Chapter 74 2. The unsung Chinese heroes in the Japanese archives—the Chinese agents fighting in Japan

Perhaps, I have already guessed who you are, but you have never left us even a small photo.That Chinese man named Shang Linsen, please accept the sacrifice of our glass of water and wine later.Just because there is such an inscription on the cemetery of the three hundred warriors under Hot Spring Pass - "Traveler, go and tell our Spartans that we will stick to our loyalty and die here."Throughout the Anti-Japanese War, the intelligence dispute between China and Japan was a mysterious and suspenseful battlefield.The agents of both sides fought wits and courage in the vast area from the northeast to Southeast Asia, interpreting the confusing plots in countless spy war movies today.

On the Chinese side, both the Kuomintang and the Communist Party attach great importance to the use of espionage warfare against Japan and the use of secret agents.In addition to assassinating important officials of the enemy and puppets many times, the Kuomintang spy system also launched active economic operations against Japan, using lifelike counterfeit banknotes to cause economic chaos for the Japanese and puppets; In the heart of the organization, the Japanese army was hard to guard against. However, there is a topic that has always been a mystery-during the Anti-Japanese War, did our country ever send special agents to infiltrate the Japanese mainland?

Japan was on the alert for espionage from the Allies throughout World War II.The military reunification agent Shen Zui recalled that after the July 7th Incident, Dai Li deployed Shen Zui to lead a latent team to infiltrate the Hongkou Concession area where the Japanese lived concentratedly.There were 14 people in the latent team. In order to facilitate the cover, Shen asked the team members whose family was in Shanghai to move into Hongkou District together.Their main task is to reconnaissance, spy on the Japanese military intelligence, indicate the bombing target, and try to organize assassination and sabotage activities against the Japanese army.But because they mounted their horses in a hurry, it was difficult to break into the enemy's interior. They could only eavesdrop on the conversations of some Japanese ronin or traitors in cafes and bars, and get some useful information from them.In general, except for guiding the artillery to destroy an ammunition depot of the Japanese army, it has little effect.Soon, in the mass hunt organized by the Japanese army, this group could not gain a foothold and was forced to withdraw.

Activities in the Japanese Concession in China are so difficult, let alone entering the Japanese mainland? Even so, speaking of it, the Kuomintang has instigated several Wang puppet traitors, including Zhou Fohai, who is on two boats, and used his visit to Japan to obtain information, and the Communist Party's Ozaki Hidemi served as the secretary of the Japanese Prime Minister Konoe Fumimaro .It should be said that China did extend its espionage activities to Japan during the Anti-Japanese War.However, Zhou Fohai and others can only be regarded as passersby to Japan, and although Ozaki Hidemi provided information for China, he actually belonged to the Communist International and cannot be regarded as a Chinese spy.

So, did China really send its own special agents in Japan during the Anti-Japanese War?It seems that no particularly reliable evidence has been seen so far. However, a batch of archival materials discovered by Sa in Japan recently showed that during the Anti-Japanese War, China did develop its own espionage organization in Japan, and its coverage was extremely wide, even in the remote Hokkaido. distribution, and brought considerable blow and panic to the Japanese side. The first thing that brought Sa's attention to the subject of Chinese espionage organizations operating in Japan was in the Japanese government report.

During the war, the Japanese government regularly issued government reports called "weekly reports" to agencies at all levels, in which they assigned relevant tasks to Japanese civil servants and explained the main points of recent work. In the 301st issue of the "Weekly" issued by the Japanese government on July 5, 1942, in addition to daily work, two special topics were set up: one was related to the emergency construction of wartime standard transport ships after the outbreak of the Pacific War; In order to prevent the intelligence infiltration of the Allied forces.Under the second topic, "スパイ Incident の実例 (Instances of Espionage Activities)" mentioned that in a cracked case, Chinese spies tried to use incendiary bombs and high-performance explosives to carry out "terrorist attacks" on the Japanese mainland, and The Chinese secret agents who organized this operation were called the "Chongqing Strategy Group".

