The Japan Society Review
Book, Stage, Movie, Arts and Events Review

Editor: Sean Curtin
Managing Editor: Jennifer Anderson
Layout & Production Assistant: Arthur Comets...........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

Issue 34 Volume 6 Number 4 (August 2011)

Contents(1) Abandoned Japanese in Postwar Manchuria: The Lives of War Orphans
and Wives in Two Countries(2) Japanese POWs in Siberia, Unfinished Tragedy[シベリア抑留 ― 未完の 悲劇](3) Falling Blossom: A British Officer’s Enduring Love for a Japanese Woman(4) The Comprehensive History of the South Manchurian Railways Company[満鉄全史],(5) Akunin (Villain) [悪人](6) Japanese Prints, Ukiyo-e in Edo, 1700-1900

In this issue we explore Japan’s involvement in Manchuria with four
reviews looking at books covering different aspects of this period and its
bitter aftermath. Japan invaded Manchuria in 1931 and set up the puppet
state of Manshūkoku (満州国) into which there was a massive influx ofJapanese colonists. By the time Tokyo surrendered in 1945 about 1.5
million Japanese civilians had been encouraged to settle in the colony.
Upon Tokyo’s capitulation, the Soviets immediately attacked Japaneseforces in Manchuria resulting in chaos which left tens of thousands ofJapanese women and children stranded in China. Today this group ofabandon Japanese are generally referred to as the zanryu-hojin (残留邦 ....................................................................................................
人) and are the subject of Yeeshan Chan’s superbly researched new book.
Abandoned Japanese in
Most abandoned children were adopted by poor Chinese peasant families
and absorbed into the local population while young Japanese women
Postwar Manchuria: The Lives ofwere forced to marry local men. In her book the author examines the life
War Orphans and Wives in Two
histories of a number of zanryu-hojin and their families. Most suffered
great poverty and hardships in the immediate postwar decades and it
Countries
was not until they were allowed to return to Japan in the 1980s and 1990s
that their economic situation changed. Chan also looks at the impact
by Yeeshan Chanthese people are having on Japan and China today. It is estimated that inJapan zanryu-hojin and their extended families number at least 100,000.
Routledge(JapanAnthropology
Fumiko Halloran looks at a book on the plight of Japanese prisoners of war
who were captured by the Soviets in Manchuria. The number of POWs is
Workshop Series), 2011, 208 pages
estimated to be well over 600,000 many of whom were sent to Siberia
ISBN: 0415591813 £85.00
and other parts of the Soviet Union. Although the American and Soviet
governments concluded an agreement in 1946 to return the POWs within
Review by Sean Curtin
a year, the USSR endlessly delayed the process and it was not until 1956
that the last 811 survivors returned to Japan. At least 60,000 Japanese diedThis is a superbly researched work about the lives andfrom hard labour, hunger, and illness. The book Falling Blossom depicts
experiences of the Japanese women and children who
the real life story of Kiyoshi Suzuki who was captured by the Soviets inwere abandoned in Manchuria at the end of the Second
Manchuria. Kiyoshi, who was working as an interpreter attached to arailway regiment defending the Southern Manchurian Railways Company
World War. The sheer force and tragedy of most of the(南満州鉄道株式会社), was shipped off to the Russian mining town of
individual case studies makes it compelling reading.
Raychikhinsk. He and the other POWs were put in cattle sheds despite
For example, in 1945 a seven year old boy, Morita, wasfreezing temperatures. Harsh conditions and a lack of food took a terrible
total on the captivities and like so many young men Kiyoshi eventuallytrapped in Manchuria, his mother was killed in a Soviet
succumbed to illness and died. Kiyofumi Kato’s impressive reference work
attack, his father was captured and shipped to Siberia. He
examines the Southern Manchurian Railways Company, which was a key
found himself in a harsh refugee camp from where hecomponent of Japanese colonial rule. The company, which was far morethan just a railway, had a profound economic and political impact on thewas adopted by a poor Chinese family and began a life
region’s development. At the time of its demise the railway ran or ownedof hardship and violence. He was repatriated to Japan in
71 companies with 340,000 employees, including 248,000 Chinese and1985 with his wife and four children, but even then their
Russians. The book is packed with maps, diagrams, photos along with adetailed chronology of the company and its structure.
lives were difficult and Mr Morita eventually died of a heart

