Manchu Princess, Japanese Spy

March 15, 2015

The story of Kawashima Yoshiko's life (1907-48) reads like a novel, so it's no surprise that even before her death she was the subject of fiction and film. The 14th daughter of a Manchu prince, Yoshiko was taken in by a Chinese-allied Japanese man after the fall of the Qing dynasty and grew up with a drive to restore the Manchu people to their rightful place, leading her to play a role in the establishment of the Manchu puppet state and in military and espionage activities during Japan's invasion of China in the 1930s. A daring and controversial figure, Yoshiko lived flashily, wore both women's and men's fashions, and freely embroidered and exaggerated her own exploits during the war--the last of these playing a major part in her accusation of treason and execution by the Chinese government. Yet owing to her controversial and larger-than-life status, many of the facts of her life--her upbringing, her true military activities, and even her age--have become obscured. Birnbaum (Glory in a Line) does her utmost to unravel the threads that make up Yoshiko's legacy by using information from memoirs, novels, surviving family members, and the lives of Manchu figures in similar situations. VERDICT In this thoughtful biography of a complicated woman, Birnbaum provides a thorough record of as much of Yoshiko's experience as she can. The author is aware of and up front about bias or inescapable gaps in her sources and sensitive to the complexities of her subject.--Kathleen McCallister, Tulane Univ., New Orleans

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