The Private Papers of Eastern Jewel (40 page)

I remembered clearly the day that Kawashima told me that he had adopted me and that I was now officially his and Japan's true daughter. I celebrated the occasion with Sorry by eating rice and red beans. We lit a starry firework and sent it to the heavens.

It may be that Kawashima himself is afraid of being accused of war crimes. It is the case that many Japanese are under suspicion by the allied victors. I have heard that Tanaka is in Sugamo Prison in Tokyo accused of such transgressions. I cannot forgive Kawashima for his cowardice, though, and am finally convinced that I am less than nothing in his heart. Yet I can't quite expel him from my own.

Amongst those who did speak up for me were my half-sisters Xian Qi and Xian Wo, whom I had not seen for many years and hardly knew. They said that I had always been clever, but that I was not capable of being a spy. Qi said that my beauty had been my downfall and that I had been corrupted by the Japanese. Wo said that I was not a bad person and that the tragedy of my life had been my adoption by Kawashima, which she remembered clearly my father, Prince Su, telling her about. I was grateful to them, although the court showed no interest in their opinions.

It was a foregone conclusion that I would lose the appeal, as the Chinese had decided my fate long before allowing it. As I write I am waiting to be told the date of my execution. Strangely, although I do not welcome it, I am not sad at the thought of my death. I think I always knew that I would not die with old bones, that I am only capable of enjoying the world's beauty if I am myself beautiful. There is no mirror in my cell, but I can tell by my guards' and my fellow prisoners' reaction to me that I am no longer beautiful. They say that physical beauty is no currency in the new China, but while men live I will never believe that.

It is odd, though, how everything in the world looks splendid to me now that my time in it may be limited. I see perfection in the simple cup of my rice bowl, the sweet symmetry of my rolled sleeping mat and the light, soft as moss, that filters through my cell window. These everyday sights touch my heart in a way I have never experienced before and bring me close to tears.

I have noticed too that memory comes to me so clearly from the past that I hear voices and remember the smells from my childhood as though they were present in my cell. The tender music of my blood mother's voice is heard, I see the way her hair grew from the delicate peak of her forehead and remember the look in her eyes softening at the mention of my father's name. How lovely it would be to start my life again now that I know the path not to take. But I fear there is too much blood in my past for me to make amends, too much grief and pain to heal even myself.

As Japan had seen fit to give me a military rank I requested of the court that I be granted the military honour of a firing squad. My request was denied and I know that I face beheading by the sword. I am more scared of the sword than of the gun but I try to put the thought of it from my mind. It comes to me, though, in dreams, where I have been beheaded on numerous occasions. In those dark imaginings I am always dressed as Shimako was on the night that she hung herself above the Buddha shelf in the shrine by the carp pool. I am afraid in the dreams, and sometimes I wake crying to find the gentle guard Suk-Ping at my side comforting me.

Suk-Ping brought me a letter from Kim, which by its delivery into my hands put his job, if not his life, at risk. It was simply signed 'your true friend' but I knew it was from her. She had scented it with her rose perfume, which was as good as her signature. She said she was working on my behalf and that all was not lost, that I should be brave and not give up hope. I am amazed that despite the danger to herself, Kim has been the most loyal of friends and thinks of me as a sister. If our situations were reversed would I have been so true to her? I have experienced most of love's repertoire and only now know that loyalty is the most precious thing. Her constancy and Suk-Ping's unexpected kindness have restored my faith in friendship.

I could not think of anything that Kim might do that would save my situation, but in her second letter she said that, with the help of a trusted friend, she had bribed the poverty-striken parents of a consumptive daughter to let the girl take my place at my execution. Kim said that I should not feel guilty because the girl was so ill that she would die soon anyway and was happy to know that her parents would not starve.

Suk-Ping knew a way to smuggle the consumptive girl into my cell, which he would do on the night before my execution. He would escape along with me and be well paid for his part in my rescue. Kim said that although he was scared he was determined to do it, and that I should trust him. I knew that Suk-Ping harboured a bitter grudge against Chiang Kai-shek, whom he held responsible for his wife's and child's death. They had died when, without warning to the locals, the Kuomintang had blown up the dykes on the Yellow River. Suk-Ping's village had been flooded, and with nothing but earth to eat his wife and daughter had died of starvation.

Kim wrote that my escape would be such a loss of face to China's new leaders that they would never let it be known that I had evaded their retribution. They would go ahead with the execution and it would be said that a false daughter of China had met a just end. After I had read the second letter Suk-Ping set fire to it with a lit cigarette, crushing the ashes into the floor with his heavy boots until nothing remained of it. I would not let him do the same to the first note, because I wanted to keep it as a talisman. I promised him that if things didn't work out I would eat the letter before my accusers could get their hands on it.

'Our plan will work and we shall leave this place together, Eastern Jewel,' he said, touching my cheek with his rough hand. 'You were not meant for such a cruel end. I could not save my family but I will save you.'

Despite the horror of the means of my would-be escape, I was at first elated at the thought that I might fly Number One Prison. Under a new name I could go to America, find Jack and seek out my dear friend Tamura Hidari. I reasoned that the girl would die anyway, that the sword might be a more merciful end than the consumptive drowning that I have seen to be truly terrible.

I could still have a long life ahead of me to enjoy all the things I have been deprived of in the last three years. The thought of freedom seems suddenly to be a realistic one, and I do so long for freedom. I long for more than a yard of sky above my head, long to live without the low moan of fear that hums through my body in the dark reaches of the night.

