The Manchukuo Young Girl Envoys and their visit to Japan: an underestimated prelude of Japan–Manchukuo interactions, June 22–July 12, 1932

Abstract

Abstract This study analyzes the little known Manchukuo Young Girl Envoys – Manchukuo's first government-appointed diplomats – and their official visit to Japan between June 22 and July 12, 1932. Existing studies on the Envoys tend to interpret them from an angle of contemporary Japanese people's national sentiment and deem their visit to Japan a show that the Japanese authorities in Manchukuo and Japan orchestrated together, to render Japan a strong world power. This study problematizes that view and considers the Envoys more of a product of intense power struggles inside Manchukuo's highest Japanese ruling strata, suggesting that Manchukuo's decision-making circle in 1932 was far from being a unified entity. Examining the Envoys' interactions in Japan and comparing relevant Japanese- and Chinese-language news coverage on them, this study argues for the possibility of tracing the intertwined national ideals of Manchukuo's Chinese and Japanese government leaders based on the inspiring example of the Envoys.