Puyi in Manchukuo

Puyi, después de ser expulsado de la Ciudad Prohibida, pasó sus años con la ilusión de volver a ser emperador, manejado por los japoneses y sin tener idea de los sufrimientos a su alrededor. Fue puesto como jefe de estado del recientemente formado Manchukuo, firmó todos los decretos favoreciendo a los japoneses y fue tomado prisionero por los soviéticos…

En vocabulario: fete, vivisection

What did the Japanese want creating Manchukuo?

What was Puyi´s role in the new state?

Where did Puyi die?

Why didn´t the communist kill him?

In 1924, after a coup that reduced him to a private citizen of the Republic of China, Puyi was expelled from the Forbidden City.

In 1925, Puyi moved to Tianjin. It was, after Shanghai, the most cosmopolitan Chinese city, with large British, French, German, Russian and Japanese communities. As an emperor, Puyi was allowed to join several social clubs that normally only admitted whites.

Downtown Tianjin

In 1931 Puyi sent a letter to Jirō Minami, the Japanese Minister of War, expressing his desire to be restored to the throne. On the night of 18 September 1931, the Mukden Incident began when the Kwantung Army (the largest army group of the Imperial Japanese Army) blew up a section of railroad belonging to the Japanese-owned South Manchurian Railroad company, which was blamed on a Chinese warlord. Using this incident as an excuse, the Kwantung Army began a general offensive with the aim of conquering all of Manchuria. Puyi was proposed as head of a Manchurian state.

Once he arrived in Manchuria, Puyi discovered that he was a prisoner and was not allowed outside the Yamato Hotel, ostensibly to protect him from assassination. The Japanese chose as the capital of Manchukuo the industrial city of Changchun, which was renamed Hsinking. Whenever the Japanese wanted a law passed, the relevant decree was dropped off at Salt Tax Palace for Puyi to sign, which he always did. Puyi signed decrees expropriating vast tracts of farmland to be given to Japanese colonists and a law declaring certain thoughts to be "thought crimes."

Manchukuo Palace

During Puyi's reign as Emperor of Manchukuo, his household was closely watched by the Japanese, who increasingly took steps toward the full Japanisation of Manchuria, to prevent him from becoming too independent. He was feted by the Japanese populace during his visits there, but had to remain subservient to Emperor Hirohito.

More than 10 million Chinese civilians were mobilized by the Kwangtung Army for slave labor in Manchukuo under the supervision of the Kōa-in (a Japanese agency).

The Chinese slave laborers often suffered illness due to high-intensity manual labor. Some badly ill workers were directly pushed into mass graves in order to avoid the medical expenditure and the world's most serious mine disaster, at Benxihu Colliery, happened in Manchukuo.

Bacteriological weapons were experimented on humans by the infamous Unit 731 located near Harbin. Victims, mostly Chinese, Russians and Koreans, were subjected to vivisection, sometimes without anesthesia.

Japanese investments in Manchukuo were partly financed by selling drugs. The Kōa-in was directly implicated in providing funds to drug dealers in China for the benefit of the puppet government of Manchukuo.

Manchukuo's steel production exceeded Japan's in the late 1930s. Many Manchurian cities were modernized. However, much of the country's economy was often subordinated to Japanese interests and, during the war; raw material flowed into Japan to support the war effort. Traditional lands were taken and redistributed to Japanese farmers with local farmers relocated and forced into collective farming units over smaller areas of land.

In December 1941, Puyi followed Japan in declaring war on the United States and Great Britain, but as neither nation had recognized Manchukuo there were no reciprocal declarations of war in return.

On 9 August 1945, the Kwantung Army's commander General Otozō Yamada arrived at the Salt Tax Palace to tell Puyi that the Soviet Union had declared war on Japan and the Red Army had entered Manchukuo. Late on the night of 11 August 1945, a train carrying Puyi, his court, his ministers and the Qing treasures left Changchun.

On 16 August Puyi took a small plane to Mukden, where another larger plane was supposed to arrive to take them to Japan, but instead a Soviet plane landed. Puyi and his party were all promptly taken prisoner by the Red Army, who initially did not know who Puyi was. The Soviets took him to the Siberian town of Chita. He lived in a sanatorium, then later in Khabarovsk near the Chinese border, where he was treated well and allowed to keep some of his servants. The Soviet government refused the Republic of China's repeated requests to extradite Puyi; the Kuomintang government had indicted him on charges of high treason, and the Soviet refusal to extradite him almost certainly saved his life, as Chiang Kai-shek (Chinese nationalist politician and leader) had often spoken of his desire to have Puyi shot.

Soviet Union military officer and Puyi

In 1946, Puyi testified at the International Military Tribunal for the Far East (a trial that judged the Japanese war criminals) in Tokyo.

When the Chinese Communist Party under Mao Zedong (chairman of the Communist party) came to power in 1949, Puyi was repatriated to China after negotiations between the Soviet Union and China. Puyi was of considerable value to Mao: "In the eyes of Mao, Puyi, the last Emperor, was the epitome of all that had been evil in old Chinese society."

Puyi came to Beijing on 9 December 1959 with special permission from Mao Zedong and lived for the next six months in an ordinary Beijing residence with his sister before being transferred to a government-sponsored hotel. He had the job of sweeping the streets. He voiced his support for the Communists and worked at the Beijing Botanical Gardens.

Puyi died in Beijing of complications arising from kidney cancer and heart disease on 17 October 1967 at the age of 61.

Vocabulario

Fete: honour or entertain (someone) lavishly.

She was an instant celebrity, feted by the media

Vivisection: the practice of performing operations on live animals for the purpose of experimentation or scientific research.

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Esto es parte del archivo: El último emperador chino