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By the 1930s, both Manchukuo and Korea had fallen under Japanese control and became the forefront of Japanese expansionism. With facilitated transportation, the two territories became popular stops of itinerary for travelers seeking to inspect the battlefields and give their greetings. “Korea” was located on the Korean Peninsula, covering what are contemporary South Korea and North Korea, and became a colony of the Empire of Japan in 1910; “Manchukuo” was located in modern northeastern China where the Japanese established the State of Manchuria, a puppet state of local elements, in 1932. As neighbors connected by railways, the two territories served as a springboard of the influence of the Empire of Japan and common stops of itinerary for travelers from the islands. After 1938, “Taiwan Shin Min Pao” published works of travel writing through Manchukuo and Korea in 11 serialized accounts with as many as 63 articles. Feng-Yuan Chen, the chief financial officer for “Taiwan Shin Min Pao”, was the only Taiwanese to have contributed to that body of work but Japanese authors included Kenji Ogawa, for his trip as a student envoy, the war correspondents for Domei Tsushin on the Manchukuo-Soviet borders, Japanese Army Major Shiro Kawashima, for his depiction of wartime scenes in January. There was also Korean writer Hyok-chu Chang, for his trip to Mountain Kumgang. This piece focuses on the trip of the student envoys with which Kenji Ogawa traveled.
In an effort to promote friendly relations between Japan and China, the Manchukuo Association in 1938 organized a trip of student envoys who were nominated by their universities from across Japan. The envoys representing Taiwan were Kenji Ogawa, a student in humanities, and Toshio Yokomine, a student in medicine, both of whom were students of the Taihoku Imperial University. The two students departed from Taipei for Shimonoseki on 12 February of the year and met other student envoys there. A party of more than 150 people marched via Korea to Mukden (Shenyang today) and then to Beijing for a trip meant to build friendship. They returned to Taiwan on 15 March, ending a trip that lasted for about a month. The account of travel that Ogawa penned appeared in “Taiwan Shin Min Pao” on 18 – 24 April 1938, serialized in 7 articles, which mainly recounted the trip to Mukden in the State of Manchuria.
Figure 17: Kenji Ogawa’s Account of Travel Published by “Taiwan Shin Min Pao”
Figure 18: Kenji Ogawa’s Student Envoys Making Their Departure
Traveling to Manchukuo and Korea from Taiwan involved transit over the sea and land on a long and difficult journey. Ogawa left Taiwan for Japan where he joined fellow envoys and departed from Shimonoseki, the westernmost point of Honshu, for Busan, Korea, at 10 am on 21 February 1938. Ogawa took a third-class cabin that was located near the stern where the ship’s engine noise and permeating smell of petrol necessitated the use of seasick medicine to relieve discomfort. It was already after sunset when they reached Busan, making it a voyage that lasted 8 hours. Today, it will be three hours with a fast ferry.
Figure 19: Overview of the Travel of the Student Envoys, 1938
Figure 20: The Kanbu Ferry during the Colonial Rule of Japan
On their arrival in Mukden (Shenyang today), the capital of Manchukuo, Kenji Ogawa and other envoys were warmly received by the Department of Municipal Office in Mukuden, the Concordia Association and the Manchuria Medical College. Their first port of call was the Tower of the Loyal Dead, located not far from the train station on foot, to offer their condolences for the fallen Japanese soldiers in the Russo-Japanese War and the Mukden Incident. The Department of Municipal Office in Mukuden, the Concordia Association and the Manchuria Medical College jointly held a reception party on the night of the same day where Ronggui Jin, the mayor of Mukden, stressed the importance of Japanese-Manchurian cooperation and the feasibility of Japanese-Manchurian co-prosperity in concrete terms. Warm exchanges between Japanese and Manchurian students were followed by three collective cries - “Long Live the Empire of Japan! Long Live the Empire of Manchuria!” - concluding the reception.
Figure 21: Mukden Train Station, 1930  Figure 22: Tower of the Loyal Dead Part Four: Japanized City Ogawa’s party spent the night in the Oboshi Hotel opposite the Mukden Train Station. The students roamed freely after the reception and toured such avenues as Heian, Chiyoda, Naniwa and Yayoi as well as arterial roads like Kasuga and Aoba. Ogawa noted with affection that many shops in Mukden were run by the Japanese and communication in Japanese was conducted with ease – in stark contrast with Beijing. Furthermore, the streets were broad with plenty of tall buildings. The tramway system within the city was decent. To keep out the cold, the Manchurians generally wore wooly clothes and carried tiger- and wolf-fur hats of seemingly high quality to enclose their ears. Similarly, Manchurian buildings were made of concrete with two layers of window to ward off the cold and equipped with stoves inside. In comparison, houses in Taiwan were mostly made of wood and largely windowless in a relatively open style. Finally, with regard to local prices, commodities in Manchukuo were affordable. Tobacco, for instance, was available in great variety and quite cheap.
Figure 23: Map of Mukden
Figure 24: Street View in Fengtian
On 24 February 1938, three carloads of student envoys traveled to Beiling, located six kilometers to the north of Mukden and the tomb of the second emperor of the Qing Dynasty, Hong Taiji. Ogawa depicted it as a place of indescribable beauty by pen: Beiling was surrounded by greenery, buildings painted red and temples adorned with gold. The next to visit were the remains of the Mukden Incident – the railways near the Liutiao Lake and the Beidaying Barracks. Even as little more than an overgrown wild field, under the direction of the guide they still could engender the vivid memories of intense fighting at the time of the incident. The tour then shifted to the city of Mukden and the bustling and noisy Ssupinkai through the Great South Gate of Mukden where Iwao Oyama, the Chief Commander of the Japanese forces in the Russo-Japanese War, once made his entry into the city. Among the institutions in Manchukuo ranging from nursing homes to Receiving Home which sheltered prostituted women, Ogawa and several fellow students visited Tongshandang, the only charity-based orphanage in Manchukuo. Pressed by the schedule of their itinerary, Ogawa’s party returned to the hotel after paying respect to the Mukden Shrine, leaving out many other places of interest found in the ancient city of Mukden. Ogawa pointed out that the nascent State of Manchuria was endowed with a rich historical legacy but also under the influence of modernity and, benefitting from decent transportation and a booming industrial zone in Tiexi, it was a place of immense potential.
Figure 25: East Mausoleum, Mukden
Figure 26: Beiling, Mukden
Figure 27: Wartime Remains of Japanese Attack on Beidaying during the Mukden Incident, 1931
Figure 28: Nursing Home in Harbin
Figure 29: Orphage in Hsinking
Figure 30: National Museum in Mukden
Figure 31: Tongshandang in Mukden
Figure 32: Shisheng Temple in Mukden |
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