In late August 14, 1945, Emperor Showa of Japan donned his military uniform and sword and entered his office to record the Imperial Rescript on the Termination of the War. Anticipating a potential coup by the army, his aide, Tokugawa Yoshikazu, cleverly hid the recording with the Empress.
As expected, in the early hours of August 15, rebellious army officers killed Lieutenant General Mori Akira and took control of the palace. However, they did not dare search the Empress’s quarters and thus failed to find the recording. After quelling the rebellion, the rescript was broadcast at noon on August 15, marking the war’s end.
A sudden fall from grace
One morning, Shanghai citizens were shocked to read in the newspaper that the famous singer Li Xianglan had been arrested as a cultural traitor. Just recently, she had held a concert at the racetrack, her enchanting voice still fresh in their minds. How could she suddenly be labeled a traitor?
Li Xianglan was born in Beiyantai, Fengtian, Liaoning Province (now Yantai Street, Dengta City, Liaoning Province), but she was a pure Japanese woman named Yamaguchi Yoshiko. Her father, a Chinese language teacher for the Manchurian Railway, sought protection from General Li Jichun, a former warlord and later president of the Shenyang Bank. Li adopted Yamaguchi, giving her the name Li Xianglan.
A voice shaped by destiny
Li Xianglan suffered from tuberculosis as a child, and to aid her recovery, she trained under Madame Podresov, a former soprano at the Russian Grand Theatre. Her father hoped she would become a diplomat, so at 14, she was sent to study in Beijing, where she met Yoshiko Kawashima. Due to the similarity in their names and Kawashima’s penchant for dressing as a man, they became inseparable, referring to each other as siblings.
At 16, Li Xianglan attended a memorial for the victims of the December 9th Movement in Zhongnanhai. When asked what she would do if Japanese troops breached Beijing’s walls, she bravely replied: “I would stand on the wall and be the first to die from both sides’ bullets.” This was her first public expression of the inner conflict and pain she felt between her two nations.
War’s inescapable grip
No one could escape the war’s impact on their fate. In 1937, the full-scale Anti-Japanese War broke out. With strong recommendations from Yoshiko Kawashima, Li Xianglan starred in China Nights and other films to promote Japan’s agenda.
After Shanghai fell, Li Xianglan met composer Chen Gexin. Their brief romance was immortalized in Chen’s song Regret Not Meeting When Unmarried, but it ultimately ended in heartbreak.
In early autumn 1944, composer Li Jinguang created the rumba-style song Fragrance of the Night. After other famous singers failed to capture its essence, Li Xianglan stumbled upon the sheet music at the Baidai Company and instantly connected with it. The song became a massive hit, making her one of the seven great singing queens alongside Zhou Xuan.
A complex legacy
Li Xianglan felt deep guilt over Japan’s invasion of China and never dared to reveal her Japanese identity. On August 9, 1945, she performed Fragrance of the Night at a packed Shanghai racetrack, unaware that the same day, a U.S. B-29 dropped an atomic bomb on Nagasaki, killing 150,000 people. Six days later, Japan surrendered.
The Nationalist government arrested Li Xianglan as a cultural traitor. She revealed her Japanese identity, but needed proof. With help from friends, she received a box from Beijing containing her childhood Japanese toys and her Japanese household registration. This evidence led to her acquittal, but the courtroom audience angrily demanded her execution. Tearfully, she began to sing Fragrance of the Night, silencing the crowd.
Li Xianglan was deported to Japan, where she resumed her career as Yamaguchi Yoshiko and later married a diplomat. Her father’s wish for her to become a diplomat was partially fulfilled as she became a diplomat’s wife. In 1974, she was persuaded by Prime Minister Tanaka Kakuei to run for office, serving 18 years as a senator until her retirement in 1992 at age 72.
A voice for peace
On September 7, 2014, Li Xianglan passed away at 94. In her later years, she published her autobiography, My First Half of Life: A Confession of a Fake Chinese, exposing the horrors of Japan’s invasion of China and advocating for peace between the two nations. As both a victim and witness of history, she urged Japanese youth to remember: “This is all true.”
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