was a

Qing dynasty The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing,, was a Manchu-led imperial dynasty of China and the last orthodox dynasty in Chinese history. It emerged from the Later Jin dynasty founded by the Jianzhou Jurchens, a Tungusic-speak ...

princess of the

Aisin-Gioro The House of Aisin-Gioro was a Manchu people, Manchu clan that ruled the Later Jin (1616–1636), Later Jin dynasty (1616–1636), the Qing dynasty (1636–1912), and Manchukuo (1932–1945) in the history of China. Under the Ming dynasty, member ...

clan. She was raised in Japan and served as a spy for the Japanese

Kwantung Army ''Kantō-gun'' , image = Kwantung Army Headquarters.JPG , image_size = 300px , caption = Kwantung Army headquarters in Hsinking, Manchukuo , dates = April ...

and

Manchukuo Manchukuo, officially the State of Manchuria prior to 1934 and the Empire of (Great) Manchuria after 1934, was a puppet state of the Empire of Japan in Northeast China, Manchuria from 1932 until 1945. It was founded as a republic in 1932 afte ...

during the

Second Sino-Japanese War The Second Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945) or War of Resistance (Chinese term) was a military conflict that was primarily waged between the Republic of China and the Empire of Japan. The war made up the Chinese theater of the wider Pacific Th ...

. She is sometimes known in fiction under the pseudonym "Eastern

Mata Hari Margaretha Geertruida MacLeod (née Zelle; 7 August 187615 October 1917), better known by the stage name Mata Hari (), was a Dutch exotic dancer and courtesan who was convicted of being a spy for Germany during World War I. She was executed by ...

". After the war, she was captured, tried, and executed as a

traitor Treason is the crime of attacking a state authority to which one owes allegiance. This typically includes acts such as participating in a war against one's native country, attempting to overthrow its government, spying on its military, its diplo ...

by the Nationalist government of the

Republic of China 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 northeast ...

. She was also a notable descendant of Hooge, eldest son of

Hong Taiji Hong Taiji (28 November 1592 – 21 September 1643), also rendered as Huang Taiji and sometimes referred to as Abahai in Western literature, also known by his temple name as the Emperor Taizong of Qing, was the second khan of the Later Jin ...

Names

She was born in the

Aisin Gioro The House of Aisin-Gioro was a Manchu clan that ruled the Later Jin dynasty (1616–1636), the Qing dynasty (1636–1912), and Manchukuo (1932–1945) in the history of China. Under the Ming dynasty, members of the Aisin Gioro clan served as c ...

clan, the imperial clan of the

Manchu The Manchus (; ) are a Tungusic East Asian ethnic group native to Manchuria in Northeast Asia. They are an officially recognized ethnic minority in China and the people from whom Manchuria derives its name. The Later Jin (1616–1636) and ...

-led

. Her birth name was Aisin Gioro Xianyu and her

courtesy name A courtesy name (), also known as a style name, is a name bestowed upon one at adulthood in addition to one's given name. This practice is a tradition in the East Asian cultural sphere, including China, Japan, Korea, and Vietnam.Ulrich Theobald ...

was Dongzhen (literally "eastern jewel"). Her Sinicised name was Jin Bihui. She is best known by her Japanese name, Kawashima Yoshiko (川島芳子), which is read as Chuāndǎo Fāngzǐ in Chinese. In 1925, Yoshiko took the male name Ryōsuke.

Family background and early life

She was born Aisin Gioro Xianyu in

Beijing } Beijing ( ; ; ), alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the capital of the People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's most populous national capital city, with over 21 ...

in 1907 as the 14th daughter of

Shanqi Shanqi (; 5 October 1866 – 29 March 1922), courtesy name Aitang (), formally Prince Su of the First Rank, was a prince of the Aisin-Gioro clan, the ruling clan of the Qing Dynasty, as well as a minister in the late Qing. He was from the Bord ...

