Listen to the episode here

Dude. Brace yourself. Angie found a whopper of a story. Buckle up for her telling of Yoshiko Kawashima, a member of the Qing dynasty who was a gender-fluid spy for the Japanese in the early 1900s. Whatever you’re expecting, this ain’t it.  

This episode pairs well with:
Aline Griffith

Transcript:

Theresa: Hi, and welcome to the Unhinged History Podcast. The podcast where two compulsive nut jobs who are barely contained chaos come together after researching gobs and gobs of history stories. We’ve only recently learned and we’re going to tell our friend that story. I’m host one, I’m Theresa, and that… I’m Angie. Welcome. 

Angie: I like to stir the pot, evidently. 

Theresa: I mean, I’m just bummed I gave up the handle to stir the pot with because typically that’s my job. 

Angie: Well, you still do it very, very well. I think I just ran away with it today when you knocked a ring light over. 

Theresa: Which time? I mean, that ring light just had it going. I mean, it was just that ring light number. This is the big one, the big event. 

Angie: Yes, there. Like when it just went… Oh, hello. Hello. Did you hear him? No. My cat decided to join the chat in full like scream meow as he jumped into the bed. 

Theresa: Oh, I didn’t hear him. So I can just be grateful that things are silent in the background. Aside from you acknowledging your husband. I’m a jealous god. There can be only one of us. Right. Would you just focus on me? I only get you for a limited hours every week. I’m so sorry. 

Angie: So sorry. I’m the worst. 

Theresa: Yeah, you are. 

Angie: You are. How dare I have a marriage in children? 

Theresa: I mean, just how dare you acknowledge them during our brief moments together? 

Angie: Love this. 

Theresa: Okay. All this said, it’s your turn to go first. I have a spreadsheet pull up. It’s you. Okay. It’s me. 

Angie: Do you want me to tell the whole… I think my story is long enough to be a whole story. Do it. Do it. Steal the whole show. 

Theresa: I think I can. I think you’ll have to. Because good. Mine’s long enough and so I can steal the next show. Okay. 

Angie: So I’m going to… Excuse me. I’m going to tell you that I started with Wikipedia because Wikipedia had some really great sources that I stole. So like I went to Wikipedia to steal Wikipedia’s sources. 

Theresa: Dude, yeah, the time that I’ve done that and I don’t even tell you because I’m like… Because I don’t think I went to the library. I just go to the library. 

Angie: I know, but it’s one of the… I don’t know. I just… I think probably from all my classes, like half the teachers love Wikipedia, half the teachers hate it and I’m always like, but wait, they have sources at the bottom. 

Theresa: So you don’t go to Wikipedia. You go to the source, you quote the primary source and you just call it a day. Yeah, I guess that’s true. 

Angie: Anyway, there is a… All this interesting article written by Morgan Dunn that was first published in March of 21 called Meet Yoshokyo Kawasami, the Chinese princess who spied for Japan. Oh. I thought I’d just come right out the gate with you on that one. There is the history of Beijing, which I went full… 

I was on travel websites to get information because I was so like, wait a minute, what is this place? So there’s that. There is a history news network article from a woman called Phyllis Burnbaum in April of 2015. The article is called The Unbelievable Story of Kawashima Yoshokyo and the Japanese lost soul who claimed he was a she, he was she in an earlier life. 

So half the article is about my person and half the article is about a person just recently, like in the last 20 years, that thought he was the reincarnated version of her. 

Theresa: All right. I mean, I can discount him just right away. I’m just going to be honest. 

Angie: Just right away. Yeah. No, he’s not even part of my story, but it was an interesting, like, to me, this character is so little known in like mainstream history that the fact that this individual today thought he was her is really kind of intriguing to me. So if you want to read the article, I’ll tag the link or whatever. 

Okay. There is a something called Reddx has this delightful article called The Matahari of the Far East uncovering the incredible story of Yoshikiyo Kawasami in Open Sources Intelligence Reports that was posted in 2019 by a fellow called Bruce Cogschel. There is a website and I love this. The origins of the Black Dragon Society. Okay. Yeah. So that’s a thing. It’s like, okay. So the website that that came from is from a place called Pacific atrocities.org. 

Theresa: That’s a lot. That’s ominous. That is, that is, that is a mood. 

