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In August 1937, Japan published an article in the Weekly newspaper titled "Talking about the Communist Army of China", accompanied by a photo of Chairman Mao. In the
photo, he is wearing a tall hat and has a mustache. His originally very energetic big eyes have turned into small eyes, and his figure is also very plump. The characters in this photo have the same gender and similar age, but they have no similarities with Chairman Mao.
Error Chairman Mao’s photo
At that time, Chairman Mao led the Communist Party of China to participate in the Long March of the Red Army, and established the Red Army’s revolutionary base. After the outbreak of the Anti-Japanese War, he actively mobilized the masses to carry out guerrilla warfare behind enemy lines, creating a large number of anti-Japanese bases.
With Chairman Mao’s influence at that time, it is impossible for no one to know. So was it an unintentional mistake for the Japanese to provide this photo or did it intentionally? What conspiracy is hidden behind it?
This is traced back to the photo provider Hatano Kenichi .
1935, as a special consultant to the intelligence department of the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, he is very familiar with the Communist Party of China and Chairman Mao. He is the authoritative guide of the Japanese government's research on the Communist Party of China. The Japanese government met Chairman Mao from him, and the photo inside was also provided by him.
Chairman Mao
Reasoningly, before Japan invaded China, he had collected a large amount of Chinese information in China and conducted detailed research on the Communist Party of China. The earliest record of Chairman Mao’s relevant information in Japanese archives was in 1928.
At that time, KMT had been smearing Red Army and belittled the Communist Party and the army led by the Communist Party. However, the Japanese not only did not believe in the Kuomintang's propaganda, but instead conducted in-depth investigations and even concluded that the Red Army was very strong.
It can be seen from this that Hatano Kanichi is very familiar with the Communist Party of China. He will not not know Chairman Mao, nor will he have not seen photos of Chairman Mao.
It is said that Hatano Kanichi also specially established a database for the leaders of the Communist Party of China, which contains many works and photos of Chairman Mao.
"The Biography of Mao Zedong on the Red Leopard"
And as early as 1936, Hatano Kanichi published an article "The Biography of Mao Zedong on the Red Leopard" in Japan's magazine " World Knowledge ", which contained two photos of Chairman Mao.
One was obtained in 1934. Chairman Mao in the photo has a very thin face and cheekbones and are very high. The other one was obtained in 1936. The "Chairman Mao" in the photo is completely different from before, and he looks very fat.
In August 1937, when Hatano Kenichi was providing them with this fat photo when she provided the Japanese intelligence agency Weekly.
You should know that the Communist Party of China often faced food shortages in a long war, and how could Chairman Mao get fat at that time?
Chairman 0Chairman
Chairman Mao originally had double eyelids, high cheekbones, and not even a beard. The man in the Weekly who wrote "Mao Zedong, Chairman of the Central Committee of the Soviet Republic of China" had a round face, single eyelids, and a mustache.
The images of the two people are very different. As long as you are not a blind person, you can see it.
However, he did not publish the photo of Chairman Mao obtained in 1934 in the Weekly newspaper, but instead provided the fat photo to the Japanese Intelligence Department.
Kanichi Hatano Why do you need to post the wrong picture in the Weekly Newspaper?
Two reasons for posting wrong photos
Japanese scholar Ishikawa Shikihiro made reasonable guesses on the photos of Chairman Mao published in the Weekly newspaper. The first possibility is that the Japanese do not know Chairman Mao at all, and even if they launch an invasion of China, they do not understand their enemies.
Ishikawa Shikawa
The situation in the early days of the Chinese revolution was very serious. In order to ensure the personal safety of the leaders, they would hardly appear in public. In addition, the technology at that time was not as developed as modern times, and information dissemination was not as convenient as it is today. Information in one country was closed, let alone other countries.
Therefore, outsiders do not know much about the situation of the Communist Party of China. At the same time, Chairman Mao has never liked personality cult, did not like to take photos, or be reported.
