Emperor Pu Yi (“The Last Emperor”), State Visit to Tokyo, 1935.



1930sGovernmentImperial HouseholdPatriotism/Military
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See also:
Imperial Japanese Navy Battlecruiser Hiei, 1933.

Emperor Pu Yi, Manchuria, c. 1935.

A commemorative postcard issued in 1935 (Showa 10) on the occasion of the state visit to Japan of Henry Pu Yi, Emperor of Manchukuo, in April, 1935. Affixed is a 1-1/2 sen stamp bearing the image of Emperor Showa’s (Hirohito) personal flagship Hiei, which conveyed Emperor Pu Yi from Manchukuo to Japan for his state visit.

“I reached the pinnacle of authority and the nadir of my misconceptions after the first of my two state visits to Japan, in April, 1935. The Kwangtung Army had made all the arrangements for this trip which was undertaken to demonstrate my gratitude to the Japanese Emperor for sending his brother, Prince Chichibu, to congratulate me on my ascension to the throne as well as to show my personal interest in promoting friendly relations between Japan and Manchukuo.

“The Japanese government had organized a reception committee of fourteen consisting of high-ranking peers headed by Baron Hayashi, a Privy Councillor. A battlecruiser, the Hiei, was sent over to take me to Japan and other warships provided an escort.

“… On my arrival in Tokyo, the Emperor Hirohito personally came to the station to welcome me, and also gave me a big banquet … I inspected troops with Hirohito and even participated in a ceremony at Meiji Shrine. I also went to pay my special respects to Hirohito’s mother, the Japanese Empress Dowager. The Japanese press reported that as I strolled with her in the garden I used my hand to help her up a small slope as I had once helped my father up the steps of the palace in Changchun, but the truth is that I had never helped my father up a single step.”

The Last Manchu: The Autobiography of Henry Pu Yi, Last Emperor of China, by Henry Pu Yi, 1967

Commemorative postcard of Manuchukuo emperor’s visit to Japan, 1935. With a Japanese maiden in Chinese cheongsam dress (somewhere in Manchukuo), and commemorative stamp cancellation.

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