JAP WOMAN SPY

Chronicle (Levin), 17 August 1946, Page 4

JAP WOMAN SPY

MATA HARI OF FAR EAST The most remarlcable and aueeessfu] vvoman spy of the war, perhaps of any war, was 39-year-old Toshiko Ivawashima, a Manehu princess whom Chinese patriots eall the ."Mata Ilari of Ihe Far East, ' ' and who was Japan's No. 1 ° ret agent, says the Sunday Dispatrh. Truth has ever lieen stranger than fiction. The eareer of Toshiko reads raore fantastieally than any spy thriller. A woman of many disguises who bent nien to her will, who niasqueraded with equal effect whether as a dancing girl or as a respleudeut general, her story has been revealed now when, awaiting trial as the betraver of her eountry, she lies in a prison cell at Peiping — the eity her ancestors once ruled in splendour. 'She- .was. .eapture'd. through,. a Chungking 'agent wh» in the. guise of -.a' het-' vant penetratcd the. fortress-like Peiping mansion where -siie held her re'vels, .■ guard ed by • cunningly-designed traps and snares, as well as by 29 police dogs and two specially-trained white geese. Toshiko Kawashima, who . took her name when adopted by a Japanese, was well brought up for the adventurous role she was destined to fill. After her father eommitted suicide on the f all of the Manehu dvnasty in 1912, the 10-year-old princess — "Oriental Pearl," as he used to call her — was sent to school in Japan, dressed as a boy and using a boy's name. From this high school, where she learned jiu-jitsu, she went to a Tokio military academy, where she graduated at 19, well versed in the theory of war and espionage. Soon she attraeted the attention of the Black Dragon Society, the powerful Japanese ■ see ret organisation with aims of world-wide conquest. She was allotted a task with Japan's Army in Manchuria. At first, in various disguises, sno lavishly distributed money to recruit a Fiftlx (lolumn for the Japs. Later she frequented opium dehs, nxingling with Chinese Army otticers, and is said to have had about 400 Japanese spies working under her personal control. In 1931 Japan launched openly on the conquest of Manchuria, and now came "Oriental Pearl's" most perilous mission — spyiug in Soviet territorv. Passing herself off as a Chinese student, she obtained secret information about .Soviet military strength east of Lake Baikal. Next, during the undeclared ChineseJapanese war around Slianghai, the elusive princess appeared as a dancing girl in Shanghai cabarets. To widen her espionage net she opened a Tieiltsin restaurant which she would visit wearing hrilliant uniforms, attended by four or five bodyguards, and greeted as "General YVang. " Only a Nfew of her intimates ever could recognise the princess. 'Her most usual garb was the picturesque dress of a Manehu nobleman, with flowing gown, satin boots, and skull cap with jade button. ^