Since the "Weekly" is in the nature of a bulletin, it is vague about the situation of the "Chongqing Strategy Group". It just shows that these Chinese agents are in Japan, and requires Japanese civil servants to "workplace を厳守せよ( Stand still)". Who are the Chinese agents mentioned in these Japanese government communiqués? 007 only exists in movies. Most agents, no matter they succeed or fail, will hide in the darkness all their lives. Only by chance will you see their shadows.Although the details are still unknown, these figures who used to be active in the deepest part of the enemy's rear but disappeared silently did arouse Lao Sa's special interest.

Is it possible to find more detailed information? Although Japan’s wartime archives have been made public, some archives were destroyed when the U.S. bombed Tokyo, Hiroshima and other places, and Japan also destroyed a large number of archive materials at the end of the war, so the chances of finding such information seem to be quite slim . However, there are still opportunities in it, and if you are willing to work hard, you may be able to gain something. Lao Sa searched for historical materials related to this matter, and adopted simple intelligence logic—— First, the Japanese government mentioned this incident in the 301st issue of the "Weekly". Therefore, the cracking of the case of the Chinese spy organization should have occurred before July 1942.

Second, the "Weekly" did not describe this incident in detail. At first, I speculated that it might be a secret.But after thinking about it, I feel that it is unlikely, because this example was given without explaining it clearly. How can people who read the "Weekly" understand this case?Therefore, it is very likely that this case has been publicly reported, and ordinary Japanese people know the circumstances of this case. Sa also speculated that the report on this case should have been published just before the publication of the "Weekly", because the other cases mentioned in the "Weekly" were all made public around this time.

According to this logic, Sa started a rather difficult search, but found nothing about this mysterious Chinese spy case.Do Chinese spies decades ago still want to keep silent? When I really found information about them, I suddenly realized that there was no news about this case in the public documents before July 1942, perhaps because only Japanese public officials were informed of the relevant information before that, and they are now It was because the case was mentioned in the "Weekly" that Japanese newspapers were authorized to publish the case! I was about to give up, but when I was looking through old books in a second-hand bookstore, I came across an old magazine published in July 1942.Opening it with a casual attitude, I suddenly saw such a title——"Chongqing side strategy group incident".

