Politics of Manchukuo
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Manchukuo was a nominally independent puppet state set up by the Empire of Japan in Manchuria (Northeastern China) which existed from 1931 to 1945. It was divided into five large prefectures or antos, each of which were in turn divided into various subprefectures.
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[edit] General Affairs State Council and Japanese advisers
The General Affairs State Council was the real political power center in the Japanese-controlled Manchukuo, rather than the publicly proposed Kangde Emperor installed in the Wei Huang Gong. A Japanese civil servant described the Council as "the steel structure that sustains the Manchukuo regime"[citation needed]. This Japanese-dominated political entity was more accurately the "General Commission Affairs of State Council". It was constituted as six departments or sections:
- Planning
- Legislation
- Personnel
- Accounts
- Statistics
- Information/Intelligence
Tadayuki Furume was executive chairman and president of this organization, with Japanese administrative and chief personnel. British newspaper The Times in December 1932 reported that it was the real political body in control in Manchukuo, with the power to hire and fire civil servants and control the budget. At the same time this political entity was answerable to the Japanese Emperor, the Kantogun and the Commander in Chief.
Political administration was supposedly managed by the "native" Manchu authorities, but Japanese advisers dominated, including Kanji Ishiwara, Kenji Doihara (the "Lawrence of Manchuria"), Takayoshi Tanaka (who served in China as well), Masaiko Amakazu (also head of the Manchukuo Film Association), Seichiro Itagaki, Yasunori Yoshioka, Konoto Daisaku, Hisao Watari, Tomoyuki Yamashita (the "Malaysian Tiger"), and others.
The "National Foundation" cultural entity and the "Central Shintoist Manchukuan Temple" in Hsinking were under the administration of ex-Provost-Marshal and First Shinto Priest Toranosuke Hashimoto. Yoshisuke Aikawa, an important industrialist with links to the Army, was chief of the Manchukuan industrial zaibatsu groups. He led the factory centers on the Mukden-Dairen industrial axis; Ryojun, Anshan and Harbin manufactured iron, coal, chemical and soy bean products, and railway equipment. Manchukuo was the 'Ruhr' for Japan.
[edit] Political parties and movements
During his administration, the Kangde Emperor, in an interview with foreign journalists, mentioned his interest in forming a political party with Confucian doctrines. The Japanese "native" establishment, however, organized some right-wing and nationalist parties, in the Militarism-Socialism mould. Such movements, which had official status, were:
- Concord Association Party (Manchukuo right-wing local party)
- Northeast Administrative Committee (Manchukuo nationalist local party)
- Russian Fascist Organization (the White Russian fascist association in Manchukuo)
- White Russian Fascist Party (White Russian anticommunist party in Manchukuo, used the swastika as symbol, guided by a Russian fascist "Duce")
- Monarquic Party (White Russian Tzarist Monarchic party with Japanese approval)
- Betarim Jew Zionist Movement (Jewish rights movement in Manchukuo)
- Far Eastern Jewish Council (Jewish Zionist council in Harbin, Manchukuo led by Dr. Abraham Kaufman, with Japanese Army support)
[edit] Notable people
[edit] The Imperial Manchu Court
- Aisin Gioro Henry Puyi, Kangde Emperor and head of state in Manchukuo
- Prince Chun II (Father of the Kangde Emperor)
- Wang Jung (also Prince Su) (Father-in-law of the Kangde Emperor)
- Li-Tieh-Yu (personal chauffeur of the Kangde Emperor)
- Cheng Hsiao-Hsu (Reformer and first Prime Minister in the nation)
- Jade Years (second concubine of the Kangde Emperor)
- Prince Pu-Chieh (second in Manchu lineage, possible replacement in administration and heir of Manchukouan Throne)
- Hiro Saga (Japanese sister-in-law of the Kangde Emperor)
- Puren (brother of Puyi, also served in national armed forces)
- Rong-Qi (another distant relative of the Kangde Emperor, also member of the Imperial Manchu Chivalry national armed forces)
- Empress Wang-Jung or Elizabeth (Manchu empress and first wife of the Kangde Emperor)
- Jade Lute (a concubine of the Kangde Emperor)
- Little Jui (near relative of the Kangde Emperor)
- Big-Li (Puyi personal servant and housekeeper of the Palace)
- Wen-Hsui (first concubine of the Emperor)
[edit] Japanese political advisors
- Seichiro Itagaki
- Kenji Doihara
- Yasunori Yoshioka
- Hisao Watari
- Yasue Norihiro