(1866–1922), a

prince of the

clan, the imperial clan of China's

. Her mother was Lady Janggiya (), Shanqi's fourth concubine. Shanqi was a descendant of Hooge, the eldest son of

(the second ruler of the Qing dynasty). Shanqi was also the tenth heir to the Prince Su peerage, one of the 12 "iron-cap" princely peerages of the Qing dynasty. After the

Xinhai Revolution The 1911 Revolution, also known as the Xinhai Revolution or Hsinhai Revolution, ended China's last imperial dynasty, the Manchu-led Qing dynasty, and led to the establishment of the Republic of China. The revolution was the culmination of a d ...

overthrew the Qing dynasty in 1912, Xianyu was given up for adoption in 1915 at the age of eight to her father's friend, Naniwa Kawashima, a Japanese espionage agent and mercenary adventurer. Her stepfather changed her name to "Yoshiko Kawashima" and took her back to

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

to be raised and educated in the Kawashima family house. As a teenage girl, Kawashima was sent to school in Tokyo for an education that included judo and fencing. Around the time her adoptive family moved to

Matsumoto Matsumoto (松本 or 松元, "base of the pine tree") may refer to: Places * Matsumoto, Nagano (松本市), a city ** Matsumoto Airport, an airport southwest of Matsumoto, Nagano * Matsumoto, Kagoshima (松元町), a former town now part of the c ...

. Kawashima's biological father, Shanqi, died in 1922. As Kawashima's mother had no official identity as Shanqi's concubine, she followed Manchu tradition and committed suicide to join Shanqi in death. At the age of seventeen, her adoptive father raped her and later continued to abuse her. On 22 November 1925, Yoshiko said that she had "...decided to cease being a woman forever." Earlier that day she had dressed in a

kimono The is a traditional Japanese garment and the national dress of Japan. The kimono is a wrapped-front garment with square sleeves and a rectangular body, and is worn left side wrapped over right, unless the wearer is deceased. The kimono ...

with a traditional female hair style and took a photo among blooming cosmos to commemorate "my farewell to life as a woman." That evening, Yoshiko went to a barbershop and had all her hair cut off, adopting a

crew cut A crew cut is a type of haircut in which the upright hair on the top of the head is cut relatively short, graduated in length from the longest hair that forms a short pomp ( pompadour) at the front hairline to the shortest at the back of the cro ...

and from then on dressing in men's clothes. A photo of the transformation appeared five days later in ''

the Asahi Shimbun is one of the four largest newspapers in Japan. Founded in 1879, it is also one of the oldest newspapers in Japan and Asia, and is considered a newspaper of record for Japan. Its circulation, which was 4.57 million for its morning edition and ...

'' under the headline: "Kawashima Yoshiko's Beautiful Black Hair Completely Cut Off - Because of Unfounded 'Rumors,' Makes Firm Decision to Become a Man - Touching Secret Tale of Her Shooting Herself," alluding to a prior episode in which she had shot herself in the chest with a pistol given to her by . She explained in another article two days after the first that "I was born with what the doctors call a tendency toward the

third sex Third gender is a concept in which individuals are categorized, either by themselves or by society, as neither man nor woman. It is also a social category present in societies that recognize three or more genders. The term ''third'' is usually ...

, and so I cannot pursue an ordinary woman's goals in life... Since I was young I've been dying to do the things that boys do. My impossible dream is to work hard like a man for China, for Asia." Earlier in her life it had been remarked upon that she had "boyish habits" despite her feminine beauty and that she would only use the male style of Japanese grammar, even after that contributed to her not being re-admitted to her school after her biological father's death.

Espionage career

In November 1927 at age 20, her brother and adoptive father arranged for her marriage to Ganjuurjab in Port Arthur (also known as Ryojun), who was the son of

Inner Mongolian Army The Inner Mongolian Army, also sometimes called the Mengjiang National Army, referred to the Inner Mongolian military units in service of Imperial Japan and its puppet state of Mengjiang during the Second Sino-Japanese War, particularly those led ...

general Babojab, who once led the Mongolian-Manchurian Independence Movement there in 1911. The marriage ended in divorce after only three years and she left

Mongolia Mongolia; Mongolian script: , , ; lit. "Mongol Nation" or "State of Mongolia" () is a landlocked country in East Asia, bordered by Russia to the north and China to the south. It covers an area of , with a population of just 3.3 million, ...