Angie: I had so many side quest questions that I had to have answered for my own self to tell this story. And that was one of them. I was like, wait, what is, I’m sorry, you just can’t like do go on podcast, which I absolutely love. 

They did this story a few years ago and they just like mentioned the Black Dragon Society and I’ll think, wait, wait, wait. I know. That’s what. Yeah. Yeah. I get that that’s not the main story here, but like I need the main story. Like I need that to be a main story. So here I am. 

Okay. So my story starts in Manchuria and it is confusing as hell. And I’m honestly not sure I’m ever going to fully understand what’s happened here. And I’m also going to start with a disclaimer that some of the events in my story may take place in a different order, but we’re working with sources that were kind of there at the end of her life. 

So things may not be like perfectly linear. I’m going to do my best though. So thanks to Wikipedia, who I want you to get my information on Manchuria. Manchuria lies at the junction of the Chinese, Japanese and Russian spheres of influence. 

It has been a hotbed of conflict since the late 19th century. The Russians, they established control over the northern part of Manchuria in 1860 under the Beijing Treaty. And then they build the Chinese Eastern Railway to kind of like consolidate all of their power and control in the region. Then disputes over Manchuria and Korea leads to the Russo-Japanese War of 1904 and 1905. I think you’ve mentioned that in a previous story. 

Theresa: Yeah, that was the second Pacific squadron. 

Angie: Okay, that’s what I thought. 

Theresa: It was the Kamchatka. Yeah. And when Nicky Tu gets attacked by the samurai. 

Theresa: He holds on to the upsetness 

Theresa: and kicks off the Russo-Japanese War later on when he takes the throne. 

Angie: Listen, honestly, if I was attacked by a samurai, I’ve been thinking about this ever since you said that story. I wouldn’t be mad. I’d be like, that’s actually like the coolest flex I ever get to get. 

Theresa: I know. Imagine being at the dinner party being like, this reminds me of that time when I was attacked by a samurai. 

Angie: I was just with my cousin. It was fabulous. I have my cousin, Clown. Yeah, my cousin, Clown. So we have the Russo-Japanese War from 1904 and 1905. Then the Japanese invade Manchuria in 1931. 

This is a crucial part of my overall story. So it’s just worth knowing that that happens in 1931. And then the Soviet invasion of Manchuria in 1945, which leads to the rapid collapse of the Japanese rule in the Soviets restored reign in the area. So there’s like a lot going on later. 

Mao Zedong gets involved and then the People’s Republic of China in 49. So there’s like a lot happening in this little part of the world because this little part of the world is kind of an important location for its size. Right. That makes sense. So we go back just a bit. 

Beijing is the capital city of the Qing Dynasty, Q-I-N-G, Qing Dynasty. I had this pronounced. I know. I think I’ve not been in with Chen. Qing Dynasty. 

There we go. So Beijing is the capital city of this dynasty and it spans the years of 1644 to 1912. At this point, it’s fair to say that the Manchu take over and invade the region in 1644. And so they’re the ruling classes people and that’s where my story starts within this ruling class of the Manchu invaders who have now been ruling for a significant amount of time. Right. So we’re looking at what? 1644 to 1900. That’s pretty reasonable, right? 

Yeah. Beijing is super advantageous as a capital for them for a lot of the same reasons that it was also strategic for the Mongols. It sits in the middle of the super vast empire and it was at its time the fourth largest in recorded history. Oh. 

So like it covers some space, right? Okay. So we’ve done this back and forth. 

I’ve stirred the pot of how things are going to work and it’s kind of a hotbed of international activity. But in May of 1907, in Beijing, a princess is born. On her birthday, she is born to the Ashen Jiro clan. This is the imperial family. She’s not the emperor’s daughter, but she is part of the greater imperial family. So she is still… Okay. 

Theresa: So she’s a princess but not in direct line of ascension. Right. 

Angie: So her birth name, I’m only going to say this once and I’m hoping I say it right, is Ashen Jiro Zanyu. By the end of this story, she has approximately 357 names. Okay. Okay. So there’s a lot but… A little bit of foreshadowing. A little bit. Most of what we know about her life actually comes from this huge interest the United States government has on her in the 40s. So they have… 

Theresa: Is it Hoover? Does Hoover get involved here? 