[edit] Others (local)
- Liu-Feng-Hui, As manchu government servant, member of local Parliament
- Cheng Hsiao-Hsu, Reformer and first Prime Minister of the nation
- Chang-Ching Hui, next Prime Minister until 1945
- Hsi-Hsia, minister in Manchu administration
- Ling Sheng, nation founder, also Hsingan Province Governor
- Lo-Chen-Yu, Japanese supporter local adviser of Kangde Emperor; also member in local Parliament
- Liu-Feng-Chih, member in local Parliament
- Ling Sheng, member in native Parliament
- Ma Wang, commander of Manchu forces, for certain period
- Liut. Uta, first commander of Manchoukuan Air Force
- Chen Changzu, next commander of Manchoukuan Air Force and "Central Manch Air Force School"
- Pu-Chieh, second in Manchu lineage, possible replacement in administration and heir of Manchukouan Throne. Officer in native armed forces
- Pu-Ren, parent of Puyi, also served in national armed forces
- Rong-Qi, another distant relative of Kangde Emperor, also member of Imperial Manchu Chivalry between national armed forces
- Old Yuan, Manchu Ambassador in Japan
- Paik Sun-yup, Korean military officer of Manchukuo Army
[edit] Others (Japanese)
- Chiune Sugihara, Japanese Foreign Officer in Manchu government service, later Deputy Manchu Foreign Minister
- Jiro Minami, Kwantung Army - concurrently Ambassador to Manchukuo
- Takuma Shimoyama, Headquarters - Adviser, Manchukuoan Military Administration Bureau
- Kenjiro Hayashide, second secretary in Japanese Embassy, also civil Adviser, author of "Epochal voyage to Nippon", publication edited by Intelligence agency in General Affairs of State Council of Manchukuo
- Tadayuki Furume, Chairman and President of General Affairs of State Councill of Manchukuo State
- Masaiko Amakazu, leader of Manchu film industry
- Toranosuke Hashimoto, Japanese first priest in Shintoist central Shrine in Hsinking, also leading the Cultural Japanese entity in Manchukuo.later was assign the guide of Military Hachiman Hsinking Shrine and command of Manchu Secret Services under Kempeitai.
- Yoshisuke Aikawa, important industrialist, with next of Japanese Army. He guided the Manchukuoan Zaibatsu Industry
- Naoki Hoshino, Japanese Right-wing ideologist and Japanese Army follower himself traced the political and economical lines for foundation of Manchukuo
[edit] Others (elsewhere)
- Genrikh Lyushkov,Ex Soviet Far East NKVD Commander and defector,now adviser to Antisoviet plannings at Kwantung Army service.
- Konstantin Vladimirovich Rodzaevsky, White Russian anticommunist leader
- General Kislistin, another White Russian anticommunist chief
- General Vrashevsky,White Russian anti-bolshevik leader, also contact with local Manchu Jew Movement
- Abraham Kaufman,Manchu Jew leader, founder of Far Eastern Jewish Council and Betarim Jew Zionists Movement
- Joseph Kaspe, Owner of Moderne Hotel in Harbin,as distacated bussinessmen in land,was victim of Japanese reprisal uncovered actions
- Amleto Vespa, As forced Italian support of Japanese policies in country
- Peter Fleming,British eyewitness of Japanese actions in Manchukuo
- Trebitsh-Lincoln,Hungarian Pro-Japanese supporter and collaborator with Japanese policies in Manchukuo and occupied Chinese land for sometimes.
- Edgar Snow,British reporter and journalist in Manchukuo and Occupied China in certain period
- Agnes Smedley,American was eyewitness of Japanese actions in Manchukuo for short period during transit for Dalian in route to China
[edit] Japanese military
- Sadao Araki, Officer, Kwantung Government-General
- Koiso Kuniaki, Army Staff Officer, Kwantung Government
- Jun Ushiroku, assigned to Kwantung Government-General
- Shigeru Honjo, Commander of Kwantung Army
- General Muraoka, Commander of Kwantung Army
- Senjuro Hayashi, Commander of Kwantung Army
- Jiro Minami, Commanding General, Kwantung Army
- Yoshijiro Umezu, Commanding General, Kwantung Army, Commander-in Chief, same army
- Otozo Yamada, Commander-in-Chief, Kwantung Army
- Keisuke Fujie, Chief, General Affairs Bureau, Military Police, Headquarters, Kwantung Army, Commander, Kwantung Army Military Police
- Shizuichi Tanaka, Commander, Kwantung Army Military Police Units
- Hideki Tojo, Commanding General, Military Police, Kwantung Army
- Prince Takeda, Commander-in-Chief of Japanese Secret Services in Manchukuo also Imperial Family Liaison with Kwantung Army and Kempeitai Intellingence Services in land
- Torashiro Kawabe, Staff Officer (Operations; Intelligence), Kwantung Army,
- Kingoro Hashimoto, Chief, Special Service Agency, Hailar, Kwantung Army
- Michitaro Komatsubara, Chief of the Special Service Agency at Harbin.
