Chapter 2 01. Japan is gaining momentum in the anti-China noise

This is a two-story building with red walls and gray tiles, located near Ginza, the center of the Tokyo metropolitan area in Japan.Ginza is bustling and noisy, but here, it is full of solemn and solemn atmosphere, and it is even more strange. This is the official residence of the Prime Minister of Japan. On this day, several cars stopped in front of the prime minister's residence, and Prime Minister Wakarejiro, dressed in an exaggerated tuxedo, walked out of the prime minister's residence slowly.Five years ago, he served as the prime minister of Japan. Now, the former Liu Lang is here again. If the 65-year-old forms a cabinet again, how long will the political life of the prime minister be this time?

Today, the prime minister is going to a cabinet meeting.Compared with many difficult cabinet meetings, the topic of this cabinet meeting is not difficult, because the Japanese political circles and the military have reached a consensus.Before long, the cabinet meeting made a resolution on the Nakamura incident: the Japanese government will decide how to deal with it depending on the investigation results of the Chinese authorities. Together, we will decide on countermeasures." This is an unusual resolution.Previously, the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs had sent multiple notes to the Chinese foreign ministry on the so-called Nakamura incident, each time becoming tougher. However, the phrase "the Japanese military authorities and diplomatic authorities should make a joint decision" appeared in the resolution of the cabinet meeting. Once, and the listing of "military authorities" before "diplomatic authorities" is equally meaningful.

Japan has to make a big fuss—the breath of war has been revealed from the resolution of the Japanese cabinet. So, what happened to the Nakamura incident? "If you want to conquer the world, you must first conquer China; if you want to conquer China, you must first conquer Manchuria." This is the core of Japan's mainland policy.Japan believes that in China, especially in China's northeast, there are huge and special interests of the empire. At the beginning of the 20th century, Japan did not hesitate to fight the behemoth Russia because of conflicts of interests with Russia in Northeast China.Japan won the bet, but it is obviously not satisfied. Its grievances with Zhang Zuolin and Zhang Xueliang and his son show that it still wants to grab greater benefits in the Northeast.

Nakamura Shintaro, born in 1897, graduated from the Japanese Army University, served as a military spy in the Baikal region, and has been working as a scout in the Chinese class since then. In 1931, Nakamura was ordered to conduct reconnaissance in the southern foothills of the Xing'an Mountains in China.At that time, Japan regarded the Soviet Union as its biggest imaginary enemy, and believed that if a conflict occurred between the two countries, China's Xing'anling area would be a strategic location. In late May, Nakamura and his party of three arrived at the Hyakutake Agency, the Japanese secret service stationed in Harbin.The Hyakutake Secret Service had already prepared Nakamura with the necessary funds, equipment, and one hundred-thousandth military map in Chinese, Japanese, and Russian in accordance with the secret message.In addition, he was equipped with a Russian guide Mirokov.

In early June 1931, Nakamura and his party arrived at the Asahi Hotel in Qiqihar (the location of the Japanese spy agency), and were told that Entaro Isugi would act as Nakamura's Japanese guide for the mission. Five days later, Nakamura, with Mirokov, Isugi Entaro, and the Mongolian guide Liu Cunbao, rode three Mongolian horses, and brought enough dry food and equipment. They set off from Qiqihar City and planned to arrive in Taonan Prefecture in early July.It was agreed that another Japanese spy, Katakura Zhong, would pick him up there and complete the task. On June 22, the Taonan Japanese Consulate received a telegram from Nakamura from Hailar, stating that "it is expected to arrive in Taonan on July 3."Katakura Zhong immediately went to meet him, but until July 20, there was still no sign of Nakamura and his party.

At this time, the Japanese secret service did not know that a "small probability event" happened to Nakamura and his party. In the Xing'an Mountains area in the northeast, China's armaments are loose and bandits are rampant; Mongolians and Hans live together, and ethnic relations are complicated.In the face of this, General Zhang Xueliang once transferred part of the Northeast Army from the pass to form a reclamation army stationed in the Xing'anling area to strengthen the defense and control of this area.At the same time, a note was sent to the Japanese Consulate to prohibit Japanese people from "traveling" in the area on the grounds of local instability.