, and she first traveled to teeming coastal towns of China and lived a bohemian lifestyle for some years in Tokyo with a series of rich lovers, both men and women. Kawashima moved to the

foreign concession In international relations, a concession is a " synallagmatic act by which a State transfers the exercise of rights or functions proper to itself to a foreign private test which, in turn, participates in the performance of public functions and th ...

Shanghai Shanghai (; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four direct-administered municipalities of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the Huangpu River flow ...

. While in Shanghai, she met Japanese

military attaché A military attaché is a military expert who is attached to a diplomatic mission, often an embassy. This type of attaché post is normally filled by a high-ranking military officer, who retains a commission while serving with an embassy. Opport ...

and intelligence officer Ryukichi Tanaka, who utilised her contacts with the Manchu and Mongol nobility to expand his network. She was living with Tanaka in Shanghai at the time of the Shanghai Incident of 1932. After Tanaka was recalled to Japan, Kawashima continued to serve as a spy for the general

Kenji Doihara was a Japanese army officer. As a general in the Imperial Japanese Army during World War II, he was instrumental in the Japanese invasion of Manchuria. As a leading intelligence officer, he played a key role to the Japanese machinations that le ...

. She undertook undercover missions in

Manchuria Manchuria is an exonym (derived from the endo demonym " Manchu") for a historical and geographic region in Northeast Asia encompassing the entirety of present-day Northeast China (Inner Manchuria) and parts of the Russian Far East (Outer Manc ...

, often in disguise, and was considered "strikingly attractive, with a dominating personality, almost a film-drama figure, half tom-boy and half heroine, and with a passion for dressing up as a male. She possibly did this in order to impress the men, or she may have done it in order to more easily fit into the tightly-knit guerrilla groups without attracting too much attention". Kawashima was well-acquainted with

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 ...

, the last emperor of the Qing dynasty, who regarded her as a member of the imperial family and welcomed her into his household during his stay in

Tianjin Tianjin (; ; Mandarin: ), alternately romanized as Tientsin (), is a municipality and a coastal metropolis in Northern China on the shore of the Bohai Sea. It is one of the nine national central cities in Mainland China, with a total popul ...

. It was through this close liaison that Kawashima was able to persuade Puyi to become a figurehead ruler for

, a puppet state created by the Japanese in Manchuria. However, Kawashima privately criticised Puyi for being too amenable to Japanese influence. After Puyi became Emperor of Manchukuo, Kawashima continued to play various roles and, for a time, was the mistress of

Hayao Tada was a general in the Imperial Japanese Army in the Second Sino-Japanese War. A noted China expert within the Japanese military, he was a leading figure in the Trautmann mediation effort to bring a negotiated end to the war. Biography Early mili ...

, the chief military advisor to Puyi. She formed an independent

counterinsurgency Counterinsurgency (COIN) is "the totality of actions aimed at defeating irregular forces". The Oxford English Dictionary defines counterinsurgency as any "military or political action taken against the activities of guerrillas or revolutionar ...

cavalry force in 1932 made up of 3,000-5,000 former bandits to hunt down anti-Japanese guerrilla bands during the

Pacification of Manchukuo The Pacification of Manchukuo was a Japanese counterinsurgency campaign to suppress any armed resistance to the newly established puppet state of Manchukuo from various anti-Japanese volunteer armies in occupied Manchuria and later the Communis ...