In the north of China they say that 'he who emerges with his life from great perils will have a happy and prosperous future'. I admit that the thought is appealing, but waiting each day as I do for news of my execution date, I cannot settle to a decision. Despite what I have done in the past I find myself turning away from this latest and most ugly path. Is it possible to take such a path and live happily? I fear the frail face of the consumptive girl that I picture in my mind will haunt me and spoil what I have left of life anyway. Her death by my sword would confirm the supremacy of the darkness in my nature.

And what would be the views of those that I have set up as my true judges? My mother would rather I join her than sentence this girl to such an end. Natsuko might urge me to go against my nature for once and choose kindness to another over myself. Sorry would not judge me, no matter which way I chose, but Jack, I think, would find the whole dark business unbearable. I am sad to discover that I do not know if he would urge me to redeem myself and go to the end that has been prescribed for me, or whether he longs for me enough to encourage my flight.

Soon the light through my window will turn to the colour of sea glass. A short twilight will come before the darkness that in this prison is the blackest I have ever experienced. I will unroll my sleeping mat and lie with my back against the wall in the habit I have carried with me since childhood. I do not know whether I will grasp my freedom and live a stolen life or go to a clean end, accepting my fate.

I will sleep, and if I wake with an urgent need for life then the decision is made. We are only animals, after all, and the instinct to live is paramount in us.

If I wake full of pity I will accept the sword and ask Kim to give the money to the consumptive girl's family anyway, in the hope that my last act may gain me approval in the next life. There is no more to be said, dawn will come, the decision will be made and either way I will be free.

The following report was published in the
Peking Daily
on the 26th of March 1948. 'At 6:40 on the evening of the 25th of March 1948, the woman known as Eastern Jewel was executed in Peking Number One Prison. Eastern Jewel was the fourteenth daughter of Su Qin Wang, a direct descendant of the younger brother of the first Qing Emperor of the Qing dynasty.'

Acknowledgements

So many thanks to Rob Herman for getting the book launched and to the wonderful Stevie Lee for helping it on its way. A heartfelt thank you to the brilliant Robert Caskie, who is all that an agent should be and more. To Clive Lindley for so many things, but in particular for his fearless corrections and enthusiastic wielding of the red pen. Huge thanks to my editor Alexandra Pringle and her great Bloomsbury team who make things happen. Thank you, too, to Melanie Silgardo for her astuteness and her inspired touch. And to Julia Gregson, friend and writer thank you for tough love and for kick-starting me when I wobbled. Also thanks to Tom Kinninmont for giving me that first most necessary flush of confidence. I am truly indebted to Jenny Parrott, for all the handholding and support she gave me along the new-to-me paths of publishing. And thank you to all my dear friends in the shed's club who sustained me with their interest and fine dinners - you know who you are. And a very special thank you to my gifted reader Richard Gregson.

The World of Eastern Jewel

1906: German neurologist Alzheimer identifies a new brain disorder.

1906: Eastern Jewel is born a Manchu princess, the fourteenth daughter to Prince Su and his fourth concubine. Prince Su was one of the eight princes of the Iron Helmet in the old Imperial Court of Peking, a direct descendant of the younger brother of the first Qing Emperor of the great Qing dynasty.

1912: The
Titanic
sinks.

1912: Empress Dowager Longyu issues an imperial edict bringing about the abdication of Emperor Pu Yi and the end to the almost three-centuries-old Qing dynasty. Eastern Jewel's distant cousin Pu Yi loses his throne and China becomes a republic. Pu Yi is confined to the Forbidden City where he plays Emperor.

1914: The First World War breaks out.

1914: Eastern Jewel is caught spying on her father, Prince Su, and is banished to Japan to live with Prince Su's blood brother Kawashima Naniwa.

1919: America adds an 18th amendment to its constitution, outlawing alcohol. This leads to bootlegging and the meteoric rise of the American Mafia.

1919: Eastern Jewel is adopted by Kawashima and renamed Yoshiko.

1921: Einstein receives the Nobel Prize.

1921: Eastern Jewel is seduced by her adoptive grandfather, Teshima.

1922: james joyce writes
Ulysses.

1922: Eastern Jewel is seduced by her adoptive father, Kawashima.

1925: Pu Yi flees the Forbidden City under the protection of the japanese.

1925: Eastern Jewel married off to Mongolian prince.

1926: Laurence Olivier makes his acting debut at the Birmingham Repertory Company.

1926: Eastern Jewel escapes Mongolia and arrives in Japan en route to Shanghai.

1931: The Empire State building, one hundred and two storeys high, is completed.

1931: Eastern Jewel is recruited as a spy for the Japanese and Pu Yi goes to Manchuria.

1935: The FBI National Academy is established.

1935: Eastern Jewel is sent to Peking to work for the Japanese secret service,

1936: The Spanish Civil War begins.

1936: Eastern Jewel parties in high society in Peking.

1939: The Second World War breaks out.

1939: Eastern Jewel is still the partying princess in Peking.

1941: The Japanese bomb Pearl Harbor.

1941: Eastern Jewel is made president of the China Gold Mining Company and of the Association of Manchurians in Peking.

1942: Fermi conducts the first controlled nuclear chain reaction.

1942: Eastern Jewel makes friends and enemies in Peking.

1945: America drops an atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

1945: Eastern Jewel is arrested in Peking by Chiang Kai-shek's forces and sent to Peking Number One Prison.

1947: The first supersonic flight.

1947: Eastern Jewel is brought before a military tribunal and found guilty of spying for the Japanese against China.

1948: The State of Israel comes into existence.

1948: Eastern Jewel loses her appeal against the guilty verdict and is executed by beheading on March 25th in Peking Number One Prison.

Also Available by Maureen Lindley