- Koiso Kuniaki, concurrently Chief, Special Service Department,
- Nobuyoshi Obata, Chief, Harbin Special Intelligence Agency
- Saburo Shimomura, General of Japanese Gendarmerie, Kempeitai detachment in Hsinking
- General Higuchi, Japanese Army contact with Manchu Jew anticommunist movement and its supporter
- Park Chung Hee,(Masao Takaki) Army Leutenant,member of Kwantung Army
[edit] Maladministration and lawlessness
In 1931, Manchukuo began to be ruled along the lines of colonialism, though in a particularly brutal form. Early on, naked power was directed against Manchu, Chinese and White Russians; with foreign protests of no account. Kidnapping to threaten important persons, or for extortion, was employed.
Charges made against the Japanese military rulers, effectively in control in Manchukuo, include the following. The basis of some of these, in relation to external observers, is discussed in the next section.
[edit] Conspiracy
- The main charge is of conspiracy, conscious and supported by detailed planning and a theoretical framework, to institute by power a state of dictatorship, on a foreign territory. This comprised both the 'puppet state', for the external exploitation of the population and natural resources; and the planned modification of cultural identity.
- Kanji Ishiwara, one of the Japanese thinkers about the Asian mainland, desired to convert Manchukuo into a "Model State" as an example to the world and Asian countries as a precursor to conquering Siberian regions (including Vladivostok).
[edit] Power politics and repression
- Creation or use of official decrees, laws or official orders in order to provide "legal" support of much of these war and common crimes, and forcing the native Manchu "authorities" into signing these orders, as happened to the Kangde Emperor, Puyi.
- Illegal arrests and capture of civilians without cause by the local Manchu police or Japanese authorities.
- Forced spying on local Manchu residents' communities in each house.
- Forced recruitment to local "native" nationalist parties and movements organized for Japanese ideologies.
- Use of Korean, Manchu, Russian and Chinese agents on behalf of the Manchu and Japanese Secret service for surveillance, prosecution, and spying on the foreign or local opposition and forced use of local or foreign persons as spies.
- The common Japanese use of gifts, good contracts, commodities, political influences, large amounts of money and other means to control and manage their local servants in the territory.
[edit] Economic criminality
- Forced land appropriations either with or without legal orders in favour of Japanese citizens or private and government companies and local administration.
- Use of criminal gangs for robbery and threatening the opposition. Japanese government and military connections with local Chinese, Manchu and White Russian warlords and cartels.
- The establishment of monopolies for the economic benefit of Japanese and local Manchu and Chinese business associates.
- Jointly with local gangsters, establishment of drug centers. Installation of casinos and forced brothels for the entertainment of troops and servants. Toleration of similar supposedly "illegal" centers.
- Sabotage of local commercial properties with local elective servants to benefit South Manchurian Railway and other Japanese companies.
- The official monopoly joint Japanese Mitsui Zaibatsu Clan for amapole farming and opium manufacture.
- Kidnapping of local or foreign personalities for financial ransom. Ransoms were paid to secret local or foreign groups on behalf of the Japanese secret service or for local Chinese, Manchu or White Russians, mafia gangs or subcontractors of the Japanese military. Many of these kidnappings resulted in death in spite of the ransom money having been paid.
[edit] Human rights violations
- Disappearances of political opponents without informing relatives.
- Torture of prisoners in regular penal or military jails, by Japanese officers or Chinese, Manchu or White Russian criminals.
- Assassinations by Japanese or local military Manchu or Chinese units, as an "example" or as "revenge" against local Communist Chinese guerrillas.
- 'Natural rights' of Japanese subjects promoted in preference to other nationalities.
- Cultural deformation, indoctrination and education of non-Japanese subjects in order to obtain slaves for Japanese factories.
- Forced recruitment of Manchu, Chinese and Mongol native citizens into the Manchu Army, regular police or Manchu secret service.
- Forced labor in toxic areas in factories, dangerous mines or in construction.
- Subversion of the legal system as a repressive tool.
- See also war crimes in Manchukuo
[edit] Direct foreign and Japanese testimonies
[edit] Wellington Koo
An important testimony is that of Wellington Koo (a future foreign affairs minister in the Chinese cabinet). He formed part of the Lytton Commission of the League of Nations to evaluate Manchukuo. He arrived in Mukden and immediately saw Japanese moves to conceal the facts and to create a false sense of accord with the local Manchu citizens; he suspected that they were constrained from reporting the situation by threats.