attack in 1994. It remained tough for his family after his
death as a few extracts from the Morita family saga illustrate.
His daughter, Kasumi’s mental health deteriorated after his
death, so the mother arranged for her to marry a Chineseman, “but after a few months Kasumi’s husband ran awaywith their savings, aggravating Kasumi’s mental condition.
At about the same time, the youngest son’s [Chinese] wife
divorced him the day after her application for permanent.................................................................................................... residency was approved (page 73).” The book contains
many more turbulent individual case studies and family
New reviewswww.japansociety.org.uk/resources/the-japan-society-review
histories which illustrate the harsh lives of these people
who straddle the gulf between China and Japan.
Archive
Moving away from Manchuria, Susan Meehan looks at a disturbing andcomplex movie which follows the trail of death and destruction wrought
by Yuichi Shimizu, the villain (Akunin) of the title. The movie explores
loneliness, the desperate longing to be loved, the pain and fear of losing
love and the ambivalence of good and evil. Sir Hugh Cortazzi rounds off
this issue with a look at a new work on the British Museum’s extensive
collection of Japanese prints (ukiyo-e). Dr Ellis Tinios has selected awide variety of Japanese prints for this richly illustrated volume which
includes well known as well as lesser known prints in the collection. It isa fascinating survey of important aspects of Japanese prints and gives afascinating account of how Japanese prints were made.

http://www.japansociety.org.uk/reviews_archive.html

We are grateful to our regular reviewers:
Sir Hugh Cortazzi
Fumiko Halloran
Ian NishWilliam Farr
Susan Meehan
Ben-Ami Shillony

This group of abandoned Japanese is generally referred
to as the zanryu-hojin (残留邦人). Children are specificallyreferred to as zanryu-koji (残留孤児) meaning abandoned
war orphans. Most were adopted by poor Chinese peasantfamilies and absorbed into the local population. Some “led

their lives as ordinary Chinese without knowing theirbackground as adopted children or Japanese orphans
until they were told in their forties, fifties, or even sixties(page 30).” The Japanese women trapped in Manchuria
often had no choice but to marry a local to survive theensuing postwar chaos. They often suffered great
poverty and other hardships in an environment where“wife-beating was common (page 94).” This group arereferred to as zanryu-fujin (残留婦人) or stranded warwives.
While in the 1950s there were some attempts torepatriate these people, many children were ignorantof their Japanese heritage. Most of the women had
children with their new Chinese husbands and could notabandon their offspring and families, which was the priceof repatriation. The Japanese state therefore concluded
that these women “chose” to remain in China and it was
not until later decades that their real plight and suffering
was recognized. The example of Shizuko illustrates thisdilemma (page 28). She visited Japan in 1967 and wanted
to stay to look after her sick mother, but this would havemeant abandoning her four daughters in China at a timeof great chaos, so she was compelled to return to China. At
the time the Japanese state viewed such cases as “merely
a woman who had married a foreigner and thus given up
her Japanese nationality (page 27).” Yuriko Sakamoto’s
story (pages 82 -84) highlights a different set of issues.
She was trapped in Manchuria, while her husband was
captured by the Soviets and survived several years ofharsh treatment in Siberia before being repatriatedto Japan. He searched for Yuriko, but presumed she
was dead and reluctantly remarried. Only later did hediscover she was alive and had also remarried having fivechildren. However, because they had married outside
Japan proper, the Japanese state did not recognize theirmarriage as legitimate and she was classified has having“chosen” to give up her Japanese citizenship. Her former
Japanese husband wanted to get back together with her,
but this was not possible and he eventually committed
suicide in despair. She was eventually able to come to
Japan in 1977 with her Chinese family.
Many of these unfortunate zanryu-hojin individuals were
declared “war dead” in 1959 by the Japanese government
who removed 30,000 names of the “missing” from family
registries (page 26). At the same time, the Chinese
government estimated the number of living abandoned
Japanese to be about 13,000. Many of these people wereeffectively cut off from all contact with Japan until the
1970s, and most endured incredible hardship.
When Japan re-established diplomatic relations withmainland China in 1972, the dynamics of the situation
slowly began to change and gradually the zanryu-hojin
were repatriated to Japan, often along with several
generations of their extended Chinese families. Shifts ingovernment policy over the decades have allowed moreof these people to enter with their families and to resettle
in Japan. Today it is estimated that they number at least2

100,000 people (page 53). This is a significant figure and ishaving an impact on both Japan and China. These families
are binding the two countries together and will no doubt
have a long term impact on Sino-Japanese relations. The
overseas remittances this community sends to towns innortheast China has also had a massive effect which thestudy charts.
The book also explores how the zanryu-hojin view
themselves in the context of their dual national identities.
The author, Yeeshan Chan, who describes herself as a
“Hong Kong citizen holding an Australian passport (page9),” managed to gain the confidence of this community,
producing many fascinating insights from her informants.
She analyzes how they identify themselves, and relate toJapan, China and different groups within each country.
For example, she observes that in Tokyo the zanryu-hojin,“seemed to face more severe discriminatory attitudes
from other types of Chinese migrants than they did
from the mainstream Japanese (page 96).” There is also
some excellent theoretical analysis, but for me the mostcompelling sections are the gripping case studies that
depict the tremendous suffering and tragedy of thesepeople.
Yeeshan Chan is to be commended for having produced
such a substantive and impressively researched
work which makes a significant contribution to ourunderstanding of the zanryu-hojin and the impact thiscommunity is having on the people of both nations.

