I had a very productive day. I went to the Oya Sôichi Library and found an article I have been looking for now for some time. It is an article written by Kawashima Yoshiko about her own life, including her intelligence work, published in the September 1933 issue of 婦人公論. The library, which is an archive of magazines and journals in modern Japan, was fantastic but extremely expensive for photocopies. I got the article, which helps feed the myths about her, created in part by the novel 『男装の麗人』（”A Beauty in Male Attire”). I shall have occasion to write much more about her interesting case later.
The article I found today may no longer be protected by copyright. If I can confirm this I will put the whole thing online, and if I get around to it, I’ll translate it to English for inclusion on a website I will be creating about this fascinating woman and the many representations of her in Japan and China. I will also fix that retarted Wikipedia entry about her that I linked her name to above. I’ll keep to web stuff, however, because there are already two scholars in the US working on her (in addition to the legions of journalists, fans, and others who have studied her in Japan). Dan Shao, a former student of Joshua Fogel, has written a dissertation on her and is publishing a chapter on her in a soon to be released book on Manchukuo, and Barbara Brooks is also apparently working on her.
I have a historical quandry I’d like your opinion about. It’s on my blog.
I’ve started using my other homepage again so you might find a few interesting bits and bobs on that every now and again. I’ve given up being anonymous on the web. It’s possible to find out who most people are anyway. I’m still not going out the way to wave my name about though.
I’m showing my ignorance here, I’m sure, but is she the ‘evil Japanese lady’ in “The Last Emperor”?
Yes Derek! Exactly. That is one of many fictional representations of her (one of shorter and more sinister). I’ll be putting up lots more representations of her on the web site I’m going to put up.
Ah, I know who you mean now. Don’t forget to let us know the web address.
I checked out your link on your chinajapan.org site about the library. Why in the world is the place so draconian? Even by Japanese standards, I find it very strange. Is it financial, or to insure preservation of many articles and documents that are certainly irreplacable, or is it something else?
I don’t know…but it is frustrating to say the least…they were very crowded an popular. But most of the articles I found there, I will be looking up elsewhere if possible, in order to get cheaper copies.