Sumi Karasawa, one of the thousands of Japanese left behind in Manchuria at the end of the war, is determined that as many people as possible know what the "war orphans" went through.

Karasawa, now 81, spent time in a Soviet internment camp in Manchuria after the war. She recalls seeing children left abandoned and crying for their mothers after Soviet forces attacked the Japanese settlements in northeastern China shortly before the end of the war. She was 20 at the time.

She is a member of a group dedicated to passing on the message of the importance of peace and the tragedy of war. The Narrative Group of Settlers in Manchuria and Mongolia was established in May 2005 by the city of Iida's chapter of the Japan-China Friendship Association.