The literary giant who vanished without trace

Yu Feng, Yu Dafu's niece. [Photo provided to China Daily]

For a long time he was under great stress, the threat of being imprisoned constantly hanging over him. In a letter to a friend he drew on a quote from the 19th century Russian writer Ivan Turgenev in his novel On the Eve: "Death is like a fisherman who has caught a fish in his net and leaves it for a time in the water; the fish still swims about, but the net surrounds it, and the fisherman will take it when he wishes."

Yu, realizing he had been exposed to his enemies, immediately notified Wang Jinding, Hu Yuzhi, a revolutionary and social activist in exile, and others to evacuate from Payakumbuh, West Sumatra. When they urged him to leave with them, he replied: "I'm under surveillance, and must remain here, but you must leave as soon as you can."

He then tried to ensure that others could flee in secrecy, paying scant attention to his own welfare. To concerned friends he said: "If I'm arrested they will probably want me to say where I stand politically. That is clear. First I support the Chongqing (Kuomintang) government; second, I oppose the puppet government in Nanjing."

Those were the words Wang, Hu Yuzhi and others heard before they bade him farewell.

Yu had long been determined to maintain his personal integrity even under the threat of death, and he remained unperturbed, even resuming drinking. Yet he could not help giving vent to his indignation when the opportunity arose.

In an article about Yu, Zhang Ziwei, a teacher and writer who attended his marriage to an Indonesian, He Liyou, in Padang, West Sumatra, said that after a story got about that Zhao had slapped the collaborator Hong Peigen, he asked Yu about it. Yu admitted proudly that it was true, saying that one day he had seen Hong's car by the roadside. He walked to the car, opened a door, dragged Hong out and slapped him twice, saying, "Don't you dare report on me again." Hong begged for mercy, saying he wouldn't.

On Aug 29, 1945, exactly two weeks after Japan unconditionally surrendered to the Allies, Yu was at home chatting and drinking with acquaintances. According to accounts of the time, a young Indonesian called at the house, and Yu, dressed in pyjamas and wearing slippers, went outside.

He failed to return, and his guests eventually left. The following day his wife gave birth to their daughter Yu Meilan. Her father never returned. Residents living nearby said they saw a car parked at the roadside with men sitting in it. Yu and another man got into the car and it drove away.

The following year, after Hu Yuzhi returned to China, he published an article titled "The exile and disappearance of Yu Dafu." This was the most complete report of the time on Yu's disappearance. Hu lacked proof, but based on what he knew of Yu's circumstances, he speculated that Japanese soldiers had killed him.

In the 1950s two Japanese scholars, Syouzi Inaba and Toramaru Itou, did research on Yu's works. They mimeographed the materials, which were published by the Chinese Literature Association of the Chinese Department of Tokyo University in 1961, drawing attention from Japanese literary circles. Seven years later, Masao Suzuki, a master of arts student at Osaka Municipal University, further researched Yu, and the results were published in the Japanese Literary Journal of Tokyo University. In October 1969, the book Research Data on Yu Dafu was published and spread to China.

In 1971, aiming to collect more works by Yu written in his later years, and to further investigate his disappearance, Suzuki went to Singapore and Indonesia. He spent a year interviewing hundreds of people and gathering information on Yu and his works written overseas. In 1973 and 1974 he published the two volumes of Addendum to Data on Yu Dafu. Suzuki's works comprise the most comprehensive research materials on Yu, especially on his later period, in and outside China.