Angie: I can’t directly say that Hoover gets involved here but what I will say is the CIA has a mad crush on this girl. Like, they develop an agency called the Foreign Broadcast Information Services. Have you ever heard about this? I have not. So neither had I and it’s basically… 

It used to collect information on international… For lack of a better way to say it, like international persons of interest. Okay. Whether it’s… I don’t think it’s just directly like is this person going to be a problem or is this person just a celebrity, that sort of thing. It’s just people they are interested in. However, this is the 40s so we are interested in them for no tristic reasons, right? Yeah. 

Okay. So they develop this huge crush on her and gather tons of information about her. Among the articles that are selected and transcribed by the FBI, there are three dispatches that are filed to Reuters, the news agency. Reuters? I always call it Reuters. Is it Reuters? I think it’s Reuters. In so many ways. I like Reuters better. It feels better. Anyway, so these news dispatches get filed and reported out of China. 

One on April 12th, one on April 13th, and one on April 14th of 1945. So you just want to keep that in the back of your head later because that’s where we get a ton of our information. So our girl, she is the 14th daughter of her father. 

Theresa: That’s too many. Is it one wife? 

Theresa: Is it one poor woman who’s chronically pregnant or does he spread it out? 

Theresa: No. I don’t know if I prefer it. He spreads it out. Okay. I still don’t prefer it, but that’s too many children. Yeah. 

Angie: Okay. So her father, he’s a Manchu prince and her mother, which I think this is so fantastic that we even know her name. Her name was Lady Zengia. She is her father’s fourth concubine. So I think there’s like the main wife and several concubines. He has at least 18 kids. 

Not much is known about her early years, but when she was about four in 1912, there’s this revolution that ends China’s last imperial dynasty and establishes that times Republic of China. Let me get the little red book. I think so. So here’s where we go off the script just a little bit, but my understanding is that once the fighting is over, members of the imperial family are told they can happily live out like the rest of their lives in their lovely forbidden city and papering. They will have no power, but they’ll receive a pension from the revolutionary government and they’ll get to keep all their royal benefits like the finery and the servants and stuff. Actually, the quote that comes from the FBI, and the gentleman or lady, I’m actually, we don’t know who correspondent Chen is, but correspondent Chen is who sends these dispatches from the FBI in 1945. He, they quote, part of the family was allowed to stay on at the forbidden city in papering, shorn of all power and receiving pensions from the revolutionary government, though they retained all rights and fripperies of the royal family in a few thousand palace guards and domestics. I love the word fripperies. 

Theresa: I mean, honestly, I feel like if that was what’s left, I could make do. I could, right? Fumble along. 

Angie: I actually don’t need power if you’re just going to let me stay in my big, beautiful home and give me my servants and my things like you. Yeah, I prefer it without 

Theresa: power because power and responsibility, those are hand in hand. 

Angie: I just let me read my books, 10 My Garden, My Mother’s News. Thank you. Let me keep the cook. Right. Exactly. Well, more ambitious family members, they put them, excuse me, they put themselves into self-exile and they plot and they plan for the restoration of the, quote, heavenly dynasty from afar. One of these interior family members is our girl’s father. He is a notorious diehard and he is also pro-Japanese. He believes that the Manchu dynasty could be maintained and revived if Japan helps. So like he’s… That is an interesting thing. He is here for it. He is going to go to Japan and he’s going to raise, I don’t know, all the fighting men one needs to take his dynasty back and all of the things, right? I’m just going to say that I still would stand on, can you just keep me in my palace and keep the cook? 

Theresa: Yeah. I mean, just give me the books and the food. Please and thank you. That’s all I want. I basically just want to be a guinea pig. 

Angie: Yeah. I am so here for it, right? But her dad’s not. So he’s not about that life, like I just said, and he wants to regain control. So his option is exile, at which point he begins plotting. She at this point is sent to Japan and I can only assume this is a bit of a power move. She is sent to a friend of her dad’s. His name is Nohia Kalashimi and I’m pretty sure that he’s going to get his own story one day because he seems like a pretty interesting guy. I don’t know a ton about him from her story, but he’s got some, a lot of irons in the fire that sound really interesting to explore later. So she gets to Kalashimi and new dad gives her a new name because I’m raising you now. I guess we just do this. 

These are things we do. He, at which point he names her Yoshiko and begins her life as a Manchu princess in a Japanese environment. She begins her life there totally upsetting the neighbors by riding her horse to school like she would have done back home. 

Theresa: I’m trying to figure out what they would have done back in the day to see if what, I mean, because this is the 40s. 