Japanese POWs in Siberia,
Unfinished Tragedy [シベリア抑留 ― 未完の 悲劇]
by Toshio Kurihara [栗原 俊雄]
Iwanami Shinsho [岩波新書], 2009,211 pages, 735 yen,
ISBN-10: 4004312078
Review by Fumiko Halloran
On 9 August 1945, six days before Japan’s surrender to the Allied
forces in World War II, the Soviet Army began a massive attack
on Japan’s Kwantung Army [関東軍] in Manchuria [満州国] in
northeast China. Some 1.6 million Soviet soldiers, 5000 tanks
and 5000 planes attacked a Japanese army that had 700,000
soldiers, 200 tanks, and 200 airplanes. In Manchuria, governed
by Japan, were 1.5 million Japanese civilians who had migrated
there. The Soviet attacks and the ensuing collapse of the
Kwantung Army resulted in chaos. The Soviets killed and raped
civilians and looted their homes and shops while Japanesesoldiers were imprisoned and put into hard labour, mostly in
Siberia. The number of POWs was initially estimated at 600,000
but recent disclosures from Soviet archives have kept revising
the number upward. While this experience is often summarized
as “the POWs in Siberia,” as majority of camps were in Siberia,
but in reality there were 2,000 hard labour camps for Japanese
POWs spread all over the Soviet Union.
Issue 34 Volume 6 Number 4 (August 2011)

Iusetheterm“prisonersofwar”or“POW”buttheJapaneseword
is usually “抑留者” or “detainees.” The Japanese themselves
refused to be called prisoners, reflecting the Japanese Imperial
Army’s disdain for being captured. The army indoctrinatedsoldiers to choose death in honour, not shame as captives, andgave them no training on how to act as prisoners.
Although the U.S. and Soviet governments concluded anagreement in 1946 to return Japanese POWs in one year, theSoviet government delayed and threw every possible obstaclein the way of fulfilling that agreement. It was not until 1956,
eleven years after Japan’s surrender and three years after the
San Francisco Peace Treaty ended Allied occupation that thelast ship delivered 811 survivors from Siberia. Even then, theJapanese foreign ministry had the contact addresses of 500
former POWs who still lived in the Soviet Union, in addition
to an estimated 900 prisoners whose whereabouts were
unknown. And at least 60,000 Japanese died from hard labour,
hunger, and illness.
The author, an award winning journalist, interviewed manysurvivors and their families to present a comprehensive
picture of the fate of the POWs. The survivors, in their eighties
now, are still fighting in the Japanese courts for an apology
and financial compensation from the Japanese government
whose wartime policies caused their hardship. All appeals in
the court have so far been denied. The Soviets never issued
work identification papers, which has hindered their case.
The book points to a contrast in the German government’s
treatment of former POWs in Siberia. The number of Germans
in the Soviet Union was almost 2.4 million that were detained
until 1953. Japanese and German prisoners often worked side
by side. Upon the return of the Germans, the Bonn government
swiftly passed a special law to provide compensation andvarious benefits.
Among those who returned to Japan, the president of the
Association of POWs in the Soviet Union, Hideyuki Aizawa,
ninety years old, is former Vice Minister of the Finance Ministry
and was a member of the House of Representatives until heretired at the age 84. In a different publication, Aizawa talks
about the “death march in snow” in Siberia. When the war
ended, he was a young army officer stationed in China but
was ordered to go to Korea which the Soviet army occupied.
He was put in a camp, then after a three-week train ride acrossSiberia, “We were dropped off at a station late at night where
the snow was two meter high. The march began as snow
was falling, with no knowledge of destination. If you fell asleep
during the march, that meant death. Some soldiers stumbled
to the ground and never woke up. Occasionally, wild dogs or
wolves were running alongside us (looking for a corpse)” Afterseveral days, they finally arrived near Moscow where 5,000
middle-ranking Japanese officers were gathered with another
5,000 officers from Germany, Romania and Hungary. Aizawa
spent three years in the camp and returned to Japan in 1949.
The life of POWs in Siberia was harsh [see the Review of Falling
Blossom in issue 4 for an individual account of one man
who was captured in Manchuria and died in a labour campin Siberia]. The Soviets disarmed the Japanese and divided
Issue 34 Volume 6 Number 4 (August 2011)