This magazine is the 229th issue of Japan's "Photo Weekly" published on July 15, 1942. ) activities, there is a special article on page 13, talking about the activities of a Chinese spy organization uncovered by the Japanese army in Japan. "Photo" means photo in Japanese.Before the war, Japan had a large number of graphic magazines, but most of them were exquisitely printed and had a large number of color illustrations. They belonged to noble publications. With the launch of China’s protracted war against Japan, Japan’s economy was also hit hard, and people’s livelihood resources became increasingly scarce.And the militaristic government urgently needs a publication for the public to achieve its propaganda purpose. "Photo Weekly" was born under such circumstances.This magazine is edited by the Japanese Intelligence Agency and supervised by the Cabinet Printing Bureau. It was founded in 1938 and has a strong official color.The content is mainly to promote the policies of the Japanese militaristic government and show off its martial arts through pictures and texts.However, precisely because of his special status, he had sufficient information sources, and the review department did not dare to be too presumptuous about him, and inadvertently revealed some information that was originally blocked by the Japanese army. This article should have been completed earlier, but through a friend who works in Japan's national television station NHK, Sa tried to obtain some richer materials, and the other party also agreed to provide me with his treasured historical films.However, perhaps due to lack of clarification, the material provided by the other party is somewhat inaccurate, but it is still quite attractive. It is a film about Japanese and puppet military police and Chinese spies (including allied spies in Shanghai) filmed by a Japanese photographer in Shanghai. organization), although the position is opposite, but its lens has recorded some quite precious historical moments.These are real histories. Behind every shot is not the director, but sacrifice. It is a pity that with Lao Sa's poor historical background, it is still impossible to find out the identities of the Chinese agents who fought wits with the Japanese and puppet military and police in the several actions of the Japanese side in this documentary. We can only judge almost all actions. Both involve "reporting"—that is, the betrayal of traitors. Let's go back to this article from Photo Weekly. According to the article "The Incident of the Chongqing Side Strategy Group", it can be seen that this Chinese spy organization that was finally detected by the Japanese military and police was quite large, and its public identities were mainly students and overseas Chinese in Japan from the puppet Manchukuo.And translate this article as follows—— The main person in charge of the spy group is Shang Linsen (pseudonym), who is lurking in Tokyo and studying in a university's liberal arts college as a student studying in Japan.Under his leadership, he was the head of each district in Tokyo, Kyoto, Hiroshima, Kyushu, and Hokkaido.The purpose of the existence of this spy group is to set up underground organizations in major cities of the empire to serve (China's) Anti-Japanese War. A structural diagram of the organization is shown in the attached figure.The content of their work in the empire mainly includes two aspects-the first is special agent operations such as blasting and arson, and the second is to carry out propaganda activities. Due to the strict surveillance of our military and police, Shang Linsen set up a special technical team in the organization in order to be able to carry out actions such as blasting and arson. Composition, trying to develop blasting fuses and high-performance explosives on the spot.The target of its attack is the local military installations and resource storage warehouses that are extremely important for our country to carry out wars.Its development process is quite smooth. According to another Japanese document "Overview of the Foreign Affairs Police in the 16th Year of the Showa Period", after the underground organization officially named "Chinese Anti-Japanese War Founding Corps in Japan" was cracked, some members once reported that they were involved in the "July 7th Incident" "Excited by righteous indignation", when he learned that a certain Japanese government official came to inspect the news, he and his classmates tried to find an opportunity in the Kansai area to destroy the steering function of the railway switch, causing the train to collide and overturn. This seems to be true. At 2:30 on the night of July 29, 1937, the "Limited Express Fuji" train departing from Tokyo was inexplicably rear-ended by another train at Okayama Station. The reason is unknown. The "Private Officer Observation Car" attached to the rear of the "Limited Express Fuji" was crashed, but no casualties were caused because all the special train personnel got off the train when it stopped, while the rear-end collision of the "Hiroshima No. 23" train caused many casualties. However, since the so-called accomplice who confessed was said to have returned to China and could not be investigated, based on technical analysis, the upper police determined that this was an accident caused by a technical failure of the railway facilities, and the confession of the members of the underground organization was to expand the influence.Even if there is such a thing, it is also a personal behavior.In fact, although the organization's armed sabotage