Other members of the commission were: Dr. Heinrich Scheene, Count Aldrovani, General Frank Ross McCoy and General Henri Claudel. They shared similar opinions. The commission received in secret 1,000 personal letters with the theme we don't want to end up like the Koreans. Puyi himself mentioned escape from the Japanese, when sending a confidant to Wellington Koo in person; but he said he had no way to help.
[edit] Peter Fleming
The British travel writer Peter Fleming, in his books "One's Company" and "News from Tartary", accompanied Japanese Army and Manchu troops under Japanese command in anti-guerrilla operations against "bandits" (Chinese communist rebels), He was a direct eyewitness to the Japanese and Manchu soldiers' brutality. He said that in one rural town he "saw two men tied to a pole, with the knowledge that they are being executed by shooting on this day in the presence of their families". He said that these methods were used regularly for terrorizing native guerrilla supporters and were also used on a large scale. He also described how Kini, a Swiss woman friend, suffered severe xenophobic aggression from Japanese citizens.
[edit] Amleto Vespa
See main article Amleto Vespa
The Italian Amleto Vespa wrote the 1938 book Secret Agent of Japan, based on his own observations and experiences as a forced secret agent in Manchukuo. Other Manchukuo experts Edgar Snow and H. J. Timperley, correspondents of the British Newspaper The Manchester Guardian, confirmed Amleto's veracity.
[edit] Henry Woodhead
Another person with full knowledge of the reality was British journalist and Puyi's old friend, Henry Woodhead, who worked as director in the Shanghai Evening Post and Mercury independent Chinese newspaper.
[edit] At the Court
Hiro Saga was the Japanese wife of the Manchu Prince Pujie, Puyi's brother. She noted the constant surveillance of certain servants of Puyi in her memoirs.
[edit] Others
- There is testimony of one pro-Japanese Farmer Voluntary of these groups sent to Manchukuo who were eyewitnesses of one raid against Manchu Farmers destined to Bayonet practices for the Japanese Military; their properties were confiscated for Japanese Settlers and converted to "strategic settlements" like many others in rural areas of the nation.
- Some cases existed of supposed loyal native servant or real Japanese subjects who in exercising their liberty of thinking decided to oppose openly the official establishment, were dissidents. But theirs poses bad finish, how occurred to Japanese Addict Manchu Minister Ling Sheng, one of the natives "founders and Nation Fathers" of Manchou nation. Why for your "noble" services having to installing in manage of Hsingan Province. In 1936, Kangde emperor calling for Japanese counsellors for said why in one governors meeting he, complain over Japanese intromission in their functions. All of these servants were arrested and executed, accused of "conspiring with foreign powers to rebel against the official establishment". The Kangde Emperor treated to intercede for his friend and Minister, to the Kwangtung Army Commander, the highest authority in the country could not prevent the death of these people.
- On the other hand, some unknown Japanese subjects opposed the management of the Japanese establishment in Manchukuo and expressed their opinion. Later these subjects were captured to be sent to some of the farthest jails in the interior of the nation. During the Lytton Commission these subjects "vanished" in other remote jails, their final fate was still unknown.
- A similar case was that of the fate of members of the "Imperial Manchu Guards", the Kangde Emperor's official bodyguards. This group was the most select unit in the Manchu nation with orders to protect the Kangde Emperor, and the unique security force (including their Japanese commander) who Puyi personally trusted Japanese, during one "sacred voyage" to Japan of the Kangde Emperor, decided to arrest them all and degrade, torture and deport them outside of Manchukuo, accused of "anti-Japanese and anti-Manchu activities" Puyi only giving count when arriving and saw the absence and observed the change of personnel.
- Baron Takumo Dan was murdered on March 5, 1932. He was an important and open opponent of the Japanese official Establishment, their politics in Japan proper and their foreign interventions in Manchukuo and nearby areas. He was more well-known in foreign circles and was a known friend of the United States. He was assigned as local counsellor in Japan by the Lytton Commission. He was a director of Mitsui Bank, and was a man of moral integrity and independence of thinking. His assassin was an ultranationalist member of the Ketsumeidan Society (Blood Fraternity), for all these murder are interpreted how advise at all Japanese subjects, for more eminents why having if to yield at Official Policy in Japan and Manchukuo and maintained at merging of the League of Nations. This success occurred just in time why the Lytton Commission, stay in visit in Tokyo and were presented with diplomatic banquets and feasts after their visit to Manchukuo. There existed some suspects who in these successes implied certain personages in high spheres of influence, such as the sinister Dr. Shumei Okawa, among others.
