1932: Playing with the Japanese Communist Party with a doll

Soon, powerful tools such as "Simplified Chinese Character Chart", "Chinese Character Pinyin Method" and new textbooks were thrown out along with "Travels in Northeast China".

This time, public opinion completely exploded.

If people say, "There are only two good things about Tohoku under Fujiwara no Kanezane's rule—this is good, that is good," then most of the comments are made by ordinary people and a small number of scholars who truly care about people's livelihood.

This incident directly touched upon the sensitive points of almost all intellectuals, the absolute main force in the current Chinese public opinion field.

Change the text!

Change the word! Give it a new sound!

Anyone with a bit of culture can see that Fujiwara no Kanezane is doing something similar to the great feat of Qin Shi Huang's "unified writing system"!

No, if we take his previous actions into consideration, it is clear that "the wheels will be of the same gauge, the books will be written in the same script, the customs will be the same, the land will be the same, the weights and measures will be the same, and the currency will be the same shape"!

He wants to be the Qin Shi Huang of the new century!

Therefore, any intellectual cannot avoid participating in such a major event, regardless of whether one participates in opposition or support.

A group of traditional literati, led by Dai Jitao, Liao Weifan, and Hu Qiyuan, had previously remained silent on the "Northeast Massacre," but this time they immediately jumped out.

They called on all Chinese people to oppose it on the grounds that it "destroys Chinese traditional culture", "destroys Chinese characters", "weakens the cultural connotation and historical heritage of Chinese characters" and "intends to cut off the roots of Chinese civilization".

They even called Fujiwara no Kanezane's series of actions "another destruction of the world" in an attempt to arouse people's hatred for the Qing Dynasty and then extend this hatred to the "Five-Star Eastern Republic";

It has to be said that at that time in China, there were quite a few fans of old scholars like Dai Jitao. As soon as his remarks came out, hundreds of people immediately followed up with articles to build momentum, and their reasons were not much different.

After all the criticism, many people actually feel that simplified Chinese characters are destroying China.

This was also an act tacitly approved by Chiang Kai-shek.

Chairman Chiang Kai-shek initially paid little attention to the "Manchukuo." He considered it a mere puppet regime that could not possibly challenge the "legitimate" Republic of China. He simply believed the Japanese were more formidable.

What's more, deep down, Chairman Chiang Kai-shek did not dislike "Manchukuo". Instead, he regarded it as another way out for himself.

Puyi and Wanrong were qualified to be the leaders of Manchukuo, so it's not incompetent for Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek to be one either!

However, when the independence trend of the "Five-Star Eastern Republic" became increasingly obvious and the Japanese seemed increasingly unwilling to directly interfere in China's affairs, he realized that something was wrong.

Putting aside the question of how Zhao Ziqi, who appeared out of nowhere, could become the president of China, this attitude alone proves that the Japanese have changed their ways!

They had no intention of breeding their own dogs in China, but instead began to seriously consider how to "transform China into Japan"!

Moreover, judging from strategies such as simplified Chinese characters, what they are going to implement is not the foolish method of "forcing Japanese" as in North Korea.

Now the chairman couldn't stand it anymore.

Originally, the "cold attitude" of the new US president and the new government towards the National Government had already made him extremely uneasy, but he did not expect that the Japanese would also feel the same way.

If you don't want dogs, what should I eat?

Shit whistle?

Even without Dai Jitao and others explaining these cultural issues to him, Chairman Chiang Kai-shek would have had to respond simply from the perspective of proving his own worth, showing loyalty to his new masters, and demonstrating his strength to his new investors.

Moreover, although they themselves also supported the simplification of Chinese characters and had asked the Minister of Education Wang Shijie, Li Jinxi and others to gather experts from all over the country to start working on the "Simplified Character Table";

But since the Northeastern pseudo-country has already done this, the promotion of simplified Chinese characters must stop, because this has risen to a political issue!

However, Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek did not dare to intervene directly, so he instructed Dai Jitao and others to launch a major debate in the field of public opinion - surely Fujiwara no Kanezane would not start a new war with the National Government over such a small matter?

However, soon after, the Republic Daily published a new article, still printed in simplified Chinese from left to right in horizontal format.

The article points out that the accusations of "tampering with Chinese culture" and "simplified Chinese characters are Japanese" are completely false. The movement to simplify Chinese characters began during the Taiping Rebellion, and the character "国" (country) is a result of that time.

Afterwards, starting from the beginning of the 20th century, writers such as Lu Feikui, Qian Xuantong, Li Jinxi, Hu Huaichen, Liu Fu, Li Jiarui, Zhuo Dingmou, Chen Guangyao, and Xu Zemin took over and popularized thousands of Chinese characters.

The educators of the Five-Star Eastern Republic are simply standing on the shoulders of these predecessors and carrying out some more in-depth development and exploration.

Moreover, the article revealed the "Chinese Character Simplification Scheme" and "Common Chinese Characters Vocabulary" that the National Government was working on, as well as a list of relevant participants, proving that the National Government was actually doing similar things.

In other words, you yourself are simplifying Chinese characters, so why do you say that simplifying Chinese characters for me is "destroying Chinese culture" or "a Manchu-Qing-style demise of the world"?

Reporters quickly found the people on the list and confirmed the news.

Now, the group of people in the government who supported traditional Chinese characters and attacked simplified Chinese characters immediately split apart.

So I was attacking and attacking for nothing? And the boomerang even hit me back?

Dai Jitao was furious. He put down his pen and rushed to Chairman Chiang's official residence: "Such a major event, and you actually kept it secret from me, the President of the Examination Yuan!" Then he threatened Chiang Kai-shek that if he did not stop simplifying Chinese characters, he would no longer attend any central meetings in the future.

Chiang Kai-shek had no choice but to agree to immediately abolish the Chinese character simplification movement and strongly support Dai Jitao's promotion of traditional Chinese characters.

This time, Dai Jitao and others were satisfied with helping the old scholars, but what about those experts and scholars who were abandoned by the government because of this?

Damn it! I've painstakingly worked on simplifying Chinese characters for your government for several years, and you just want to scrap it, right?

Okay, okay, for this job, I want to support the Japanese in Northeast China!

As a result, scholars who had originally remained silent on the debate for political reasons joined the camp supporting Northeast China and started to curse at those who supported traditional Chinese characters.

One scholar publicly stated that the Five-Star Oriental Republic's Chinese character simplification scheme is extremely mature, with almost no character changes required. He said he would take time to visit there and participate in this event.

As for the new pinyin system, since it wasn't the main point of attack, more people praised it. After a little study, they would find that it was much more practical than the "phonetic system" introduced by the Beiyang government.

There is some dissatisfaction in areas like Guangdong, where pronunciation differs greatly from that of northern dialects. Although the pinyin system originated in Northeast China, you can't just cater to northerners and ignore southerners!

Some scholars even exposed the real reason why some people oppose simplified Chinese characters and the pinyin system – they are simply afraid that the culture will be learned by ordinary people!

Dai Jitao and others, of course, refused to admit defeat and turned around to curse at these experts and scholars, and some even fought in the streets.

Now, no one cares about the Northeast anymore. They have to kill the "heretics" within their own country first!

As for Lu Xun? Who is that? I don’t know him!

At this time, two new Chinese typewriters named "Ming Kuai" and "Xun Du" were launched in Northeast China to replace the traditional "Shu typewriter" which was bulky and could not type as fast as handwriting.

The "Ming Kuai" model mainly relies on radicals to complete the input and output of Chinese characters. It can type 50 to 60 simplified Chinese characters per minute. Its size is almost the same as that of an ordinary English typewriter, and it is cheaper.

The one called "Xundu" is even more amazing. It relies mainly on the "New Pinyin Method" to find characters. Although it is slightly larger and more expensive, it can type 60 to 70 simplified Chinese characters per minute, or even more!