, and was hailed in the

Japanese newspapers Japanese newspapers ( , or older spelling ), similar to their worldwide counterparts, run the gamut from general news-oriented papers to special-interest newspapers devoted to economics, sports, literature, industry, and trade. Newspapers are ci ...

as the

Joan of Arc Joan of Arc (french: link=yes, Jeanne d'Arc, translit= �an daʁk} ; 1412 – 30 May 1431) is a patron saint of France, honored as a defender of the French nation for her role in the siege of Orléans and her insistence on the coronati ...

of Manchukuo. In 1933, she offered the unit to the Japanese

Kwantung Army ''Kantō-gun'' , image = Kwantung Army Headquarters.JPG , image_size = 300px , caption = Kwantung Army headquarters in Hsinking, Manchukuo , dates = April ...

for

Operation Nekka The defense of the Great Wall () (January 1 – May 31, 1933) was a campaign between the armies of Republic of China and Empire of Japan, which took place before the Second Sino-Japanese War officially commenced in 1937 and after the Japanese inv ...

, but it was refused. The unit continued to exist under her command until sometime in the late 1930s. Kawashima became a well-known and popular figure in Manchukuo, making appearances on radio broadcasts and even issuing a record of her songs. Numerous fictional and semi-fictional stories of her exploits were published in newspapers and also as

pulp fiction ''Pulp Fiction'' is a 1994 American crime film written and directed by Quentin Tarantino, who conceived it with Roger Avary.See, e.g., King (2002), pp. 185–7; ; Starring John Travolta, Samuel L. Jackson, Bruce Willis, Tim Roth, Ving Rhame ...

. However, her very popularity created issues with the Kwantung Army because her utility as an intelligence asset was long gone, and her value as a propaganda symbol was compromised by her increasingly critical tone against the Japanese military's exploitative policies in Manchukuo as a base of operations against China in the

, and she gradually faded from public sight.

Capture, trial and execution

After the end of the war, on 11 November 1945, a news agency reported that "a long sought-for beauty in male costume was arrested in Beijing by counter-intelligence officers." She was held at Hebei Model Prison. The Supreme Court of

Hebei Hebei or , (; alternately Hopeh) is a northern province of China. Hebei is China's sixth most populous province, with over 75 million people. Shijiazhuang is the capital city. The province is 96% Han Chinese, 3% Manchu, 0.8% Hui, an ...

originally addressed Kawashima as "Chuandao Fangzi" (the Chinese pronunciation of her Japanese name). When her trial began a month later, Kawashima identified herself by her Chinese name, "Jin Bihui", which eventually became the name court officials used. However, in accordance with her lawyers' strategy to deflect her charge of treason, she gradually began to emphasise a Japanese or Manchu banner identity. The court rejected the defence's bid to have her tried as a war criminal rather than as a domestic traitor, based on a combination of ''

jus sanguinis ( , , ; 'right of blood') is a principle of nationality law by which citizenship is determined or acquired by the nationality or ethnicity of one or both parents. Children at birth may be citizens of a particular state if either or both of t ...

'' and Kawashima's failure to formally renounce her citizenship through China's Department of Civil Affairs. Charged with treason as a ''

hanjian In Chinese culture, the word ''hanjian'' () is a pejorative term for a traitor to the Han Chinese state and, to a lesser extent, Han ethnicity. The word ''hanjian'' is distinct from the general word for traitor, which could be used for any cou ...

'' on 20 October 1947, she was executed by a bullet shot into the back of her head on 25 March 1948,''TIME'' magazine, Monday, 5 April 194
Foreign News: Foolish Elder Brother
/ref> and her body was later put on public display. Her body was collected by a Japanese monk to be

cremated Cremation is a method of final disposition of a dead body through burning. Cremation may serve as a funeral or post-funeral rite and as an alternative to burial. In some countries, including India and Nepal, cremation on an open-air pyre i ...

. Her remains were sent back to her adoptive family and later buried at Shōrinji temple in

Nagano Prefecture is a landlocked prefecture of Japan located in the Chūbu region of Honshū. Nagano Prefecture has a population of 2,052,493 () and has a geographic area of . Nagano Prefecture borders Niigata Prefecture to the north, Gunma Prefecture to the ...