Another reason is that Chiang Kai-shek concealed the news of the Communist Party of China from the outside world. At that time, Chiang Kai-shek had never accepted the Communist Party of China from the bottom of his heart. Even during the cooperation between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party of China, Chiang Kai-shek never wanted to get along well with the Communist Party of China.
Chairman Mao was a famous person at that time. He served as the interim propaganda minister of the National Government and was elected as a reserve member of the Central Committee.
Chiang Kai-shek
When he was in office, he often came into contact with high-ranking people of the Kuomintang and participated in many important activities, but even so, there were very few photos of Chairman Mao.
That was because at that time, in order to prevent the Chinese Communist Party from gaining support internationally, the concepts and goals between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party were inconsistent, and the conflicts between the two sides were constantly occurring. Even during the cooperation between the two sides, Chiang Kai-shek was unwilling to see Chairman Mao’s fame surpassed him, so he took advantage of the Kuomintang’s advantages in media to block the information of the Communist Party of China in all aspects.
Even so, many countries around the world know about Chairman Mao’s deeds.
Chiang Kai-shek After the counter-revolutionary coup in 1942, it was more clear that news media were not allowed to promote the thoughts of the Communist Party of China, nor to report on the glorious deeds of the Communist Party of China, let alone Chairman Mao’s photos.
Chiang Kai-shek
This sounds like deceiving oneself, but it is a very common political strategy.
In 1937, the Chinese Dictionary Publishing House published the "Celebrity Picture Book of the Republic of China". It has a wide range of contents, is very rich and has strong authority, but it does not record the name of Chairman Mao. This has led to the Chinese people being so unfamiliar with Chairman Mao’s image.
In addition, Chairman Mao has a small number of photos because the Communist Party of China was in a difficult stage of entrepreneurship at that time and we must always beware of being discovered by the Kuomintang reactionaries.
, especially the purpose of the Communist Party of China is to " serve the people ", which is more about propaganda and ideology, calling on the people to safeguard their legitimate rights, rather than proclaiming or even deifying the leaders.
Moreover, the leaders of the Communist Party of China take humility and low-key as their mission. They do not like to show off, they like to study the Chinese revolution wholeheartedly.
Chairman Mao
At that time, the affairs of the Communist Party of China were known internationally. Chairman Mao had won so many victories, which also attracted the attention of the whole world. Foreigners were also very interested in Chairman Mao’s deeds, but there was no channel.
In this way, Chairman Mao’s image became even more mysterious, and even the Chinese people did not know the true face of this leader.
The first foreign people to know Chairman Mao was due to the visit to Yan'an in 1936 by Edgar Snow.
1936, Zhang Xueliang launched the Xi'an Incident , Snow received the news that Zhang Xueliang ceasefire, Snow learned that this was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. He overcame difficulties, arrived in Yan'an through many obstacles, and began to record the internal situation of the Communist Party of China.
Here, Snow not only visited the mysterious Chairman Mao, but also interviewed the Communists, and also had a detailed understanding of the economic, political, cultural, military and other aspects of the Communist Party of China.
Zhang Xueliang not only used a pen, but also carried a camera during the period. The photos taken were portraits of Chairman Mao. The most typical ones were the photos of Chairman Mao wearing an octagonal hat on his head. Chairman Mao in the photo was full of energy and full of energy.
SnowThe information in the hands of the hands is not a photo of Chairman Mao, but a complete message from the Communist Party of China!
Snow with this document almost met Chiang Kai-shek in Xi'an, but Snow finally returned to Peiping safely and wrote a popular book based on the information collected in this interview, including " Traveling to the West" and "Red Stars Shining in China".
These are two popular works, which provide the world with a channel to know Chairman Mao, and the image of Chairman Mao was widely circulated at this time.
And these works also break the misunderstandings of the Chinese people about the Communist Party of China and the Red Army.
Snow
At the same time, it also tells the world that the great sacrifices made by the Communist Party of China in order to fight for the War of Resistance Against Japan is also the first time that Chairman Mao, the leader of the Red Army, has introduced the world to the world.