Angie: Well, this is like just after 1912 right now. Okay. So she’s still a small child. I don’t even think she’s really 10 years old by this point. So she’s born in 1907. 

The revolution happens in 1912. So she’s still fairly young. And I’m thinking that the region she moves to is far more industrialized. 

So her neighbors are affronted by seeing the horse come by with her on it, right? But regardless, she ends up absorbing everything her new papa shares with her, all of the skills. And he also believes in bringing back the glory of her people. And so she’s like getting all these downloads from him. And one of the other things that she takes on is wearing pants. 

Theresa: That seems like a weird move for this. 

Angie: And then, okay, eventually she just altogether starts wearing men’s clothes and she cuts her hair very, very short, like men short, like Shaded short. And my understanding is this is absolutely a cultural no in Japan at this time for a young lady. The neighbors could not. They simply could not with her. As a teen, she goes to school in Tokyo. Part of her education actually included judo and fencing and this suited her well. 

And it should be said right now. I don’t have to send my notes, but it is important to mention by this time by the time she’s a teen and she’s learning these forms of martial arts. She really, really appreciates Joan of Arc. She has this huge girl crush on Joan of Arc and really wants to see herself as that kind of character for horror people. So just like put that in the back of your head. 

Okay. So by 1922, both of her biological parents die. Fairly gnarly deaths. 

Things don’t go well for dad. He chooses to swallow metal, like metal shards and that does him in. I mean, yeah, large pieces of glitter. My understanding. Yeah, like they were, it was like a bowl of metal, like he just ate it. 

Theresa: Dude, his pika was weird. 

Angie: I was like, oh, this is nuts. And then her mother has having no official identity without him. She follows suit. I don’t know how she did it, but she also. Okay. 

Theresa: So they opted out is what I’m hearing. 

Angie: Yeah, they, they remove themselves from the census and she did intentionally. 

Theresa: He swallowed metal intentionally. Yes. 

Angie: All of his plans for this, this coup, if you will, for gaining his dynasty and his people’s power in Manchuria, sale. And so kind of defeat after defeat, just he, he can’t take it anymore. So he rather than I think dealing with the outcome deals with the outcome himself. And mom not being in a position without him does the same thing. Okay. Okay. 

Theresa: I don’t know why I’m getting hung up on the swelling metal. I feel like there’s been roads more traveled that I’m more used to. And so that’s, that’s just new. 

Angie: I’ve never heard it before. I feel like there was about a hundred other ways to go. And that just seems so. Nasty. Gnarly. Yeah. Yeah, it really, really, really does. So that was, that was 1922. So in 1924, she’s going to be about 17. She sent to a military academy about two years later. 

She is well versed in war science and espionage, which I think is pretty fast. It’s fabulous. In November of 24, excuse me, on November 22nd of 1925, Yasukio comes out and she says a couple of really interesting things. One quote, and this is, this is, okay. I think this is really funny. 

I should have mentioned this earlier. The Japanese press is obsessed with her. It’s not like she got to go live her life in obscurity and just be a man to princess being raised in Japan. 

Theresa: She’s riding her horse to school and nobody else says this girl is living in the limelight. Let’s be honest. 

Angie: Everything she does is, is seen in the press, is written about, and I think that she probably has no qualms with it. So she comes out in 1925 and she says she has quote, decided to cease being a woman forever. 

Earlier that day. Is she trans? She, um, here’s the thing. 

She doesn’t label herself as that. So perhaps I should be saying they. Um, I’ll get, I’ll get to what she, what they, what they think was going on in just a moment. 

Okay. Um, earlier that day before making this statement, she had dressed in a beautiful kimono. She had the traditional female hairstyle and took a photo among Blooming Cosmos to commemorate quote, her farewell to life as a woman. That evening, she goes to the barber shop and has her hair cut into a crew cut. At that point, she is fully in men’s clothing. Now, she lives her life in both. Sometimes she’s got hair, the longer hair in the feminine dress. 

Other times she’s in military garb and the very short hair. So I think it’s ambiguous. Yeah. I don’t know if she’s just doing what feels good at the moment or what is needed at the moment. Now, so she goes to get her hair cut. The, um, from, from, from that one, she starts dressing as a man. There’s a photo of the transformation that appears five days later under the headline. Kawashami 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. So the press is having a heyday with her. There’s some belief that she did not have the best home life that perhaps she was, um, not treated well by her foster father. 

