Colonel Tsuji of Malaya (part 6)

At 3 a.m. on August 17: "I bowed toward the north-east and deeply apologized to the Emperor. I then took off my uniform which I had worn with pride for 30 years and changed to my yellow robe. I felt that the great ship, `the Army,' had sunk, and I, a solitary survivor, was throwing myself into the giant waves of a bottomless sea." He went to an ossuary where the bones of Japanese soldiers were kept, on the grounds of bombed-out Ryab Temple. He took the identity of Aoki Norinobu, to be tutored by a 60 yr old Buddhist of the Nichiren sect. "Young Kubo" was with him; his orderly or one of the seven? They had a year's supply of miso, rice, dehydrated vegetables, canned goods, and dried fish.

On Aug 20 he reported for an ID card, taking off his glasses to change his appearance. He met "Ishida" a classmate at the Military Academy and a spy in Thailand for some years. He and his seven disciples were all approved as Buddhist students. The oldest he sent to Mahatat Temple, keeping the youngest with him for a time, Fukuzawa Takashi, though later sending him as well.

Here the two possible trails out of Burma come together: whether he escaped from jail in Rangoon, or had spent the past three months in Bangkok, On Sept 15, a British advance party arrived in Bangkok, with the occupation complete at the end of the month. Tsuji heard that they intended to intern priests on Oct. 29. Also heard, from Japanese soldiers removing remains from ossuary, that the British were looking for Tsuji. He decides to go underground in China. Here as earlier he shows his fascination with the British prime minister: "If Churchill were in my place, he would undoubtedly have done what I did."

Through French Indochina

Tsuji contacted agents of Chiang Kai-shek's Nationalist government, working for the Military Bureau of Investigation and Statistics, run by Tai Li, charged with anti-Japanese and anti- Communist subversion in parts China not occupied by the Nationalists. Tsuji calls them the Blue Shirts, though that term is more often applied to a paramilitary organization analagous to Hitler's Brown Shirts. Their offices, he says, were on Surion Avenue, next door to a British officers' club.

He used notes to converse with them, taking advantage of the fact that Japan used Chinese characters as the basis of its written language. Says he told them his real name, his military history, his activites in the East Asia Federation, and his acquaintance real or imaginary with Tai Li himself. He left notes saying hs was committing suicide by drowning himself in the Menam River, addressed to the Thai police, the monks at the ossuary, and his disciples at the temple. Overnight on Oct 28-29 he slipped out of the ossuary, and after hiding in the fields until morning, took a rickshaw to Chinese hq. He was hidden in a "safe house" in the outskirts of Bangkok. (1.5 million Chinese in Thai.)

Disguised as a Chinese merchant in white jacket, black trousers, white pith helmet, and colored glasses, he boarded a train on Nov 1 with two escorts, one of whom was disguised as a Thai military policeman. Overnight in Kohraht; to Ubon next day, thence by a charcoal-burning bus to the Thai-Indochina border on Nov 3 "the auspicious birthday" of the Emperor Meiji, creator of modern Imperial Japan. Slipped past British sentries and crossed the Mekong River in a dugout canoe. Thence to Vientiene (?) by bus, oxcart, and pedicab. Northern Indochina occupied by the Chinese; they looted, raped, and extorted money, which behavior he blames for the success of the Viet Minh communists in organizing this part of Indochina. He contacts local MBIS office, tells them he was in Nanjing 20 years. Sees occasonal Japanese soldiers in employee of Chinese.

Given an escort of four soldiers and set off down the Mekong on Nov 10, trading as they went, tying up at hamlets overnight, seeing occasional French roadblocks now. At Sahanaket, registered as a Chinese doctor. Again sees Japanese soldiers, free to move about. Left by automobile for Hanoi Nov 23. Sees Viet Minh platoon led by Chinese communist; sees Japanese conscripted by Chinese as drivers and technicians, along with Japanese military horses and even dogs.

Reached Hanoi Nov 29 and reported to Chinese hq.

Vietnam was in chaos, with an indigenous Communist government under Ho Chi Minh contending for power against the returning French. Thousands of Japanese soldiers were still in northern Vietnam, preferring desertion over a return to the homeland in disgrace; they served as instructors and weapons experts for Ho's Viet Minh army. (For more on this, see Did Japanese soldiers fight with the Viet Minh? on this website.) Possibly Tsuji joined this mercenary force, though he claims not: Found Japanese working for Chinese in Hanoi, and heard reports of Japanese working also with the Viet Minh; says he himself was recruited (by a Chinese) but declined. Noted that the Chinese in Vietnam, like the British in Thailand, were so rapacious than the people longed for the Japanese to return.

By now he is wearing Chinese robes. Mentions staff officers Iwakuni (whom he knew from their days together at military prep school) and Commander Dobashi. Dec 25 went to Japanese army liaison office, where recognized by Major Suga, former student of his at Supreme Hq Nanjing. Met staff officer Misawa; moved in with them Dec 29 under name of Uesugi Masanobu, an army priest with the honorary rank of major. (He was called upon to administer the rites to the dead after a cholera epidemic.) Got the usual fond orderly to take care of him. 40-50 officers and soldiers there, some being held as war crimes suspects. Sato: instructor at Military College and aide-de-camp to Gen Terauchi. Also names Sakai and Kashiwara. Three months in Hanoi. T129-138.

Left Hanoi on March 9 in a four-engined plane with "a giant American pilot," flying up the Red River Valley along the route of the old "Michelin" railroad, along which he'd once planned an invasion of China, to Kunming, just a few hundred miles from where he had begun his remarkable odessey. His name now is Shih Kung-yu. Astonished to see the variety and quantity of American goods on sale. On March 19 flew on to Chongqing in a B-29(!) Landed on the island airport in the river. Bought Russian military magazines in the bookstores. Chongqing then closing down as government and industry returned to Nanjing.

Working for Chiang Kai-shek

Says his hopes were dashed when General Tai Li was killed in an airplane crash. Tsuji eulogized him as "clean and honest"; says his men were called Blue Shirts because he wore a cheap blue worker's garment, and they emulated him: most American writers take a somewhat different view of this man. Tsuji's position now "midway between that of a prisoner and a guest." Despite this setback, he goes to work at the Military Control Bureau's propaganda department and even obtains "a fine loveable young soldier" as his orderly. all quotes: Speaks a mixture of Russian and Chinese. Hears that Dr Miao Pin shot May 21 despite the fact that Tai Li supposed knew about his work, so a double agent in Wang's govt?

Suffered a bout with cholera, wrote an appeal in his own blood, and on May 7 was visited by "a sinister looking man" who proved to be Maj Gen Mao Jen-huang, who discussed his letter to CKS. He translated a Japanese document on the Chinese communists and generally became a lecturer on this subject. Says he asked Mao to make it seem that he was arrested while hiding in Hanoi! Was that indeed the way it happened?

Sent to Nanjing Jul 1 under new alias Wu Chieh-nan. Flew over Hankou and east along the Yangzi, which he had last seen two years before. He found Nanjing much changed: "The Japanese stores along Chungshaw East Road had been returned to their former owners." He is put to work for the National Defense Deparmtent Section [ntelligence] Comprehensive Study Group. On Aug 4 moved to former Japanese Supreme Hq! Met another Japanese, "a pure hearted youth" deciphering Chinese communist codes. Also an interpreter with his family. "Many thousand" Japanese PWs sent to Chongqing, where a third died of malnutrition (during the war, I guess).

continued in part 7