Of course, those Japanese "travelers" with special missions would not care about the so-called bans imposed by the Northeast local authorities.Nakamura and his party of four, dressed as Chinese, still entered the Xing'anling area.However, on their way back from completing their mission, they accidentally encountered the third regiment of the Chinese Reclamation Army. Outside the pass in July, it was already high in the sun, but they could not feel the scorching sun. Soldiers of the First Battalion of the Third Regiment of the Northeast Reclamation Army practiced on the open ground beside the road outside the station as usual.On this day, the head of the regiment, Guan Yuheng, was not at the regiment headquarters, and Dong Kunwu, the deputy of the regiment, acted as the head of the regiment.Suddenly, Lu Hongxun, the battalion commander of the 1st Battalion of the 3rd Regiment, who was training, found four people galloping past on horseback from north to south. answer.Lu then reported to Dong.Dong Fu asked in Japanese, and one of them answered, admitting that he was Japanese, and took out a business card with the words "Member of the Tokyo Agricultural Society of Japan" and "Nakamura Shintaro" printed on it.Dong Sui told the four people that he would carry out an inspection, so he found investigation notes and military maps in their bags and Nakamura's cotton trousers. This kind of pistol was designed by the Japanese Nambu Kijiro, and it is commonly known by the Chinese as the "Big Box".In the notes of Nakamura and others, the intention and route of the "travel" and the various military information collected are clearly recorded.So Nakamura's identity as a spy was fully exposed.

In the ensuing interrogation, Captain Nakamura showed silence and arrogance consistent with the spirit of the Japanese samurai, which greatly angered the officers and soldiers of the third regiment of the Reclamation Army. They were executed secretly together, and all their belongings, except for the notes, maps, pistols, and map surveying instruments, were burned. This is a completely low-probability event, not even a small-probability event, but history still remembers the Nakamura incident paradoxically.Not because of anything else, but the watch worn by Nakamura leaked the "secret".

This is a good-looking watch, reminiscent of the word "valuable".For this reason, when other belongings of Nakamura and others were burned, this "valuable" watch was secretly hidden by a soldier surnamed Li.Later, this watch was pawned by Li Jun, and the pawned money became his one-night prostitute money. At that time, many Japanese were involved in the sex industry in Northeast China.Of course, these people are not forced by livelihood, but Japanese agents with special missions.Therefore, the process of Li Jun's "begging for love" was mastered by Japanese secret agents.

Now let’s talk about Nakamura’s watch.That is not an ordinary watch, its name is "San Dao Liang", which is a special watch worn by the Japanese secret service for its agents, which is enough to identify the person who wears the watch.The disappearance of Nakamura, the "three beams" who appeared in the pawnshop, and the identity of the pawnbroker formed a logical causal chain: Nakamura not only did not "evaporate from the world", but provided the best opportunity for Japan to make a big fuss in Northeast China. material. On July 23, the Japanese Kwantung Army received the news that Nakamura had been killed, and the news quickly spread to the Central Department of the Japanese Army in Tokyo.

