution: Forced prostitution / Comfort women, Yoshiko Yamaguchi | Sex and the law: Wartime sexual violence / Wartime sexual violence in World War II | War: Pacific War / Japanese war crimes