operation not only has technical preparations, but also has made an attack plan through the investigation of Japanese military and resource facilities.However, until it was caught, the group did not actually launch large-scale attacks in Japan itself. In fact, according to historical records, several Chinese underground organizations attempted to launch attacks in Japan.For example, the history of the CCP records that in 1938, the CCP tried to rebuild the Tokyo branch that was destroyed before the Anti-Japanese War in Japan (the main person in charge was Wang Shuzi, who was born in the Northeast Lecture Hall), and also tried to establish an armed force called the "Special Forces". The power consists of the Jagged Youth League for assassination missions and the assault and sabotage team for sabotage missions.Its assassination targets included Hirota Koki, Itagaki Seishiro, Araki Sadao, Minai Mitsumasa, etc., as well as important officials of the Puppet Manchukuo in Japan; its destruction targets were Japanese military factories and the industrial center of Keihin. But why are most of these attacks on paper? There are roughly three reasons for this: First, the main members of these Chinese underground organizations are all students studying in Japan. After the Marco Polo Bridge Incident in 1937, most of the Chinese students returned to China. There were only a few hundred students in Japan. to 3000 people.Because of the small number, Chinese students studying in Japan will be subject to special surveillance by the Japanese side, and it is not easy to carry out attacks due to the vigilance of the Japanese around them.Second, due to geographical reasons between China and Japan, the Chinese underground organizations in Japan have no way of obtaining equipment and weapons for armed attacks, and can only rely on self-reliance.This is probably the reason why the "Chongqing Strategy Group" set up a special research team, but even if it is technically possible, it is not easy to produce enough explosives to initiate a blast in the laboratory.Third, considering that these underground organizations have higher value in terms of intelligence and propaganda, if they directly carry out armed operations, they are easy to be cracked by the opponent and lose important intelligence sources in the enemy's interior. action. These underground organizations have indeed made great achievements in intelligence and propaganda.Let's continue to read the description of China's underground organizations in "Photo Weekly"—— The organization used the production and distribution of publicity materials and radio systems as the main means of publicity, and launched actions many times.In the late December of the 15th year of the Showa era (1940), Commander Shang Linsen produced thousands of "Anti-Manchukuo Anti-Japanese Greeting Cards" in the Yokohama area for areas where there are many Manchukuo students studying in Japan and areas where overseas Chinese live. And all of them will be delivered secretly to the recipients.And at the end of December in the 16th year of Showa, they produced a large number of anti-Japanese leaflets, preparing to distribute them but failed. In addition, around January of the 16th year of the Showa era, led by Chen Zhongqiao, the staff officer in charge of intelligence of the organization, and Li Guoren, another member, formed a radio team. They were mainly dedicated to the production of radio equipment for intelligence. The long and short wave radio receivers they designed, High-performance radios for broadcasting are excellent radio communication devices and have all been successfully produced.Using only these devices, they not only established an intelligence channel with Chongqing to receive various orders from Chongqing, but also cleverly established an underground radio station targeting the Chinese and Manchurians in Japan to spread anti-Japanese ideas to them. Although they carried out many activities and had further plans, under the active investigation of our XX department, all the above-mentioned personnel were finally caught and arrested. "Photo Weekly" used a blurry and unlabeled photo in its report on cracking the spy organization, presumably it was taken while tracking Chinese underground workers. Judging from the fact that this underground organization tried to distribute anti-Japanese leaflets at the end of 1941, which were printed but not implemented in time, the time when the organization was cracked should be in mid-December 1941. So, which spy department of our country does this underground organization belong to?Since the information provided by the Japanese side indicated that the organization belonged to the "Chongqing" system, the first suspicious target was the military commander who was very active at that time. Are these Chinese spies operating in Japan members of the military command? Not to mention, judging from the organization chart, it really looks alike.The reason is that in this chart drawn by the Japanese, this "Chongqing Strategy Group" is juxtaposed with the Anti-Japanese Killing Group in North China.The Anti-Japanese Traitor Killing Group is a resistance group organized by patriotic students. It assassinated traitors such as Cheng Xigeng and Wu Juchi, and burned the Japanese cotton warehouse in Tianjin. Some of its leaders, such as Li Rupeng, had military backgrounds.From this point of view, the "Chongqing Strategy Group" active in Japan may not be another peripheral organization of the military. Before and after the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, it