Cường Để (, ; born Nguyễn Phước Dân ( vi-hantu, 阮福民); 11 January 1882 - 5 April 1951) was an early 20th-century Vietnamese revolutionary who, along with
Phan Bội Châu
Phan Bội Châu (; 26 December 1867 – 29 October 1940), born Phan Văn San, courtesy name Hải Thụ (later changed to Sào Nam), was a pioneer of Vietnamese 20th century nationalism. In 1903, he formed a revolutionary organization called ' ...
, unsuccessfully tried to liberate
Vietnam
Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making i ...
from
French colonial occupation.
Cường Để was a royal relative of the
Nguyễn dynasty and, according to the rule of
primogeniture, was the heir of the dynasty, directly issued from the line of first-born descendants of Emperor
Gia Long and his son
Prince Cảnh.
[''A Vietnamese Royal Exile in Japan'' by My-Van Tran, Tran My-Van My Duong, p. 2]
/ref> He was officially an "external marquis" (''Ky Ngoai Hau'').
Study in Japan
Prince Cường Để went in secret to Japan at the end of 1905, leaving a pregnant wife and two young sons in Indochina. He attended a military academy in the Kanda, Tokyo, Kanda district of Tokyo, followed by Waseda University
, mottoeng = Independence of scholarship
, established = 21 October 1882
, type = Private
, endowment =
, president = Aiji Tanaka
, city = Shinjuku
, state = Tokyo
, country = Japan
, students = 47,959
, undergrad = 39,382
, postgrad ...
, where he learned to speak perfect, accentless Japanese. He also married a Japanese woman. While in Japan, he supported and became the figurehead for the ''Phong Trao Dong Du'' ("On the Way to the East" movement), led by the revolutionary Phan Bội Châu
Phan Bội Châu (; 26 December 1867 – 29 October 1940), born Phan Văn San, courtesy name Hải Thụ (later changed to Sào Nam), was a pioneer of Vietnamese 20th century nationalism. In 1903, he formed a revolutionary organization called ' ...
in support of Indochinese independence from France. The organization was encouraged by the victory of Japan over Russia in the Russo-Japanese War
The Russo-Japanese War ( ja, 日露戦争, Nichiro sensō, Japanese-Russian War; russian: Ру́сско-япóнская войнá, Rússko-yapónskaya voyná) was fought between the Empire of Japan and the Russian Empire during 1904 and 1 ...
, and received financial support from Sun Yat-sen, Liang Qichao
Liang Qichao (Chinese: 梁啓超 ; Wade-Giles: ''Liang2 Chʻi3-chʻao1''; Yale: ''Lèuhng Kái-chīu'') (February 23, 1873 – January 19, 1929) was a Chinese politician, social and political activist, journalist, and intellectual. His thou ...
as well as Inukai Tsuyoshi
Inukai Tsuyoshi ( ja, 犬養 毅, 4 June 1855 – 15 May 1932) was a Japanese politician, cabinet minister, and Prime Minister of Japan from 1931 to his assassination in 1932. Inukai was Japan's second oldest prime minister while serving, as he ...
and Kashiwabara Buntaro. Between 1905 and 1910, it sponsored some 200 Vietnamese to study in Japan.
However, after the Franco-Japanese Treaty of 1907, French colonial authorities applied diplomatic pressure against Japan to suppress the organization and many of its members were deported by 1910.
Prince Cường Để made a trip to Siam
Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Indochinese Peninsula, spanning , with a population of almost 70 million. The country is bo ...
from November 1908-March 1909, returning to Japan in May 1909. However, his presence in Japan was reported by the French government to the Japanese, who issued a warrant for his arrest. He hid until September, at one point escaping out a hotel window in Kobe as the police came in through the door. However, he was finally deported to Shanghai at the end of October.
Interwar period
Prince Cường Để then went to Beijing, where the Chinese warlord Duan Qirui
Duan Qirui (; ) (March 6, 1865 – November 2, 1936) was a Chinese warlord and politician, a commander of the Beiyang Army and the acting Chief Executive of the Republic of China (in Beijing) from 1924 to 1926. He was also the Premier of the R ...
offered financial support if he would start an uprising against the French in Indochina as leader of the 1911 Vietnam Restoration Organisation (''Việt Nam Quang Phục Hội''). He traveled to Hong Kong and then to Bangkok
Bangkok, officially known in Thai as Krung Thep Maha Nakhon and colloquially as Krung Thep, is the capital and most populous city of Thailand. The city occupies in the Chao Phraya River delta in central Thailand and has an estimated populati ...
in 1911, but was apprehended by Siamese authorities and deported back to China. He then traveled via Singapore
Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, bor ...
to Europe, visiting Berlin and London. However, in 1913, he was sentenced to death in absentia as the French started to suppress pro-independence agitation more harshly.
Returning to Japan, Prince Cường Để found help from the Pan-Asian movement, including Tōyama Mitsuru
was a Japanese right wing and ultranationalist founder of Genyosha (''Black Ocean Society'') and Kokuryukai (''Black Dragon Society''). Tōyama was a strong advocate of Pan Asianism (Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere).