He could have. An appropriate matching. Yes. Um, but that’s, I don’t, there’s no concrete evidence of that, but from what it sounds like from this point on, she has sort of a very tenuous relationship with him. So, it kind of makes sense. And there was moments of her trying to remove herself from the census, recorded in papers before whether they’re true or not is unclear. 

Okay. Now, she comes out in an article just two days later and says, I was born with what the doctors call a tendency towards the third sex, so I cannot pursue an ordinary women’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. So, I don’t know what the proper pronoun I should give her is. 

Theresa: Well, I mean, I think that they said the third sex. I don’t know a term about that. I’m assuming we’re doing non-binary. So, am I just going with they? Would that be…? I mean, I feel like they, them, would probably be the best. Perfect. 

Angie: I wish this was something that we had more concrete understanding of today from back then. 

Theresa: Well, you know, we’re also trying to ascribe our, like a lot of this moves in as fluid. Yeah. And so, we’re trying to ascribe labels to things that didn’t have fluid or that didn’t have labels or the same labels. So, but if she says, or if they say third sex, that was the term. Yeah. Yes. Then, yeah, I’d probably… I’d probably say towards the third sex. I’d probably say non-binary. 

Angie: Yeah. Which is fair. One of the other things that I wanted to state in this moment is that earlier in her life, it had been remarked upon several times that she had rather boys’ habits, despite her beauty. So, they were a tomboy. Were definitely a tomboy. 

And they would only use the male style of Japanese grammar. Yes. So, I can get behind that. Good for you, you know. 

The female is annoying. At some point also, in their younger years, they actually did attend an all-boys’ school. So, the historians sitting here aren’t clear if this is perhaps where they picked it up. 

The male dress and the male hair and all of that. But regardless, she is fluid today, right? So, here we are. This leads to them having a very open set of relationships, as far as going from lover to lover, gender to gender, across the board. And the public is seeing it and the paparazzi is all about it. They’re constantly covering the stories and the lovers and things like that. This sort of leads to her foster father arranging her marriage to a Mongol prince. 

Because we have to include one more party at the event. He’s the son of a rebel leader who also had ties and support of her father, of her biological father. So, again, foster dad is, like I said earlier, been fostering these ideas of her Manchu dynasty and things like that. And he is constantly trying to keep people that are part of that belief in her circle. 

This Mongol prince is one of those. And I think this is so interesting, this next little bit. The correspondent Shin from the FBI S says in one of their correspondences, April 13, transmission, Chungking, Toshiko Kawashami’s story. The great turning point of Kawashami’s life came, this is their words, not mine, came when she was discovered by the Black Dragon Society. Saber and Sturip, click of the Japanese, Jinguist, dreaming of a dream of continental empire and world conquest. So this is the point at which I had to do a side quest and figure out what the Black Dragon Society was. 

Theresa: I wish I didn’t say it like, but what is it? 

Angie: Okay, so the Black Dragon Society was also known as the Ku Kura Kai. It was formed in 1901. It’s basically formed from the remains of an earlier group that basically consists of what’s left of the nationalist samurai. So following the Meijing Restoration, individuals find themselves excluded from the benefits of Japan’s rapid modernization. So the Black Dragon Society is created in response to this idea that would promote Japanese nationalism as well as this notion that Japan had a divine mission to lead all of Asia. 

Theresa: So I love these small little islands, Japan, England, assuming that they have the divine right to massively do global domination. This always makes me so happy. I love this for them. 

Angie: So you can imagine that this is a society that is involved in a lot of espionage and clandestine operations to get their goals met. And their ideological foundation is that Japanese supremacy as well as the resistance of Western imperialism, because, you know, we can’t keep our hands to ourselves. They just want to be left alone, but their goal, like all of these things, their belief in their supremacy, their resistance of the West, with all of that, their goal is to unite all Asian countries under the Japanese leadership. They believe that Japan should and would act as the leader of the newly unified Asia to counteract all the Western powers together. I’m like, okay. 

I’m here for it. So Shenzhen’s correspondence says, as a political move aimed at the hegemony, I have such a hard time with that word, hegemony, hegemony, over Manchuria and Mongolia, they decided to present Kalashima to Kalashimi to an Mongolian prince, her husband. As either a concubine or a wife, it’s a little bit unclear. Some sources suggest that she was his first wife. Other sources suggest she was just a concubine. 