them mostly into units of 1,000 each, then transported themon the trains to Siberia, where the prisoners were ordered tobuild their own camps. They were put to work in the forest to
cut trees, to build railways, stations, ports, buildings for towns,
to work in coal mines and in agricultural fields. Their rations
were not enough so they scrambled for extra food by eating
food waste from Soviet garbage bins and ate snakes, insects,
and grass. Many died from chronic malnutrition. All who
tried to escape were caught and shot to death. Many diedfrom accidents with little medical treatment. Each prison was
required to be financially independent and the salaries of theSoviet administrators were connected with work quotas filledby the POWs. Many administrators and guards stole food fromthe POWs to sell in the black market. According to the survivors,
the worst enemy was the climate in which temperatures often
dipped well below freezing in winter.
Worse than the physical hardships was the Soviet propaganda
seeking to brainwash the Japanese. Lower ranking soldiers andnon-commissioned officers were easy targets as they werealready angry with the senior officers whom they blamed forlosing the war against the Soviets. The Soviets did not breakup the Imperial Army hierarchy as they figured that an orderly
system was better for hard labour. While some Japanese officers
tried to help their subordinates, many abused their positions tobetter themselves. Lower ranking soldiers retaliated by pointing
figures at the senior officers as reactionary anti-communists,
sometimes causing violence. The Soviets appointed their own
officers in charge of propaganda; they published a Japanese
language newspaper filled with criticism of the emperor andcapitalism but praise for communism and Stalin.
Many prisoners swallowed the slogans or pretended to beconverted so they could survive in the harsh environment. This
caused problems when they returned to Japan as they weresuspected to be Soviet agents and could not get hired by
Japanese companies. They were often harassed by the police.
Some became “actives,” participating in efforts to brainwash
their fellow prisoners and later became involved in socialist
and communist activity in Japan. But many only pretended
allegiance to the Soviet system. They kept silent about theirexperience for fear that they would be discriminated againstby their fellow citizens.
The Soviet government desperately needed a labour force inthe reconstruction of their country as 30 million Soviet citizens
died during World War II, according to the Soviet statistics.
Stalin’s idea of using POWs as labourers started in July, 1945,
when the Allied forces announced the Potsdam Declaration.
Although the Soviet Union and Japan had a “Non-Aggression
Treaty,” the author of this book determined that neither theSoviets nor Japanese military leaders intended to honour thepact and were preparing to attack each other.
According to Soviet archives, the Soviets put into hard labour
not only 640,000 Japanese POWs but also 2.38 million Germans
and more from twenty-four other countries, for a total of 4.17
million. The number of Japanese POWs itself became a pawn
in the Cold War between the U.S. and the Soviet Union with
Americans pushing for a higher number to discredit Soviets,
while Soviets continued to argue for lower numbers.
3

In recent years, the Russians have become conciliatory on thisissue. In 1992, President Mikhail Gorbachev of the Soviet Union
met in Tokyo with Aizawa and other leaders in the Japanese
POWs associations and expressed his sympathy for those who
had suffered during the war. In 1993, President Boris Yeltsin of
Russia publicly apologized in Tokyo for “the inhuman behaviourof the Russians.” In 2005, the Russian government provided theJapanese Ministry of Health and Welfare microfilms of personal
information of 40,940 Japanese POWs who had died during
their detention. The information included names, the locationsof death, cause of death, and burial spots. The ministry began
DNA testing on the remains in Russia in 2003.

awarded a French government scholarship which meant hecould go to study philosophy at Sorbonne in Paris. Kiyoshi’s
French was already very good and the scholarship gave himan opportunity to study in France for four years. It further
extended the deferment of military service. He immersed
himself in his studies and appears to have enjoyed Parislife. While outside Japan, anti-democratic, ultra-nationalists
were getting the upper hand in Tokyo, setting the country
on the path to war. He returned to Japan in 1939, shortly
after having a brief reunion with his British father in Lyon. It
was the first time the two had met in 25 years.

There are few publications in English on this subject but the
POWsthemselveshavewrittenpublishedandprivatememoirs.
Japanese academics, nonfiction writers, and journalists haveanalyzed the tragedy. For English publications, please check:
William Nimmo, “Behind a Curtain of Silence: Japanese inSoviet Custody, 1945-1956″Greenwood Press, 1988.