After staff from the Queen Corporation's Shanghai branch publicly demonstrated the performance of the two machines, the ridicule that "even if simplified Chinese characters were developed, they couldn't be applied in reality" came to an abrupt end.

Mr. Lin Yutang, who was at home wondering when his design drawings were leaked, inexplicably received 10,000 yuan and left a message saying "Thank you for your outstanding contribution to the Chinese typewriter."

(This guy was really amazing. In that era (1931), he created a typewriter that had almost the same logic as the earliest Chinese character input method used by later electronic computers, and the typing speed was not much slower - and it was traditional Chinese.)

At this point, the public opinion war that started with Ding Ling's scolding of Lu Xun and caused a stir across the country for several months came to an end.

Anyone with a common sense could see that once these two typewriters were released, the speed at which simplified Chinese characters would be adopted in Northeast China would be astonishingly fast. Unless the Nationalist government stubbornly refused to join in, they would have to use simplified Chinese characters.

Otherwise, they will be beaten by the "Five-Star Eastern Republic" in various ways in terms of the speed of information dissemination, public opinion propaganda and talent training.

What the government failed to notice was that this war of public opinion also gave rise to a feeling among many intellectuals and ordinary people with a certain level of education:

How come it was the Nationalist government that started the war, but compared to the Nationalist government that was full of mistakes, contradictions, and internal fighting, the Northeast, which was advancing step by step, advancing layer by layer, and maintaining a stable position, was more like the "legitimate" side in the traditional sense...

440 League of Nations Conference, Defeat the National Government

Before the big mess caused by Ding Ling led to the "Guodong Public Opinion War".

Thousands of miles away in another place - Geneva, at the headquarters of the League of Nations, the Palais des Nations, an international conference was being held that was very likely to determine the fate of Japan, Northeast China and "Manchukuo".

"...The Huanggutun Incident is believed to confirm the close internal connection between the proactive policy towards Manchuria and Mongolia advocated by Japan's Tanaka Memorial and the September 18th Incident..."

"...Therefore, our investigation team believes that the actions taken by the Japanese army on September 18 last year were premeditated and cannot be considered legitimate self-defense..."

"...Although Japan has enormous interests in Manchuria, and its actions are not simply a matter of invading China's borders by force, Manchuria is still Chinese territory. This is an indisputable fact..."

Upon hearing these final words, Yan Huiqing, a famous Chinese industrialist, diplomat and politician, the first Chinese ambassador to the Soviet Union and the representative of the Chinese Nationalist Government to the League of Nations, could not help but feel relieved.

Good! Good! Good!

This fair and objective account of the events and the pseudo-Manchukuo shows that the international community still tends to be sympathetic to China!

Look, didn't this report, which took more than a year to produce, openly acknowledge that "Northeast China belongs to China" and deny Japan's opinion?

Surely even the Japanese, under such pressure from the League of Nations, would not dare to go against the report?

There is hope for peacefully recovering Northeast China!

Thinking of this, Yan Huiqing couldn't help but look at Matsuoka Yosuke, Japan's plenipotentiary representative to the League of Nations, who was not far away, wanting to see what kind of embarrassed face the other party had, but found that the other party's expression was unusually calm.

Huh?

It's fine if the Japanese don't go crazy, but why don't they even show any reaction? It's really strange...

In fact, it was not just the Chinese representative Yan Huiqing. Representatives from other countries were also secretly observing the expressions of the Japanese representatives. They were equally curious and their hearts were beating fast.

Why not go crazy?

What conspiracy are the Japanese brewing?

Deep down, the whole world is a little "afraid" of the Japanese representatives at this time.

This "fear" does not mean dread, but the crazy temperament of the Japanese makes normal people feel distressed.

for example.

Last year, after the September 918th Incident, Japanese diplomat Yasuya Uchida (yes, the one who publicly "committed suicide" on the Mantetsu Railway) delivered a famous speech outlining his diplomatic philosophy:

Scorched earth diplomacy.