I’m not sure if it’s one and the same for the Mongolian prince. I’m a little bit unclear, as the sources don’t, they don’t seem to know either as far as where she really stood within his sphere. This move breaks another young man’s heart. Apparently, there was another gentleman called Marshall Chen, Tislin, who had quite the crush on Kalashimi, but he never got a chance because she was married away. And we never hear of him again. And I think it’s so interesting that it was mentioned in the correspondence as relevant when we never hear about the guy again. 

Theresa: But now I want to do a side quest to figure out why, why did we even care? Because when Prince William got engaged to Kate Middleton, nobody interviewed me, but I had feels at the time. 

Angie: I don’t, we all, I mean seriously. Now, this marriage lasts a really short time, like less than, probably less than a year before Kalashimi leaves. Chen reports in his correspondence, quote, one evening she dressed in scarlet, raced through the brown desert on a white horse and managed to escape to Japan. And if that doesn’t give you all the visuals, I don’t know what will. 

Theresa: That is some main character energy. Right. 

Angie: I have had that, that one image like racing through my mind since I started looking into this particular port, particular person. While she is in Japan and kind of traveling about, she takes on a slew of new lovers, has all the time in the world, she’s sort of just living her life. But then Chen goes on to say in their report that the Black Dragon Society naturally was greatly annoyed but impressed with her. Stagacity and dashing personality, they decided to give her another role to play. And this is where she gets connected with their army. She’s about 24 at this time. 

Okay. Now they are going under the name Commander Yin. And they build a reputation as a cross-dressing spy. At this point they become the hero of a best-selling novel. Because again, the paparazzi follows them everywhere. Right. So I think it’s hilarious to me that you would bring a princess into the world of espionage and not expect the paparazzi to be involved. 

Theresa: I mean, look, how many times have we had spies, I’m thinking World War II, and this isn’t too terribly far from that. And it was like, oh, but they were well known, like Josephine Barker. And it’s like they actually hid her espionage in her… What’s my call? What’s the word I’m looking for? They hid it in her celebrity. 

Angie: Yeah. I mean, I guess it works. It super works. And it worked for Taosha Mi as well. So I find it just, it’s so interesting to me that there would be such a person that’s so readily watched. But seems to be conducting all of their espionage out in the open. 

Like people don’t question it, it just happens. Through a series of events, Japan gets control of Manchuria and they need it to appear legitimate. So this is where they bring Kaohsiung Mi in. She had, excuse me, they have both Mongolian and Manchurian connections, as well as her very adventurous spirit and their skill for disguise. This makes them super popular within the Japanese military intelligence. At one point she, excuse me, they get connected with a gentleman called General Kenji Dohara who is labeled the Lawrence of Manchuria. Which almost like… 

Theresa: Where they kind of give a lay off of the Lawrence of Arabia. 

Angie: They were. Yeah. He is kind of the architect of Manchuria’s opium industry. So I’m not really counting him as a superhero here. 

Theresa: Yeah. That’s… That’s how I get… 

Angie: A little bit. A little bit. Maybe he needs to do some PR stuff for that. So like I mentioned, the Japanese, they need to set up some sort of legitimate action here, right? They’re trying to kind of use Manchuria as a puppet state, but they need an imperial figurehead. So they go to Kaohsiung Mi. 

Kaohsiung Mi has a cousin who would have been the emperor had Manchuria not fallen when it did. He was only a toddler at the time, but now he’s a little bit older, probably teenage, young 20s. And they convince him that he’s going to be the figurehead. And this goes about as well as you could think. 

It’s a farting church. Pretty much. Kaohsiung Mi persuades him to do it. He becomes the ruler. And this is how they see themselves as restoring their dynasty to the seat of power, but it’s all just… It’s just a power move by Japan to have more effect in the region, right? Shin goes on, the correspondent, to say, Great efforts were exerted to change the people’s minds regarding Japan. A lot of money was spent to buy over the scum of society to serve as fifth columnists. 

She being Kaohsiung Mi. What’s the fifth columnist? I think the way I’m understanding that is they’re trying to buy the public and use the public opinion like a columnist or a journalist’s opinion. 

