Manchu Princess, Japanese Spy: The Story of Kawashima Yoshiko, the Cross-Dressing Spy Who Commanded Her Own Army by Phyllis Birnbaum

Author:Phyllis Birnbaum
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Autobiography/Women, Biography &#38, HIS021000, History/Asia/Japan, BIO022000
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Published: 2015-04-14T05:00:00+00:00

Several years later, Yoshiko entertained another houseguest, this time her first American visitor, Willa Lou Woods, who was a college student from Wenatchee, Washington, on an exchange program in China. Woods was just twenty at the time of the visit, and although she understood virtually nothing about China, she was an adventurous sort, who into old age would launch herself off ski jumps and scale mountains back home in Washington. While visiting China, Woods happened to strike up a friendship with a stranger on a boat and went along with this new acquaintance to pay a call on Yoshiko. One thing led to another and Woods found herself invited to extend her visit.

“Our hostess suggested that I stay at her home a few days,” Woods writes. “Rather overcome by such spontaneous hospitality, yet eager to learn the story of this strange royal personage and her household, I accepted.”

Over the next few days, Yoshiko regaled her new American friend with her life story, which Woods later summarized in Princess Jin, the Joan of Arc of the Orient. This starstruck remembrance must bring despair to the heart of any biographer. In talking to Woods, Yoshiko shows a stupendous disregard for the facts, calling into question every word she ever uttered about her personal history. Gall unremitting, falsehoods pouring forth, Yoshiko told Woods that she was the daughter of the last emperor of China and had been “disguised as a boy to save her from Chinese revolutionists who went to Japan to seek her life.” She was shot three times in the Shanghai Incident and “was carried away as dead, but miraculously recovered.” Her parents were killed in the Chinese revolution of 1911, and her brothers drowned or were poisoned or stabbed. She told Woods that she pilots airplanes, is an ace with a pistol and rifle, can write magazine articles, play musical instruments, sew, paint, and compose Japanese poetry. Also, she is ready to assume leadership of China, if summoned.

“The present Nanking government has been disorganized. If a change comes, someone must be ready to step into the hole. Who else can do it but I?”

The dazzled Woods may not have been qualified to distinguish truth from fantasy, but she could at least describe accurately what she saw with her own eyes; like Muramatsu, she was struck by the constant stream of visitors. Perhaps Yoshiko’s crowded reception hall should not have come as a surprise since there were those many factions battling in China at that time. In such an environment, power brokers were in demand, whether they were self-styled or truly influential.

Woods also met Chizuko, “a little Japanese girl,” who introduced herself in English and went on to explain the reason for their modest meals: “Our food here is all Chinese. … You see, we are trying to save money for our soldiers … so we have only three food items with each meal.” This strikes Woods as quite perplexing: “A Chinese Princess who has Japanese attendants, a luxurious household, and

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