was the peak period for the activities of military unification secret service organizations.According to Mr. Yang Zhesheng's research, at that time, the military's overseas spy agencies included the United States Station, London Station, Paris Station, Philippines Station, Singapore Station, Bangkok Station, Lashio Station, Yangon Station, and India Station (under the jurisdiction of Delhi and Mumbai two sub-stations. ), etc. In addition, there are special teams or direct correspondents in Germany, Italy, Egypt, and other countries in Northwest Europe and Southeast Asia, and their organizations are almost all over the world.According to the memoirs of the military commanders, in Japan, the Military Command Bureau has at least one intelligence team, the head of which is Zhuang Xintian, the head of the Shanghai Station (later he was still a great spy in Taiwan, and he was the one who handled the Wu Shi case). Lieutenant Commander Melles of the U.S. Navy, who cooperated closely with the military command, described with emotion that the military command's agents went deep into the emperor's palace. What Melles said must be an exaggeration, otherwise, with Dai Li's overjoyed personality, he wouldn't be Dai Yunong if he didn't commit a murder case of the emperor. What is intriguing is that the underground organization of the military system in Japan has not been made public until today. It is the only part of the military system file that has not been declassified except for Taiwan.As for the reason, it seems that we can refer to the case of Liao Wenyi. In the 1960s, Liao Wenyi and others established the so-called "Taiwan State" in Japan, pioneering Taiwan's independence, and even sent people to Taipei to assassinate Chiang Kai-shek.Behind the Military Control Bureau, Shen Zhiyue, the head of the KMT's "Military Intelligence Bureau" (it is said that he worked as a dispatcher for Chairman Mao) sent people to retaliate. All ministers of the "Taiwan State" who are in full-time positions will kill one if they see one, and kill one if they see two. No one dared to be Lao Liao's official minister after killing the Taiwan independence elements.Liao Wenyi was unable to develop, and his family in Taiwan was persecuted by the military commander, and finally ran back to swear allegiance to China, and the independent government in Taiwan disappeared. A friend commented: "That is the last gleam of the afterglow of the military killers in the setting sun. The times are different, and they will surely enter history. This method is no longer suitable for today, but the heroism and legend are still there. Reminiscent." It can be seen from this case that the military command must have a deep-rooted underground relationship in Japan, and it was still used after the war. Therefore, not disclosing it is also a form of protection.This is not surprising at all. Mr. Cheng Yiming's relationship with the "Red Dead Room" on the mainland is still playing a role in the Los Angeles Olympics, and it has not been made public yet! However, based on the early activities of the Kuomintang in Japan, it is speculated that its main relyers are the underworld or overseas Chinese leaders with certain influence in the local area. Not a front-line person who came forward directly.This can be seen from the fact that the killers who carried out the assassination in the Liao case were all sent into Japan from outside.It is unlikely that they will be allowed to do front-end work such as distributing leaflets and underground broadcasting.In fact, no one inside the military has ever shown in his recollection that he once had a "strategic regiment" in Japan.Therefore, Sa believes that this "strategic group" should have nothing to do with the military command. In addition, Wang Pengsheng of the Institute of International Studies also has an organization in Japan, but the scale is very small, which seems to have nothing to do with it. So, could it be a red organization of the Communist Party that was mistaken by the Japanese side for being sent by Chongqing? As mentioned earlier, the Communist Party does have quite a few organizations in Japan.However, according to "National Salvation Activities of Chinese Students Studying in Japan During the Anti-Japanese War" co-authored by Kazutaka Kikuchi and Xiaofan Qu, the Tokyo branch of the CCP was destroyed in 1939 because of too eager to develop the organization. Its leader Wang Shuzi and 36 members were arrested.However, the peak of the "Chongqing Strategy Group" seems to be from 1940 to 1941, and there is a difference in the time of activities between the two sides.So this organization does not seem to be led by the Communist Party. At this time, a name accidentally came into my field of vision, that is - Yi Zuoheng. The name of Yi Zuoheng, who died on May 7, 1943, appeared in the memories of many CCP underground workers during the Anti-Japanese War.After the arrest of Liu Danhua and Gao Fang, members of the peripheral organization of the Northeast Party, Yi Zuoheng was detained in the cell opposite.Before being imprisoned, he also sacrificed himself to cover and rescue the Communist Party members, and saved money to help his classmates go to Yan'an. However, Yi Zuoheng is a member of the Kuomintang. Yi Zuoheng, a native of Qiqihar, Heilongjiang, is a legendary anti-Japanese underground worker.He and Sa had a close relationship—I Zuoheng was a student of Fu Jen Catholic University, and Fu Jen Catholic University was the predecessor of Sa's alma mater, Beijing Normal