Early life
Tōyama ...
and was given a monthly allowance by his old friend Inukai Tsuyoshi. However, he was devastated by the news of the arrest of Phan Bội Châu in Shanghai in 1925, followed by the assassination of Inukai in 1932. Prince Cường founded the Phuc Quoc (''Việt Nam Phục quốc Đồng minh Hội'', "League for the Restoration of Vietnam") in 1938, which also had an armed wing, as a monarchist alternative to the Viet Minh
The Việt Minh (; abbreviated from , chữ Nôm and Hán tự: ; french: Ligue pour l'indépendance du Viêt Nam, ) was a national independence coalition formed at Pác Bó by Hồ Chí Minh on 19 May 1941. Also known as the Việt Minh Fro ...
(''Việt Nam Độc lập Đồng minh Hội'', "League for the Independence of Vietnam") movement created by Ho Chi Minh
(: ; born ; 19 May 1890 – 2 September 1969), commonly known as (' Uncle Hồ'), also known as ('President Hồ'), (' Old father of the people') and by other aliases, was a Vietnamese revolutionary and statesman. He served as P ...
. He approached the Japanese military, hoping to be restored to the throne in Vietnam as Puyi
Aisin-Gioro Puyi (; 7 February 1906 – 17 October 1967), courtesy name Yaozhi (曜之), was the last emperor of China as the eleventh and final Qing dynasty monarch. He became emperor at the age of two in 1908, but was forced to abdicate on 1 ...
had been restored to the throne in Manchukuo.
Under Japanese rule
Prince Cường Để lived in Taiwan
Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the nort ...
from 1939 to May 1940, where he produced a daily four-hour radio show. Later that year, the Japanese invasion of French Indochina
The was a short undeclared military confrontation between Japan and France in northern French Indochina. Fighting lasted from 22 to 26 September 1940; the same time as the Battle of South Guangxi in the Sino-Japanese War, which was the main ...
occurred, but left the Vichy French
Vichy France (french: Régime de Vichy; 10 July 1940 – 9 August 1944), officially the French State ('), was the fascist French state headed by Marshal Philippe Pétain during World War II. Officially independent, but with half of its terr ...
colonial administration intact in order to maintain stable conditions to obtain essential war materials. However, Prince Cường Để remained loyal to the concept of the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere
The , also known as the GEACPS, was a concept that was developed in the Empire of Japan and propagated to Asian populations which were occupied by it from 1931 to 1945, and which officially aimed at creating a self-sufficient bloc of Asian peo ...
and made contact with leaders of the Cao Đài
Caodaism ( vi, Đạo Cao Đài, Chữ Hán: ) is a monotheistic syncretic new religious movement officially established in the city of Tây Ninh in southern Vietnam in 1926. The full name of the religion is (The Great Faith or theThird Un ...
movement who were interested in a monarchy led by Prince Cường Để. Following the collapse of the Vichy French government, the Japanese staged a coup de main
A ''coup de main'' (; plural: ''coups de main'', French for blow with the hand) is a swift attack that relies on speed and surprise to accomplish its objectives in a single blow.
Definition
The United States Department of Defense defines it as ...
, creating the independent Empire of Vietnam. Prince Cường Để brought forth a five-member provisional government
A provisional government, also called an interim government, an emergency government, or a transitional government, is an emergency governmental authority set up to manage a political transition generally in the cases of a newly formed state or ...
, which was sponsored by the IJA 38th Army; however, Tokyo made the surprising decision to retain Emperor Bảo Đại
Bảo Đại (, vi-hantu, , lit. "keeper of greatness", 22 October 191331 July 1997), born Nguyễn Phúc Vĩnh Thụy (), was the 13th and final emperor of the Nguyễn dynasty, the last ruling dynasty of Vietnam. From 1926 to 1945, he was em ...
as nominal head of state, and Prince Cường Để's efforts to return as ruler of Vietnam were frustrated.
Final years
Following the end of World War II, Prince Cường Để became a Japanese citizen, taking the name of Masao Ando. He gave a press conference in August 1949, vowing to return to Vietnam to oppose Bảo Đại, should Bảo Đại sign agreements granting France colonial rights in Vietnam again. However, as a Japanese subject, he was not permitted a Vietnamese passport. His attempts to return to Vietnam via Thailand and via Hong Kong disguised as a Chinese with a fake passport were foiled in 1950. Prince Cường Để died of cancer in 1951 at the Nippon Medical School
is a private university in Sendagi (), Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo, Japan.
History
In 1876, Tai Hasegawa () established a medical school in Tokyo. At that time, the Japanese government and the Ministry of Education only permitted one medical school: the Un ...
Hospital in Tokyo.
References
External links
Phan Bội Châu and the Dông-Du Movement
edited by Vinh Sinh of Yale University (PDF).
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cuong De
1882 births
1951 deaths
Vietnamese nationalists
Vietnamese revolutionaries
Nguyen dynasty princes
Pretenders to the Vietnamese throne
Việt Nam Quang Phục Hội politicians
Place of birth missing
Vietnamese monarchists
Vietnamese anti-communists
Vietnamese emigrants to Japan
Waseda University alumni
Vietnamese collaborators with Imperial Japan
Naturalized citizens of Japan