That’s the way I’m understanding it. Again, Shin always refers to Kaohsiung Mi as a they, or as a she. So they would frequent opium and morphine dens as either a Chinese or Korean sex worker to mix with petty officials and officers and gain intel and information. Kaohsiung Mi was so skilled in her work that, or in their work, excuse me, that within a couple of years there would be 400 spies working beneath them. 

Theresa: That is impressive. I’ve never had 400 people wanting to do anything. I’ve never wanted to do things with 400 people, but… Right. 

Angie: I just got to say that’s pretty impressive, especially when you’re thinking about their childhood and how they loved Joan of Arc. And saw Joan of Arc as this sort of person they want to imitate, this person they want to be when they grow up, right? And you’re looking at this, you know, how 400 spies working under you. I think things are going great for your image if that’s what you’re going for, you know? Right. 

Okay. At one point they operate as dancing girls. They open a restaurant, like a successful restaurant, just as part of the fun things we can do while we’re spying it up. 

This restaurant knocks it out of the park. And Shen reports that once in a while Kaohsiung Mi would visit in splendid uniform, a company by four or five bodyguards. They would be shown to room number one and they were greeted as General Wang. The pumps surrounding her and her arrogance remained one of the dying race of warlords. 

Theresa: The people? I don’t know if I followed. I think I lost you. 

Angie: So Shen’s basically saying Kaohsiung Mi would enter her own restaurant as General Wang. So she would be in— Oh, she had disguised. As General Wang. Yeah, she’s cosplaying. And the pomp and circumstance surrounding her would give them this air of like the pinnacle of the warlord, as you would imagine them. 

Okay. They just had so much charisma coming off of them and the restaurant just loved it. And I think it’s hilarious that you would come and costume your own restaurant, but whatever. One writer describes General Wang as capable of speaking perfect Mandarin and other Chinese dialects, perfect Japanese and English and having a square face and broad eyebrows. 

Okay. Shen goes on to say, once Japan occupies Northern China, Kiwashimi settles in Peking very solid of themselves. This is where Kiwashimi would dress like a Manchu nobleman. They’d have a long gown with the cape and the satin boots and a skull cap with a white or green jade knot. I’m not really clear what that looks as supposed to look like, but I’m assuming the colors matter here for some sort of representation. 

Okay. Shen then reports that, quote, her liking for a man’s dress dated from her school days. In this connection, once she said, the color in a man’s dress is provocative for me. Formally, I received scores of nonsensical love letters daily. 

The number has been greatly reduced since I found a protective color. Interesting. Okay. I genuinely think they were just over being kind of objectified. Right. 

Like, I just want to live my life, you know? But they willed a ton of power. And things happened by their word, like what they said went. And that was with high officials. 

That was with the peasantry. There was no question when Kiwashimi said it, that’s what we did. Shen reports, quote, because of such influence, Kiwashimi’s house was always filled with Chinese begging for favors. Kiwashimi’s house in Peking was like a fortress full of snares and traps. It is said that 29 police dogs, a number of monkeys, at least four that we know of, and two white geese, which had been given special training, watched the doors. 

Theresa: The geese scare me. The dogs seem like the standard move. 

Angie: Right. 

Theresa: And I didn’t know if monkeys were anything other than agents of chaos. 

Angie: That’s my understanding. They just served as companions for her. I don’t think they actually served in a realm of protection for the home. They were just Kiwashimi’s buddies. One source says they could be found walking around town with the monkey on the shoulder. So I think it was just a companion sort of thing in the case of the monkeys, though. The bars, the snares, the traps, and the police dogs were useless when the Japanese war chariot to which Kiwashimi had pitched her fate was knocked out. This is Shen reporting. 

So let me just get to the end right here. Ever since the spring of 1945, they had been closely watched by two secret servicemen from Chungking. They had succeeded in getting one of their men into Kiwashimi’s house as a servant. 

Through him, they kept themselves informed of their movements. It also must be said this is not part of Shen’s report. This is something I learned after reading his report. 

It also must be said about this time in their life that they had some pretty bizarre behavior beginning to present more and more likely, or more and more often. And it’s most likely because syphilis. 

Theresa: So hey, we can talk about syphilis today. Scott got the sentiment in it. We haven’t brought up syphilis in forever. 