Gallery

File:Photo of Ms.Yoshiko Kawashima with her signature 1.jpg, Yoshiko in Kimono with her signature to her friends File:Photo of Ms.Yoshiko Kawashima with her signature 2.jpg, Yoshiko in Kimono with her signature to her friends File:Photo of Ms.Yoshiko Kawashima with her signature 3.jpg, Yoshiko in Kimono with her signature to her friends File:川岛芳子.jpg File:Kawashima Yoshiko High School.jpg, Yoshiko Kawashima in her high school days File:Kawashima Yoshiko Brothers.jpg, Yoshiko Kawashima with her brothers and foster-father Naniwa Kawashima File:Aisin-Gioro Xianyu.JPG, Yoshiko Kawashima File:Kawashima Matsumoto.jpg, Renko Kawashima, Naniwa Kawashima, Yoshiko Kawashima, and Chizuko (Yoshiko's secretary) in Matsumoto. File:Kawashima Yoshiko Wedding.jpg, Yoshiko Kawashima's marriage with Ganjuurjab in 1927 File:Kawashima Yoshiko Toyama.jpg, Kawashima Yoshiko visiting the home of

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 ...

. File:Kawashima yoshiko1.jpg File:Kawashima Yoshiko adolescent.jpg, Kawashima Yoshiko adolescent File:Gen Yoshiko Kawashima.jpg, Kawashima in Manchurian military uniform File:Kawashima Yoshiko Signed.jpg, Autographed Photo of Kawashima Yoshiko File:Y.Kawashima wN.K2.jpg, Kawashima (left) with Naniwa Kawashima (centre) and Ryukichi Tanaka (right), 1933 File:Kawashima yoshiko2.jpg, Kawashima Yoshiko File:19480325 yoshiko kawashima hinrichtung 2a.jpg, Photo of executed Yoshiko Kawashima in 1948

In popular culture

*In the Chinese language, Kawashima's name (both Chuandao Fangzi and Jin Bihui) are synonymous with the idea of a "female spy" or a ''

''.

Films

* In

Bernardo Bertolucci Bernardo Bertolucci (; 16 March 1941 – 26 November 2018) was an Italian film director and screenwriter with a career that spanned 50 years. Considered one of the greatest directors in Italian cinema, Bertolucci's work achieved international ...

's 1987 film ''

The Last Emperor ''The Last Emperor'' ( it, L'ultimo imperatore) is a 1987 epic biographical drama film about the life of Puyi, the final Emperor of China. It is directed by Bernardo Bertolucci from a screenplay he co-wrote with Mark Peploe, which was adapted ...

'', Kawashima appeared as "Eastern Jewel", played by

Maggie Han Maggie Han (born 1959) is an American retired actress. Her career began with modeling jobs in the United States and France and progressed to acting in film and television productions. She is best known for playing Yoshiko Kawashima in '' The Las ...

. * Miyuki Takakura portrayed Kawashima in the 1957 Japanese film, ''

Sen'un Ajia no Joō is a 1957 color Japanese film drama directed by Hiromasa Nomura. The film is about Yoshiko Kawashima. Its English title is "Queen of Asia". Cast * Ureo Egawa * Kazuo Kodama * Shōji Nakayama * Tomohiko Ohtani * Takihiro Oka * Hirotaro Su ...

''. *

Anita Mui Anita Mui Yim-fong (; 10 October 1963 – 30 December 2003) was a Hong Kong singer and actress who made major contributions to the Cantopop music scene and received numerous awards and honours. She remained an idol throughout her career, and i ...

portrayed Kawashima in a 1990 Hong Kong film, ''

Kawashima Yoshiko was a Qing dynasty princess of the House of Aisin-Gioro, Aisin-Gioro clan. She was raised in Japan and served as a spy for the Japanese Kwantung Army and Manchukuo during the Second Sino-Japanese War. She is sometimes known in fiction under the ...