On August 17, the Japanese Army Ministry issued the "Statement on the Death of Captain Nakamura and his party", declaring that the Nakamura incident "is a great shame for the Imperial Army and all Japanese."The Japanese side has repeatedly stated that it will use decisive means, that is, use force to resolve the unsolved case in Manchuria and Mongolia.Japanese newspapers also reported the so-called truth of the Nakamura incident at length. On August 24, the Japanese Army formulated a plan for safeguarding and occupying the Tao'an and Solon areas—that is, the areas where Nakamura went to carry out espionage activities. Or if a satisfactory solution cannot be achieved, the "Proposal for Handling the Nakamura Incident" not only advocated "resolutely implement the guaranteed occupation of the Taosuo area", but also specifically said, "When implementing this plan, if there is resistance from the Chinese side, It will lead to the fundamental solution of the Manchurian problem." The so-called "fundamental solution" refers to war. However, the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs has doubts about this. They believe that if the military is used prematurely, it will "deteriorate the world's impression of Japan."After discussing with the military, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs decided to temporarily suspend the implementation of this plan, and continue to focus on diplomatic negotiations to strive for interests in the Northeast through the Nakamura incident. The negative attitude of the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs immediately annoyed one person, this person is Lieutenant Colonel Ishihara Wanji, a fanatical young officer of the Kwantung Army. Since the 1920s, the Japanese Army, represented by a group of young military officers, has formed small groups, advocating a more intense military expansion policy, in order to maximize the interests of the empire.They even did not hesitate to assassinate the cabinet prime minister and military dignitaries to express their dissatisfaction with the civilian government and their stupid bosses and their more intense demands for the empire.When their violent behavior violated the Japanese law, they did not get the punishment they deserved. Instead, they were dubbed "patriotic enthusiasm" and became martyrs who died for the interests of the empire. When they learned of Nakamura's murder, they knew that another golden opportunity had come.Lieutenant Colonel Ishihara is such a young soldier of the Empire with super sensitivity.Looking through Shi Yuan's diary, we can see that he has been perseveringly planning how to realize the interests of the empire in Northeast China through force.When he learned that Nakamura was killed, he was extremely excited.In a personal letter, Lieutenant Colonel Ishihara wrote: We firmly believe that this incident is the best opportunity, that is to say, the consulate cannot solve this problem after all, and relying on the strength of the military department, it can succeed in the shortest period of time. He even made the following suggestions on how to embarrass the Chinese army in detail: For the issue of apology, we should also let some Japanese troops march into Taonan to receive the remains of (Nakamura and others), and let the Chinese army apologize to our army (I think this approach is more unacceptable than asking senior Chinese officials to apologize) . Apparently, the motive was to make matters worse. These words were said by Ishihara on August 20 in a letter to Lieutenant General Nagata Tetsuyama, the head of the Military Division of the Japanese Army Ministry.Nagata is not an "outsider". He, Neiji Okamura and Shiro Kotoshi have all studied in Germany. The three are known as the "Three Heroes" among Japanese army officers.This group is the ancestor of the group of radical young military officers, and it can be called the "predecessors" of Ishihara and others. The "private words" of Japanese military officers interpreted the significance of the Nakamura incident to the Japanese authorities nakedly and clearly. On August 11, Japanese Foreign Minister Kijuro Hashihara ordered Consul General Hayashi Hisashiro in Shenyang to "try hard to get the Chinese side to frankly admit the facts and carry out negotiations." On August 17, Consul General Lin met with Zang Shiyi, Chairman of Liaoning Province of the Nationalist Government, to discuss the Nakamura incident.On the same day, the Japanese Army authorities in Shenyang published "The First Investigation of Nakamura's Murder". On the same day, in the name of the Ministry of the Army, the Japanese government announced the killing of Nakamura and others under the premise of concealing Nakamura's true identity as a Japanese military spy, and declared that "Japan's special rights and interests in Manchuria and Mongolia have been violated by China. in danger". Various political groups in Japan also took action immediately.The Political Friends Association is a quasi-political party organization established after the Meiji Restoration in Japan. Many famous Japanese politicians such as Ito Hirobumi were once important members of it.The Political Friends of the Association acted urgently and selected elite personnel to form a speaker group to conduct publicity and agitation in six major cities in Japan. On September 1, the "Imperial Soldiers' Association in the Country" held a general meeting of its members. The chairman, General Suzuki Shojiro, said meaningfully: "At this time when the situation is serious, we should popularize and improve national defense thinking and guide public opinion correctly." Japan was originally a quiet and reserved country. The sound of clogs hitting the stone road became an ethereal sound that moved many people's hearts.But when the Japanese people are passionate, a kind of introverted and repressed power will explode, making Japan a crazy country.During the Sino-Japanese War, when the Japanese Navy decisively defeated the Great Qing Beiyang Fleet, such a madness broke out in the Japanese islands. People took to the streets, cheering and cheering.This time, Japan has gone crazy again. The citizens are outraged and shouting for the "unprovoked" killing of their compatriots in a foreign country, and the concocted "China Threat Theory". In this way, the social mobilization of Japan's domestic war against China began. However, the Nanjing National Government obviously did not smell the smell of war. On August 20, Chiang Kai-shek met Ryoichi Kikuchi, a member of the Japanese Democratic Party in Nanjing, and the two had a long meeting.During the talks, Chiang hoped that Japan, China and other Asian nations would strive for the Great Unity of the Yellow Race.Kikuchi asked Chiang to use Japanese instructors in the national government army as appropriate, and suggested that the national government take measures to stop the anti-Japanese behavior in society.Jiang readily accepted.