Falling Blossom:
A British Officer’s
Enduring Love for a
Japanese Woman
By Peter Pagnamenta
and Momoko Williams
Century, (Random HouseGroup), 2006, 314 pages
including notes andacknowledgements, £12.99,
ISBN 9781844138203 andISBN 1844138208
Review by Sean Curtin
The central focus of this well written, moving and excellently
researched book is the decades-long relationship between
a British Army officer, Captain Arthur Hart Synnot, and aJapanese woman, Masa Suzuki, spanning the early 1900s up
to the 1940s. One of the subplots of this gripping narrative isthe lives of their two children, Hideo and Kiyoshi. Hideo diedduring childhood, while Kiyoshi grew to manhood and was
eventually posted to Manchuria. His tragic story is a typicalexample of the fate of countless Japanese captured by theSoviets in Manchuria and the meaningless waste of precious
human life. It also illustrates the incredible hardships thesemen endured.
Kiyoshi was a bright young boy and managed to pass theentrance exam for the prestigious Kyoto Imperial University
in 1925. He studied law for four years. His student status
meant he was able to defer compulsory military service
which all twenty year olds were normally obliged to do.
After he completed his studies he moved back to Tokyo to
be with his mother and enrolled in a postgraduate courseat Tokyo University, studying philosophy. This enabled him
to yet again postpone his military service. In 1935, he was
4

Kiyoshi Suzuki, and his fiancé Tetsuko Katsuda, after his return from Paris in 1939

Upon returning to Japan, he went back to Tokyo University
before getting a fulltime job with the overseas branch of thestate radio service NHK. This allowed him to use his language
skills and the salary meant he could afford to marry his longstanding girlfriend Tetsuko Katsuda. However, the shadowof war was looming and in July 1941 he was called up for
military service and ordered to report to the 10th Heavy
Field Artillery Regiment at Ichikawa to the west of Tokyo.
At the age of 34, he was thrown into military life and after
only a few weeks training was posted to China. He firstarrived in Mukden, present day Shenyang (瀋陽), the capitalof Japanese Manchuria (満州国). He was then posted
to the small town of Kairyu (海龍) not far from Mukden.
As tensions between Japan, Great Britain and the UnitedStates ratcheted up and General Hideki Tojo became Prime
Minister, Kiyoshi was posted to Muling (穆棱), a city not far
from the Soviet border.
In 1943 Kiyoshi was selected as a suitable candidate to study
Russian and sent to a military interpreter school in Harbin (哈尔浜). A year later in 1944, after having mastered Russian, he
returned to his unit as the tide of war began to turn against
Japan. A few days after the US dropped nuclear bombs on
Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945, the Soviet Union
declared war on Japan, ceasing the Northern Territories
off Hokkaido and invading Manchuria. At the time of theinvasion Kiyoshi was working as an interpreter attached toa railway regiment defending the Southern Manchurian
Railways Company (南満州鉄道株式会社). He was caught
up in fighting with the Soviet army, but the surrenderbroadcast made by Emperor Hirohito on 15 August 1945
led to his regiment surrendering to the Soviets.
At least 600,000 Japanese troops became Russian prisonersof war. Kiyoshi and his fellow soldiers were kept in camps
Issue 34 Volume 6 Number 4 (August 2011)for a few weeks before being shipped off by rail to theport of Vladivostok in the Soviet Union. From there they
were moved a further 800 miles by train to Siberia. “To theRussians the Japanese prisoners were war booty” and were“a pool of educated labour to put to work in mines, factories
and forests (page 297).”
The highly talented Kiyoshi and a group of about 500 POWs
ended up in the mining town of Raychikhinsk and werehoused in cattle sheds with earth floors. Despite the bittercold and little shelter they were only dressed in summer
uniforms. Their first task was to build their own labour camp,which was hard in the cold temperature with meagre rationsof millet porridge twice a day. As the temperature continued
to drop, the harsh labour and malnutrition began to take its
toll with several men dying every day from dysentery andexhaustion.

semi-public corporation that was far more than a railway
corporation. Born as a by-product of Japan’s victoryin the Russo-Japanese War of 1904 to 1905, it had aprofound economic and political impact on the region’s
development and the outcome of World War II in Asia.
Mr. Kiyofumi Kato, a Ph.D. candidate at Waseda University,
specializes in modern Japanese history and is a research
fellow at The National Institute for the Humanities [人間文化研究機構]. His book on the Mantetsu is highly readable
and backed by solid research into extensive primarysources as well as academic papers and secondary source
publications. It includes several maps, many photos, adetailed chronology, a complete list of managers undereach president, and organizational charts.