That is, "even if it makes the whole world its enemy, even if all of Japan is turned into scorched earth, Japan will never give up its interests in Manchuria."

Honestly, when this statement came out, diplomats around the world were stunned. No... What are you Japanese thinking?

Diplomats are like firefighters between nations. The primary responsibility of diplomatic envoys is to ease conflicts between countries and put out fires on sensitive issues, not to set them on fire.

The purpose of diplomacy is to prevent a country from becoming a scorched earth. Now, you are putting the cart before the horse, carrying out diplomatic actions at the cost of turning your country into a scorched earth, and threatening the whole world with scorched earth?

Besides, are you, Japan, worthy enough to be an enemy of the whole world?

How many do you have?

Even if you are worthy, what does the fact that your Japanese mainland has been reduced to a scorched earth have to do with us? To describe it as "stupid" is a bit of an understatement. Is this just a foolish act? It's really ridiculous!

If it were just one diplomat's bizarre remarks, it would be fine. But what is even more incomprehensible to governments and diplomats around the world is:

Many people in Japan's political, military, and diplomatic circles support Uchida Yasuya's statement, and even use silly remarks like "Manchuria and Mongolia are the lifeline" as supporting evidence!

The British Foreign Secretary initially did not believe that the Japanese government would be so foolish, so he privately called the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, hoping that the Japanese government would relax its conditions and voluntarily give up the title of Manchukuo in exchange for actual interests in Northeast China.

So, guess what the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said?

"If the League of Nations doesn't recognize Manchukuo, forget it!"

Just like a little fairy who throws a tantrum without considering the consequences.

(Later, because the Lytton Report failed to meet all of Japan’s conditions, Japan “got angry” and withdrew from the League of Nations on the spot – yes, just like the Israeli representative tearing up the book in public.)

Now, everyone was completely convinced that the Japanese were truly mad. No one wanted to be in the company of a mad dog, let alone face it alone.

This is also partly why the Lytton Report was produced so slowly and many of its authors were extremely careful in their choice of words and sentences.

Therefore, with the conclusion of the report being so unfavorable to Japan, everyone is worried that Matsuoka Yosuke, who once exchanged insults with Chinese representatives for two hours at the League of Nations Assembly for the legitimacy of the "September 918th Incident", will go crazy again.

As a result, he seems calm?

It is strange that Japan, as a permanent member of the Security Council, allowed the Lytton Commission to attend the League of Nations Assembly and speak on the spot.

It's really disturbing...

Soon, everyone understood why Matsuoka Yosuke was so calm.

Because, apart from the first few chapters which are slightly unfavorable to Japan, the rest of the chapters are basically the opposite!

"...Since the bombing at the founding ceremony of Manchukuo, members of the Japanese imperial family, Fujiwara no Kanezane, have seized de facto control of Manchuria, interfering in the management of military affairs, politics, people's livelihoods, culture, science and technology, and so on..."

"...Manchuria as a whole is experiencing an incredible sense of prosperity. The country's overall strength, social governance capabilities, and people's living standards have all been greatly improved..."

In short, the second half of the report basically "boasts" about Fujiwara no Kanezane and the various construction achievements of the Japanese in Manchukuo, which attracted the attention of countless people.

Damn it, Leighton, how much money did you get from the Japanese to brag like that? Also, what are the British and French thinking?

This report was mainly produced by your people. Writing it this way is completely detrimental to your interests in the Far East, isn't it?!

Are you just going to watch Japan grow stronger in Northeast China?

"...After randomly interviewing and investigating over 3000 people in Manchuria, our investigation team has confirmed that under the leadership of Fujiwara no Kanezane, the people of Manchuria live and work in peace and contentment and have no interest in returning to China..."

Wow! !!

What the hell!!!

They said "Manchuria belongs to China" before, and now they are saying this again? Could it be that Britain and France are starting to support the division of China again?