Through the above information, it shows that Chairman Mao’s photos were widely circulated before the publication of this newspaper. If the Japanese at that time had paid great attention to the leaders of the Communist Party of China, it would be impossible for them to know Chairman Mao’s appearance. Therefore, the first situation speculated by Ishikawa Shikihiro is unlikely to be the first situation. The Japanese authorities and the Japanese invaders of China would not have even a photo of Chairman Mao.
Chairman Mao left many photos between 1927 and 1937, especially in 1936. American journalist Edgar Snow visited Chairman Mao in the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region, and wrote the deeds of Chairman Mao and the Communist Party of China into a book, which was widely circulated.
Snow
It is precisely because of Edgar Snow's operation that Chairman Mao's identity has attracted the attention of the general public, and even his deeds have been understood by the international community.
Another reason is that the Japanese know Chairman Mao’s true face and also know Chairman Mao’s deeds, so they use such a photo to vilify the enemy, mislead the Japanese people, and try to realize the secret that is ulterior motives.
At that time, it was in the stage of the outbreak of the Sino-Japanese War. Because Snow had a very high evaluation of Chairman Mao in the two books "Red Stars Shine China" and "The Journey to the West", the Japanese government began to worry whether these two articles would affect the Japanese people's favorability towards Chairman Mao and let the image of Japanese imperialism fall from the altar. Therefore, at that time, there were information spread by militarism in Japan's streets and alleys.
Chairman Mao
They would rather choose to be ugliness than let Chairman Mao establish such a great image in front of the Japanese people, so they specially found a photo of a fat officer to replace Chairman Mao’s photo.
Even in World War II , the Japanese government once made many ridiculous remarks to conceal public opinion on the war of aggression against China.
They beautify their invasion of China, making the Japanese people believe that invasion of China is to save East Asia and encourage the people to "dedicate their lives for Japan's peace."
Japan's idea is actually very simple: they want to portray China as a country colonized by European colonists, and Japan is a man who saved China and invaded China and Southeast Asia in the name of "East Asian coexistence".
Chairman Mao in Soviet Union and European and American magazines
Such shameless remarks were very popular in Japan at that time, especially those deceived Japanese people, and most of them believed in the words of the Japanese government.
The most speechless thing is that many people still believe this statement, and the Japanese right wing has added fuel to the fire, attempting to restore Japan's militarism and demanding to visit the Yasukuni Shrine.
As for the specific reason, it is unknown. But this newspaper was preserved by the Japanese archives.
Of course, Japan's mistakes against Chairman Mao were not just this photo. In 1932, the Japanese intelligence department made many mistakes when writing Chairman Mao's resume. From the beginning, it was said that Chairman Mao was studying in France. As long as he understood Chairman Mao's history, he would find that this was wrong. This can also be said that Japan really did not understand the leaders of the Communist Party of China.
Report on Chairman Mao
Although Japan did not have much information about Chairman Mao in its early years, the current Chairman Mao and his achievements are now known to the Japanese public.
As early as the 1960s, Japan even had a red climax, and many Japanese people regarded Chairman Mao as their idol.
Generally speaking, in that era when information technology was underdeveloped, it was already very good for foreign media reporters to study the information of the Communist Party of China so specific. However, in that era, there was not such a good communication device , and even cameras were very lacking. Therefore, there was no clear fixed number of people's appearance photos, and even sketches were often drawn.
Moreover, it was in a war-torn period, and it was difficult for the Communist Party to let foreign media approach Chairman Mao, and it might even be spies sent from abroad. Therefore, they must always ensure Chairman Mao's safety, which also led to the fact that Chairman Mao's photos have not been widely circulated.
Chairman Mao
Whether the Japanese specifically vilify Chairman Mao or they really don’t know what Chairman Mao looks like, it cannot change the outcome of the victory of China’s War of Resistance Against Japan.
Which of the above two reasons do you agree more with?