The 40-year history of the Mantetsu fascinates not only
Japanese historians but also the general public, partly
After catching a fever, Kiyoshi
because of the image that Japanese were building a new
was taken to a military hospitalsemi-autonomous state outside of Japan. More than 1
in Zavitinsk. The conditions at
million Japanese civilians migrated to Manchuria to begin
the hospital were very basic witha new life in better economic conditions. They had alittle medicine. Kiyoshi acted as awestern colonial lifestyle, enjoying golf clubs, large parks,translator for the Russian doctors
and western style housing. The special express trains called
and nurses and the Japanese“Asia” were among the fastest, best appointed trains in the
POWs. His condition did notworld. The capital of Manchukuo [満州国], Hsinching [新京improve and he died weak and- literally “New Capital”] (now Changchun [長春]), was built
emaciated on 24 December
with modern urban planning with avenues and streets akin
1945, having just reached the
Hideo Suzuki, who died to Paris. In 1937, the Mantetsu owned 15 companies, 32
young, in about 1914 subsidiary companies, and invested in 33 more companies.
age of 39. Just before he died, heasked a friend, Tojo Yamanaka, toThey operated transport (rails, shipping, and airline),take a message back to his wife, Tetsuko and to thank his industry (steel mill, chemical, oil refinery, cement, textile,
mother, Masa. Yamanaka survived and was repatriated to sugar), commerce (trading, retail), construction, lumber,
Japan in 1947, informing Tetsuko of Kiyoshi’s fate, but Masa minerals (coal and gold), electric and gas power, real estate,
was never told. Tetsuko feared that knowing of her only telecommunication and the press, and hotel chains. By its
remaining son’s death would be too much for her to take. end, the Mantetsu ran or owned 71 companies with 340,000
Masa eventually passed away in 1965. While Kiyoshi’s story employees, including 248,000 Chinese and Russians.
is a sub-strand to the central narrative of this superb book, it
From the beginning, however, the activity of the Mantetsu
is illustrative of the fate of a great many Japanese captured
and the development of Manchuria were riddled within Manchuria at the end of the war (see another Review ofconfusing objectives. There was political infighting backFalling Blossom in issue 4).
in Japan among politicians, the foreign ministry and themilitary over its control. Relations between the Mantetsu
and the Chinese in Manchuria were complicated. The KantoThe Comprehensive History gun (Kwantung Army), at first a division of the JapaneseImperial Army, grew into a powerful presence that in theof the South Manchurian end controlled the Mantetsu.

Railways Company [満鉄全The Mantetsu’s first president, Shinpei Goto [後藤 新平], was史]
by Kiyofumi Kato [加藤 聖文,]
Kodansha [講談社], 2006, 266
pages, 1600 yen,
ISBN-10: 4062583747
Review by Fumiko Halloran

The year 2006 was the 100th anniversary of theestablishment of “Mantetsu” [満鉄], or “Minami Manshu
Tetsudo Kabushiki-kaisha,” [南満州鉄道株式会社], inEnglish the Southern Manchurian Railways Company, aIssue 34 Volume 6 Number 4 (August 2011)a charismatic leader who was instrumental in modernizing
Taiwan that became a Japanese colony in 1895. In Taiwan,
Goto served as deputy to Governor Gentaro Kodama [兒
玉 源太郎] from 1898 to 1906. Goto was expected to apply
similar skills to the Mantetsu that was established in 1906.
Goto’s vision of the Mantetsu was modelled after the British
East India Company’s rule in India that not only pursued
economic interest for the British Empire but was involved in
diplomatic manoeuvring and military intelligence.
The author argues that during the turbulent period ofdomestic political upheaval in Japan and the Hsinhai
5

Revolution of 1911 overthrowing the Ching Dynasty in
China, two fundamentally incompatible views about the
Mantetsu emerged: The Mantetsu’s leadership believedthat by succeeding in business, the Mantetsu could pave
the way for peace and prosperity in the region that would be
beneficial to Japan. Another view was for the government inTokyo to take the initiative in diplomacy that would benefit
the Mantetsu’s business interests. Gradually, the “national
policy first” supporters began to control the Mantetsu.
The book narrates in detail the Mantetsu growth into alarge-scale enterprise, its complicated relationship with
the Chinese warlord, General Chang Tso-Lin [張作霖], andhis assassination by the Kwantung Army [関東軍]. It delves
into the rising anti-Japan movement in Manchuria, theMantets’s participation in the establishment of Manchukuo,
and deteriorating Mantetsu operations during World War II.
Finally, it assesses Japan’s surrender in 1945 and its aftermath.
With Manchukuo and the Japanese military collapsing,
Motomiki Yamazaki [山崎元幹], the last president of theMantetsu, negotiated with the Soviet military that occupied
Manchuria in the closing days of the war. He and his senior
managers sought to protect more than 1 million Japaneseand to obtain their safe return to Japan.
The Soviet army continued to occupy Manchuria after
the war during which time they transferred most of the
hardware materials from Mantetsu plants to Russia as war
bounty. The Nationalist generalissimo, Chiang Kai-shek, wasfighting communists and had little control over Manchuria.
When Chiang’s forces finally reached the area, they
recruited 11,400 Mantetsu employees to run various plants
and railways. The Chinese communists recruited 80,000
Mantetsu employees for the same reason in the areas they
controlled. The last employees returned to Japan in 1948.
In summary, Kato’s book illustrates the complex history of
the Mantetsu from many angles. He particularly focuses on
how the concept of “national policy” that was supposed
to guide the Mantetsu was the source of trouble. Different
civilian and military leaders who had their own agendas
interpreted national policy in different ways.
Kato makes the point that the post-war study of theMantetsu by Japanese had an ideological premise to provethat the Mantetsu was only a tool of Japanese imperialismthat inflicted damage on the Chinese. He observes thatafter the end of the Cold War, however, more studies havebeen published without those ideological twists. Memoirs
and books by those who were in Manchuria or with the
Mantetsu tend to be nostalgic and idealizing, and thistendency becomes more intense as they get older.
A perceptive observation by Kato is that for China, theMantetsu is still a politically sensitive issue. The Mantetsu
left behind detailed records of their activities in archives
that were transferred from the Soviet military to theChinese communists. This vast collection is preserved in the
Liaoning Provincial Museum [遼寧省博物館], but it is notopen to the public. Kato read a portion of the collection by
way of publications by the museum itself, several Chinese
6

