Amleto Vespa
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Amleto Vespa was an Italian secret agent in Manchuria between 1922 and 1940.
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[edit] Biography
Vespa left a small town and a poor family in the Italian countryside to fight in the Mexican Revolution. He subsequently travelled through Eastern Europe in an era when few did so, marrying a Polish Countess and taking her along to Asia. He worked for the Warlord Zhang Zuolin for a number of years. When the Japanese invaded Manchuria in 1931, he was forced to work for the Japanese. Amleto left Harbin, China just ahead of the Japanese Police. His family were captured and treated horribly, although they were eventually freed.
[edit] Secret agent of Japan
He published his account of life in Manchukuo following the Japanese occupation in a book in 1938 - Secret Agent of Japan: A Handbook to Japanese Imperialism. This was published by the Left Book Club. According to Vespa, he began to meet with the chief of the Japanese secret service in Manchukuo, a Japanese Prince whose name was unknown to him(was possibly Prince Takeda). According to conversations with his Japanese superiors, Vespa reports that the Japanese intended the colonisation of Manchukuo to be financially self-supporting. Vespa was instructed to compile reports on wealthy members of Harbin's Jewish community and other foreign and Chinese residents. He was also instructed to recuit bandit forces to sabotage the China Far East Railway, which was run by the Soviet government. He was also ordered to recruit White Russians, Chinese and Manchus to carry out similar acts.
In Harbin, for example, where Vespa lived, he claimed that the Japanese Kempeitai, with local organised criminals, ran five drug centers, a secret casino and a "store" of narcotics. In the city were 172 brothels, 56 drug centers and 194 "stores" of narcotics. This occurred elsewhere, also, in other important cities under Japanese rule. He described how from 1932 the poppy farming increased its area, and during 1937, opium envoys to China delivered, under cover as military materiel, for the Japanese Army. In localities having no Japanese military detachment, shipments were to Japanese consulates. Japanese Navy War vessels transported drugs to Chinese coasts and Fapanese patrol boats did the same for the principal rivers. Vespa supposed that these envoys were meant to demoralize enemy troops and reduce their combat effectivessnes.
Vespa also reported the many monopolies awarded to Japanese and Japanese-Korean firms. These monopolies included chimney sweeping monopolies and suppliers of Manchukuo flags, which were attempts to extort money from the local population.
[edit] The Kaspe Affair
His book also gives details of the Simeon Kaspe kidnapping case. Joseph Kaspe was a prominent Jewish businessman who owned the "Moderne Hotel", the principal hotel in Harbin. His son Simeon, a pianist in Paris and a French citizen was kidnapped while visiting Harbin on 23 August 1933. Those directly responsible were said to be a White Russian gang acting on the instructions of the Japanese authorities. When foreign diplomatic pressure obliged the Japanese Authorities to arrest the real kidnappers, the gang executed Simeon Kaspe. Vespa relates the discovery of the mutilated corspe of Simeon Kaspe in November 1933, just outside Harbin. Vespa recorded a number of other similar cases and gave a long list of foreign and local Jews, Chinese, Manchus, White Russian and other nationalities who also suffered under the Japanese occupationy.
[edit] The Lytton Commission
Vespa reported that Japanese secret agents were instructed to prevent complaints and petitions from the population from reaching the members of the Commission during their visit. However, despite their best efforts, the Commission nevertheless were able to interview many individuals secretly, and receive many more written submissions, which almost unanimously protested against the Japanese authorities.
