JAPAN: Puppet Show

Handsome, brilliant, persuasive, emotional Wang Ching-wei, Japan’s puppet President of China, during most of his 57 years has been haunted by the ghost of power, the fantasy of cheering crowds. For praise and power he has already sacrificed the memory of his master, Sun Yatsen, the trust of the Chinese people and his own principles. So last week he actually got an ovation.

Not in his own capital, Nanking, where he rides between rows of guards who watch for assassins, but in Tokyo last week Wang rode beaming past 50,000 admiring people from the railroad station to his Puppet Embassy. They waved flags, they shouted “Banzai!” Wang doffed his plug hat.

The day after his arrival he paid a three-hour call on Emperor Hirohito. According to an officer of the Imperial Household, “he was deeply moved by the overwhelming honor . . . was greatly relieved after his return that he had made no blunder.” Wang: “This is the most glorious day of my life.”

Over the radio a Japanese spokesman explained Wang’s visit:

“Some people believe the Chief Executive of China came to Japan to find fault with this country or to make some special request, but there is no such impure idea in his mind. He desires to come in contact with the national policy of this country, in which the ruler and the ruled are one, and to purify his own convictions.

“The Chungking regime . . . insinuates that Wang Ching-wei is a puppet in the hands of Japan . . . having fallen victim to the fangs of Japanese aggression. . . .

“Japan demonstrates to the world at large the solemn fact that it respects the independence and sovereignty of the National Government of China, but does not recognize the sovereignty of Chungking. This is calculated to produce a very serious effect on Chungking and on third powers.” . . .

Wang said he was examining the merits and demerits of democracy and totalitarianism to decide what would be best for China. “This is the essence of the principle of nationalism contained in the Three People’s Principles of Dr. Sun Yatsen.*

From the mouthpiece of a mouthpiece, Puppet Wang’s Finance Minister Chou Fu-hai, came the real reason for Wang’s junket, the act behind the ballyhoo. It took the form of three suggestions that were certainly not impure ideas. Chou hoped that Japan would: 1) extend Nanking’s power north and south; 2) control business less stringently; 3) change the form of Japanese-Chinese joint industries so that Chinese might be induced to invest in them.

Oddly enough these were much the same moves that Japan’s Ambassador to the Nanking Government suggested to Japan a month ago.

* Patriot Sun’s Principles: “Nationalism,” “Democracy,” “People’s Livelihood.”