universities, and Japanese publishers.
The Northeast region, which Manchuria was also called, wasinstrumental as a supply base for the Peoples Liberation
Army during the civil war and as a heavy industrial zone
after the birth of the Peoples Republic of China (PRC) in 1949.
Although the Soviets provided economic and technicalassistance in the early years after PRC was established,
there was no question that the region benefited from theindustrial facilities and technical assistance by the Mantetsu
employees who remained in China after the war.
For the Chinese, the study of this aspect is problematic.
Kato explains that currently, Chinese academic works thatshow that the Northeast region’s heavy industry was the
backbone of the revolution are rejected, particularly in lightof the fall during the Cultural Revolution of Lin Piao [林彪]and Liu Shao-chi [劉少奇] whose power base was in that
region. In that sense, the history of the Mantetsu still haunts
today’s interpretation of that period in China.

Akunin [Villain] [悪人]by Sang-il Lee (李相日)2010, 139 minutes
Review by Susan Meehan
It is five years since the release of Sang-il Lee’s hugely
enjoyable Hula Girls [read our review on issue 11], a Full
Monty-style feel-good film replete with social commentary
and the only one of his works I’d seen. I was, naturally,
looking forward to Akunin [Villain], an altogether different
type of film for a more mature audience perhaps. It is a film
about loneliness, the desperate longing to be loved, thepain and fear of losing love and the ambivalence of goodand evil. Not quite as sophisticated or as subtle as it couldbe, it is, nonetheless a fine though bleak and disquieting
film to watch and ponder. The acting is universally good
and the shots of the Kyushu countryside are breathtaking.
A plot spoiler follows!
Given the title I was on the lookout for the villain from thestart. The first character to be introduced is steely-faced
Yuichi Shimizu [清水祐一] sporting dyed blond hair andwatching a raunchy video while having his car filled up ata petrol station. Too easy to identify perhaps and though
wavering in my conviction at times, my instinct was spoton.
Various characters are introduced as the film progresses;
Yoshino Ishibashi [石橋佳乃], a coquettish young insurance
saleswoman who lives in Hakata, her young female coworkers, Yoshino’s father who wishes she still lived athome with his wife and him, and Masuo Keigo [増尾圭吾],
a playboy who irritates from the start with his misplaced
arrogance and distinct lack of empathy.
Yoshino is seen to regret her relationship with Yuichi,
Issue 34 Volume 6 Number 4 (August 2011)a Nagasaki-based labourer who, since making her
acquaintance online, has been occasionally driving 1.5hours to see her in Hakata however. Yoshino, however, has
set her sights on Masuo.
Having agreed to meet Yuichi after dinner one night but
accidentally bumping into Masuo, Yoshino coerces the latterto spend time with her. She makes her excuses to Yuichi
who’s in his car, asks him to wire her money and drives off
with an unwilling Masuo in what will be an eventful trip.
At this point, surprised that Yoshino is receiving moneyfrom Yuichi, I was alarmed at the rage and speed withwhich he pursues the unlikely couple in his car. A sequence
later, Yoshino’s bruised corpse is found down the waysideby Mitsuge Pass.
Avoiding the police, Yuichi seeks refuge in kind,unquestioning, understanding Mitsuyo [馬込光代], who
he’s also met online and in person for the first time soonafter Yoshino’s death. Mitsuyo is a lonely woman from Saga
who works in a men’s clothing shop and feels that her life is
at a dead-end. Yuichi wishes he’d met her earlier.
Trusting her compassion, he confesses to having killed
Yoshino on finding her seemingly vulnerable at Mitsuge
Pass. Yuichi admits to the rage he felt at being ditched for
Masuo and at Yoshino’s spiteful words; refusing a ride homewith him she shrieks that she will frame him with kidnapping
and raping her.
Mitsuyo and Yuichi hide in a lighthouse. It is unnerving to
see the susceptible Mitsuyo with taciturn, odd Yuichi. Thereis no accounting for taste and it is impossible to fathom
what she sees in Yuichi other than that he is a man, any man
to make up for her searing loneliness.