''. * Wong Wan-sze portrayed Kawashima in 1991 Hong Kong film, '' God of Gamblers III: Back to Shanghai'' * Kawashima was portrayed by

Rei Kikukawa is a Japanese actress, model, and television presenter. Biography Kikukawa was born in Urawa (now part of Saitama), in Saitama Prefecture. She is a graduate of the University of Tokyo where she majored in architecture. She was scouted by an a ...

in the 2007 Japanese drama ''Ri Kouran'', which tells the story of the life of

Yoshiko Yamaguchi was a Japanese singer, actress, journalist, and politician. Born in China, she made an international career in film in China, Hong Kong, Japan and the United States. Early in her career, the Manchukuo Film Association concealed her Japanese ori ...

. *

Meisa Kuroki Satsuki Shimabukuro (Japanese: 島袋さつき, ''Shimabukuro Satsuki'', b. 28 May 1988 in Okinawa Prefecture, Japan), better known by her stage name Meisa Kuroki (Japanese: 黒木メイサ, ''Kuroki Meisa''), is a Japanese actress, model an ...

portrayed Kawashima in the 2008 Japanese drama ''Dansō no Reijin: Kawashima Yoshiko no Shōgai''. * Kawashima was portrayed by

Shu Qi use both this parameter and , birth_date to display the person's date of birth, date of death, and age at death) --> , death_place = , death_cause = , body_discovered = , resting_place = , resting_place_coordinate ...

in the Hong Kong film, '' Legend of the Fist: The Return of Chen Zhen''

Books

''The private papers of Eastern Jewel'' by Maureen Lindley. Based on the real-life story of Yoshiko Kawashima, Chinese princess turned ruthless Japanese spy, with fictional embellishments. Two books titled ''The Beauty in Men's Clothing'' have been published about Yoshiko, the first a partly-fictionalized novel by Muramatsu Shōfū published in 1933, the second by Shōfū's grandson Tomomi in 2002 about the composition of the former.

Video games

*Kawashima appears as a lieutenant colonel of the Japanese army in the 2004

JRPG While the early history and distinctive traits of role-playing video games (RPGs) in East Asia come Video games in Japan, from Japan, many have also been Video games in South Korea, developed in South Korea and Video games in China, in China. ...

game A game is a structured form of play (activity), play, usually undertaken for enjoyment, entertainment or fun, and sometimes used as an educational tool. Many games are also considered to be work (such as professional players of spectator s ...

'' Shadow Hearts: Covenant''. *Kawashima appears as an army general for Manchukuo, and doubles as a spy agent/operative in the expansion "La Résistance" for both Japan and Manchukuo in the 2016

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

grand strategy Grand strategy or high strategy is a state's strategy of how means can be used to advance and achieve national interests. Issues of grand strategy typically include the choice of primary versus secondary theaters in war, distribution of resource ...

game ''

Hearts of Iron IV ''Hearts of Iron IV'', also known as HOI4, is a grand strategy computer wargame developed by Paradox Development Studio and published by Paradox Interactive. It was released worldwide on 6 June 2016. It is the sequel to 2009's ''Hearts of Iron II ...

'', by

Paradox Interactive Paradox Interactive AB is a video game publisher based in Stockholm, Sweden. The company started out as the video game division of Target Games and then Paradox Entertainment (now Cabinet Entertainment) before being spun out into an independen ...

References

Crowdy, Terry, The Enemy Within (Oxford: Osprey, 2006), Chapter 10

Bibliography

* * * * * * * *

External links

男裝女諜川島芳子
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kawashima, Yoshiko 1907 births 1948 deaths Chinese people executed for collaboration with Japan Executed Chinese women Executed spies Female wartime spies Manchu people Aisin Gioro Female wartime cross-dressers People of Manchukuo LGBT royalty World War II spies for Japan Executed Republic of China people Executed people from Beijing People executed by the Republic of China by firing squad 20th-century executions by China Women in war in China Women in World War II Qing dynasty princesses