Kuki Kyuzo was born and raised in Manchuria, the son of Japanese workers sent to establish and operate a factory. He and his parents have always lived in the same small city, and they have always lived with other Japanese workers in a special residence. He's gone to school, and can speak Chinese as well as Japanese.
But there's a war. Kyuzo knows about the war, but it's something far away and removed from his life until, suddenly, there are Russians bossing people around, the factory closes, and his mother is injured (his father had passed awhile before). The Russians regard him as a sort of office boy, and he's aware that his Chinese neighbors don't like him much.
and Manchuria is invaded by not one but two warring Chinese armies. Kyuzo, a kid, isn't up to date on these two warring armies -- they both hate the Japanese -- and he can no longer be in his home town. The Russians give him papers and money and get him on a train that will take him toward Japan.
The rest of the book is, quite simply, horrible. He travels with a mysterious guy who's exploiting all sides, it seems, and, when the train is blown up, they travel by foot over hundreds of miles of the Mongolian steppe. In winter. Starvation, hallucinations, fear of both Chinese and Russian soldiers, and weather below zero degrees. No food. No clothes. Wild animals.
A man who is not a part of anything or anyplace. who has no one to trust. who's not sure who or what he is, really..
Japanese? Manchurian? Chinese? a man? a beast???
A difficult and fascinating book.