Japanese Prints, Ukiyo-ein Edo, 1700-1900
by Ellis Tinios
British Museum Press, 2010
143 pages including index
numerous illustrations incolour
ISBN 978-0-7141-2453-7,£14.99
Review by Sir Hugh Cortazzi
The British Museum has an outstanding collection ofJapanese prints (ukiyo-e). This book draws on the Museum’s
extensive holdings and is an introduction to the Japanese
prints in the Museum. In choosing the prints to use as
illustrations Dr Tinios has tried to select some of the lesswell-known prints in the collection. This adds significantly
to the interest and value of this book.
This book is not a chronological history of ukiyo-e and it
does not claim to be comprehensive, but it is a fascinating
survey of important aspects of Japanese prints. Dr Tinios’s
study is confined to Edo prints and does not, for instance,cover Osaka prints. After a discussion of the reception
and appreciation of ukiyo-e in the West from 1860 to the1910s including the influence of Japanese prints on postimpressionist artists, Dr Tinios gives a detailed account of
how Japanese prints were made. The following triptych
by Kunisada Utagawa (歌川 国貞) shows the processes,
although the artisans would not have been the beauties
depicted here:
Dr Tinios also explains the way in which Japanese prints“Being with you is so painful,” says Yuichi, similarly never
having experienced a woman’s love or tenderness andbeing terrified of losing it now.
As the police zone in on the fugitive pair in the lighthouse, Iagain doubted my burgeoning hunch that Yuichi had any
redeeming qualities, but maybe it was Lee toying with ouremotions and rationality once again.
Akunin [Villain] took four prizes at the 34th Japanese
Academy Awards in 2011; Eri Fukatsu [深津 絵里] won
best actress for her tremendous role as Mitsuyo, Satoshi
Tsumabuki [妻夫木 聡] won best actor for his role as Yuichi,
Akira Enomoto [柄本 明] won best supporting actor for hisrole as Yoshino’s father and Kirin Kiki [樹木 希林], sensitively
portraying Yuichi’s grandmother, won best supporting
actress.

were subject to censorship. One print by Utamaro
Kitagawa (喜多川 歌) shows Hideyoshi Toyotomi (153098) holding the wrist of a page boy in feminized dress.
The censors would have seen this as veiled criticism of the
shogun. This print was issued without a censor’s seal andUtamaro and his publishers were duly punished by the

Akunin’s main competition at this year’s Japanese Academy
Awards was Confessions [see our review in issue 32]. Thoughsome of the characters in Akunin were morally dubious andincluded a killer, those in Confessions plunged the depthsof sheer evil.

Issue 34 Volume 6 Number 4 (August 2011)7

authorities:
Dr Tinios then discusses Japanese prints in four groups.
The first group to which he devotes the largest space isthat of actor prints. The following images (overleaf) of two
actors dressed as lovers by Shunshō Katsukawa (勝川 春章) and (right) of an actor dressed as a prostitute under anumbrella by Kiyomasa Torii II are striking.

six views of Mt Fuji (not as well known as Hokusai’s series,
but a striking image):
The print above right by Toyoharu Utagawa of an imagined
port in South Holland is an example of a print based on

I particularly liked the following two actor prints. The oneon the left is of an actor representing a robber by Shun’ei

European engravings which uses western perspectives:
Below left is another landscape by Toyokuni Utagawa II (歌川豐國), who is less well known as a master of this genre:
Katsukawa and the print on the right is by Sharaku Toshūsai(東洲斎写楽 – one of my favourite Ukityo-e artists):

The last main section is devoted to warrior prints. I wasparticularly struck by print (above right) of Benkei by

The next group of prints discussed by Dr Tinios is that of“beauties.” He likes particularly these very fine prints by

Kunisada Utagawa:Shunchō Katsukawa (勝川 春湖):His next section is devoted to landscape prints. The print
below left is one of Hiroshige’s prints in his series of thirty-

8

The final section is devoted to the colour woodblock printin the Meiji era and includes a portrait print of the Emperor
Meiji as well as prints of the Russo-Japanese War. But there
is nothing in this section about the fascinating Japanese
prints of foreigners in the genre known as Yokohama-e.
Sadly Dr Tinios has also had to omit discussion of anotherimportant element in Edo prints that of kachō (flowers
and birds) prints. But if he had covered these genres hewould have needed many more pages and the Museum
press presumably wanted to limit the size of the book. A
longer book would have cost more to produce and would
have had to be more expensive. Limited though this bookinevitably is in its coverage of ukiyo-e, it is a book whichanyone interested in Japanese prints will want to have intheir library. At £14.99 it is a good buy.

Issue 34 Volume 6 Number 4 (August 2011)