University.During the Anti-Japanese War, he was mainly active in the Northeast region as a reporter. His real position was the director of the Harbin branch of the Northeast Investigation Office of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China. He traveled in Harbin, Jilin, Changchun, Shenyang, Siping, Dalian, Yingkou and other places to collect intelligence and promote anti-Manchurianism. Anti-Japanese, development organization. On December 15, 1941, Yi Zuoheng, who was mobilizing the puppet army, was arrested for betrayal by a traitor.Not long before that, Yi Zuoheng had just met with representatives of the CCP, and said with all his heart: the enemy is now, and we must unite to fight against Japan.He was tortured in prison and did not give in. He still insisted on organizing anti-Japanese activities and delivering intelligence, and tried to organize a prison escape (unfortunately failed).Yi Zuoheng was killed by the Japanese and puppet authorities in 1943 at the age of 31. Yi Zuoheng named one of his sons "Zhonghan" and the other "Zhongyi".His son, Yi Zhongyi, once served as the chairman of the Qiqihar Civil Revolutionary Committee. One of his experiences caught my attention. "Republic of China Characters" records that in September 1940, Yi Zuoheng accepted the dispatch of Luo Qingchun (Luo Dayu), the Liaoning Provincial Commissioner of the Northeast Party Affairs Office of the Kuomintang, to Tokyo, Japan. Head of the group.In order to connect with international students from all over the world, he has been to Kyoto, Osaka, Kobe, Nagasaki and other places to carry out activities. On June 22, 1941, the Soviet-German War broke out, and the Northeast position of the Soviet-Japanese confrontation front line suddenly became important.The Northeast Investigation Office of the KMT Central Committee and the Northeast Party Affairs Office were merged into the "Northeast Field Mobilization Committee".Yi Zuoheng was recalled from Japan and appointed as the head of the Harbin region of the association. The time and content of Yi Zuoheng's activities in Japan coincided with the "Chongqing Strategy Group". Therefore, I speculate that this underground anti-Japanese organization in Japan is likely to be under the leadership of Yi Zuoheng. According to our records, The real name should be called "Chinese National Salvation Corps".I even suspect that Yi Zuoheng is the "Shang Linsen" mentioned by the Japanese. However, the results of continuing to look at the historical data made me revise my judgment - the so-called "Shang Linsen" is more like Yi Zuoheng's predecessor - Jia Guilin. Jia Guilin's biography is untestable, but he was originally a student of Fengyong University, a member of the Kuomintang, and participated in the Volunteer Army of Fengyong University who assisted the 19th Route Army in Shanghai in the war of resistance.Since then, anti-Japanese groups have been organized many times. In 1936, he studied in the Department of Literature of Waseda University in Japan as a "manchukuo student" and actually secretly developed an underground organization. In January 1940, he was appointed by Luo Qingchun, a member of the Liaoning Provincial Party Affairs Committee appointed by the Kuomintang in Tianjin (the pseudonym Wei Zhongzhong at the time, which was the aforementioned Luo Dayu), to serve as the anti-Japanese guidance work for the students of "Manchukuo" in Japan, with a view to making the anti-Japanese work extended to Japan.After Jia Guilin returned to Japan, he established the "Chinese National Salvation Corps". There were successively "Manchukuo students" from Kyoto University, Nihon University, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Tokyo Higher Normal School, Hosei University, Nagoya Medical University, Hokkaido and many other universities. Introduce, take an oath to participate in the group activities. "Jia" is a word in "Shangjia", and "Guilin" and "Linsen" have similar meanings.Therefore, Jia Guilin is likely to be the "Shang Linsen" described by the Japanese. Jia Guilin was arrested in the summer of 1940, and what happened after that is unknown, we just know that he definitely did not betray the organization.Therefore, in September 1940, Yi Zuoheng went to Japan to succeed him, continue to work, and develop the organization. The action of distributing anti-Japanese leaflets in Yokohama at the end of 1940 should have been organized by Yi Zuoheng.It is worth noting that the time when Yi Zuoheng was arrested was exactly the time when the "Chinese National Salvation Corps" was cracked up in Japan, which makes us suspect the connection between the two incidents.It seems that it can be inferred that the traitor who betrayed Yi Zuoheng belonged to the insiders of the Zhongtong, and at the same time betrayed the "Anti-Japanese National Salvation Corps" in Japan. Although further evidence is needed, the true face of the "Chongqing Strategy Group" mentioned by the Japanese side seems to be ready to be revealed. This autumn, when I visited the Northeast Martyrs Memorial Hall in Harbin, I saw Yi Zuoheng's posthumous photos and an introduction to his deeds. During the Anti-Japanese War in Northeast China, there were two legendary "double-material" martyrs—Zhang Jiazhou, a famous anti-coalition general who died in Heilongjiang and was commemorated by Peking University and Tsinghua University as alumni; Yi Zuoheng of the Martyrs Shrine and the Communist Party Martyrs Cemetery. Regardless of party or origin, what people respect is their common sacrifice for this land.