Angie: Yeah. I was like, wow, syphilis. I got to add this in my notes. By this point, though, it’s believed that it had invaded their body and had gone to their brain as well, and it would have explained a lot of their behavior around this time. Now back to Shen’s correspondence. Their arrest was made when the surrender was being signed of the forbidden city from which Kalashimi’s henchmen once issued orders reaching to the farthest end of the Chinese empire. Kalashimi went on trial in 1946. On July 4th, 1946, the FBI, who Shen worked for, reported a short transcript of a broadcast in English Morris Code about Kalashimi. It was titled, Mata Hari to be Tried as a Trader. 

Theresa: The Mata Hari of the East, the Eastern Jewel and the Oriental Pearl was convicted and executed for treason by the spring of 1948. They were just 41 years old. That’s my age. I know. I said the same thing. 

I was like, whoa, whoa. Okay. But that being said, because they were so well known, I have some pictures. I’m here for it. But I am delighted to share with you. So let me know when you can see it. So this would be. 

Theresa: Okay. 

Theresa: So there is a black and white photo. Can you scroll it? Okay. So I’m seeing a full kimono. It is a rather monotonic kimono. 

Theresa: I’d say going off, I guess it’s probably some sort of mob. Obviously the photos are black and white, but they’re at regular intervals are patterns of what I presume to be gold thread, but probably a lighter thread. 

Angie: I believe this is the photo that was taken just before they cut all their hair off. 

Theresa: Okay. And then she’s got, or they’ve got the dark OB hair pulled back glasses. Okay. So there’s that one. 

Angie: This is also Toshimi. 

Theresa: Okay. Now this one has a very Eastern Asian face with kind of like Lucy actress that plays Christine and Grey’s Anatomy. 

Angie: I never watched Grey’s Anatomy. I have no idea. Wow. 

Theresa: Okay. Anyhow. I know. I’m sorry. 

Angie: But they’re bestowy friends. 

Theresa: Yeah. I mean, I haven’t seen the mummy. So, you know, these are things. Here we go. But this photograph is of a very small framed East Asian person wearing a male uniform. But this is tailored to fit them. This is not one of like the night witch kind of deal. Yeah. 

Angie: This is very much a very uniform. Right. Yeah. I’ve got more. This is Kawashimi as a young person. And I’m okay. 

Theresa: So they’re in this picture. This person is gosh 1513 around there. I was thinking. Yeah. I was thinking 1314. Yeah. Young teenager with their horse. Happy to be with their horse as they’re going for a little walk, which is fantastic. 

Angie: I love love this picture. Oh, those are all the ones I included. However, I will say this, there are a ton of public domain images of them. And I think that’s just the benefit of paparazzi. 

Like they actually did us a solid this time. We have a lot of images to work with those are just the ones that I shared. And then this map I included at the beginning so that we could kind of understand where Manchuria was because I knew where Manchuria was, but then I thought maybe I don’t actually it’s kind of like, yeah. 

So I needed a little bit better reference because I was thinking it was lower and more in than it is. So yeah, that’s that’s the Manchu princess Japanese spy. I’ve been sitting on the story for like a really long time and I’m really, really glad I got to spend the last week and a half with them. Nice. Well, thank you for sharing. You’re welcome. So if you want to go be a spy, I guess go be a celebrity first. 

Theresa: Or not. I mean, you say that, but this isn’t even the first one. Like we had Justin Baker and then we also had Eileen Griffin. Mm hmm. 

Angie: Yeah, I was thinking about Eileen Griffin. Correct me if I’m not wrong. She was the one that was. She was the Countess. Yeah. Okay. I was, I remember what I remember the most from that particular story is envisioning what her home looked like when they were bringing her like the dresses trying to persuade her into marriage. But I don’t know why, but that’s the scene like taking her to the restaurant, the apartment, all of that. 

Theresa: Like, and she’s making just enough to afford Balenciaga. Shucks. Like, oh darn. Hmm. Man. Well, I’ve loved this. Thank you for sharing her with me. I hadn’t never popped up my radar. So I’m thrilled that you shared her because I don’t know if I’d ever ran into her. 

Angie: Mine was purely on accident. I was, I was scrolling through something one day, like I said, two or three years ago when it, when I learned, first learned about it and then was recently like, oh, oh, now is a great time to share this story. 

Theresa: Actually, I’ve got just the reason to, to radical. Love this for me. Well, if you’ve enjoyed this and I think I’ll do my story next week, then rate, review, subscribe and yeah, come see what I’m going to spend an hour talking to you about. And on that note, goodbye. Bye. 

Theresa: Bye.