For the emperor, because of their special status, most of us have a certain understanding of them, and the most tortuous and bizarre experience should belong to the last emperor of China, Puyi. Because he experienced the process of the emperor slowly moving towards a commoner, his life is very story-telling.
Looking back on the half of his life, Puyi had some feelings in his heart, so he wrote the book "The First Half of My Life".
"The First Half of My Life" is a "reflective" autobiography written by Puyi in the Fushun War Criminals Detention Center, when he had been reformed and became a civilian. This book records the process of Puyi from ascending the throne to exile to accepting the "transformation" of New China, and is a memoir.
However, this is a book of self-examination in a specific historical environment, Puyi was originally written as a war criminal who was imprisoned and reformed, when his desire to survive was particularly strong, and living became his highest value.
Therefore, "The First Half of My Life", as a "confession material", cannot but show a strong "prisoner survival mentality". This is completely different from freelance writing at no stress.
Therefore, it is difficult for us to distinguish which ones written in the book are Puyi's real ideological transformations, and which are things he wrote in order to please the mainstream of society, and do not necessarily reflect his true thoughts.
Therefore, it is widely believed that When Puyi wrote "The First Half of My Life", he actually concealed something, because he was afraid of being held responsible, for example, at the Tokyo Trial, he pushed some responsibility to the Japanese around him, such as Jigang Anzhi and so on.
Moreover, when he was in power of the puppet state of Manchukuo, he was always on guard, and there was a kind of nervous skepticism, he was afraid that he would be killed by the Japanese for his inappropriate words and deeds, even if it was his own brother, he was also afraid.
In Puyi's book "The First Half of My Life", Puyi mentioned the time when he was in contact with the Japanese, and he said that everything he did was forced by the Japanese, and he was just a puppet of the Japanese side.
Is this really the case? The top-secret documents of the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs reveal a different Puyi.
This top-secret file is called "Top Secret Interview", what exactly does it say? Let's take a look.
First of all, we must start from between Puyi and the Japanese side. After the "918 Incident" in 1931, the Japanese Kwantung Army decided to establish an independent kingdom in the northeast, "Manchukuo", in order to "legitimize" the occupation of the three eastern provinces and alleviate the economic crisis.
However, since it is to pursue rationalization, it is necessary to "calm the local people", so the Japanese Kwantung Army carried Puyi out of the town scene, and according to Puyi's meaning, it means that he was forced to be helpless and could only obey.
However, the record in the "Top Secret Meeting Record" makes people see through Puyi.
At that time, the Japanese army was divided into two camps, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Kwantung Army, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs composed of officials was not inferior to the Kwantung Army composed of soldiers, so he placed eyeliner around Puyi and wanted to obtain first-hand information, and the "Top Secret Meeting Record" was also the product of this.
In the form of dialogue, the "Top Secret Meeting Record" records the meeting between Puyi and the commander of the Kwantung Army and other Japanese military and political figures during the puppet Manchukuo period, so it can be called the top secret of the puppet Manchukuo.
It was secretly recorded by Kenjiro Hayashi, who had been serving as a translator for Puyi's retinue at the time, and smuggled back to Japan for decades. Through this exhaustive record of the talks, it is clear that the true side of the puppet state of Manchukuo, which has so far been unknown, can be clearly seen.
In fact, Puyi was not dominated by the Japanese army at the beginning, he was also worried about the "restoration plan" when he was in Tianjin, and the Japanese army also needed his name, so the two sides hit it off, Puyi went to the northeast and joined "Manchukuo".
It's just that Puyi doesn't know that the Japanese army is just constantly eating away at everything about him in the process of accommodating him.
On March 9, 1932, the "State of Manchukuo" was established, but Puyi was deceived, and the "state" was a "republic", not the "imperial system" that Puyi thought. Moreover, it was stipulated that the "Manchukuo" national defense, public security, transportation, and personnel appointments were all responsible for the Kwantung Army, and Puyi also planned to involve some of his own people, but they were all rejected, and although Puyi was angry at that time, he was forced to have no capital, so he could only tolerate it.
It can also be clearly seen that although Puyi claims to be the "ruler of Manchukuo", he is only a puppet of this "country".
In the beginning, Puyi did not want to be a puppet emperor, he came to the northeast with a dream of restoring the country, and he naively thought that Japan really helped him establish Manchukuo.
Therefore, he happily obeyed the arrangement of the Japanese army, but he did not expect to fall into its trap step by step, and finally became a puppet with a false chart.
At first, he also wanted to raise a group of dead soldiers loyal to him at any cost, including some people in his clan and some Mongolian nobles, and even selected ten people to study at the Japanese non-commissioned officer school, which can be seen.
At that time, Puyi had spare strength, not a complete puppet. However, his idea was soon discovered by the Japanese and he was stillborn.
What do you think about that?