#also 2 of my classmates get to miss out on an entire french unit

[i-steal-posts-for-pinterest]

thursdays are the best, like i do so much stuff on thursdays like i have like 2 fun things to do + biweekly its more fun than like every other day, and then the next day is friday !! i also got to switch seats with someone else soo i got to sit next to someone i lowkey have a crush on (hes opps wit all my friends so like not really)

[kyuukancorbie]

JG Summary 1-4 Mato

Mato, or the Devil’s City. 1940.

Disclaimer: 1. I assume everyone knows what’s already in the anime. 2. The information is based on the Chinese novel, I do not claim credit for translation. 3. Everything is quoted. My comments are in parenthesis. 4. Please do not post outside of tumblr. 5. Corrections are welcomed.

Main Character: Yukihito Kusanagi （行人　草薙）/ Fukumoto （福本）

  Note on the title

Mato, or 魔都, is a name given to Shanghai, specifically the Shanghai Concession, by Japanese around the 1930s. If you remember 魔王 as the devil king, 魔都 would be the devil’s city, or sin city if you prefer. The word “魔都” is revived in China today as a slang for Shanghai.

Another disclaimer, the military ranking may not be accurate, as it is very confusing trying to match Japanese and English terms, when I can only refer to Chinese terms. So any corrections are welcomed.

Story is told from the perspective of Sergeant Eiji Honma. The anime follows the novel quite closely, so I’ll just be focusing on the characters rather than the whole plot. I will still add details in the end to give you guys a flavor but you should really just wikipedia as I do not intend to write a history essay.

List of characters: 

- Eiji Honma (英司　本間) (Honma): Storyteller, former officer of the Tokubetsu Kōtō Keisatsu in Japan (特別高等警察, or literally Special Higher Police, the Japanese secret police. See bottom of the post for notes). Transferred to Shanghai Kenpeitai 3 months ago and has difficulty adjusting to the locality. He is tasked by Captain Oikawa to investigate internal information leaks.

- Masayuki Oikawa (政行　及川) (Oikawa): Captain of Shanghai Kenpeitai. Relatively slender and delicate build for a soldier, engaged to the daughter of Lieutenant General Yokozawa and about to get a promotion.

He was known to be a perfectionist and a mysophobe, but this eventually led to his mental demise in the 5 years working in the Western Shanghai District, the most dangerous area of all Shanghai. He states that 5 years is too long. He fell for gambling, drinking, whoring, and agreed to secretly exchange opium kept by the Kenpeitai for his own pleasure. It is revealed that he sells military intelligence as well. To hide his crimes, he instigated a robbery of the Kenpeitai’s opium warehouse, hired a boy from the casino to kill Nobuteru Miyata, then blew up his own house so the series of events looked like the works of anti-Japanese terrorists.

There is a detailed analysis of Oikawa’s background and the historical locations in present day real life by the same person I linked last time, in Chinese. Please note that the photos of Shanghai are taken by the author herself and should not be reproduced without her permission.

- Nobuteru Miyata (伸照　宮田) (Miyata): Sergeant Major of the Shanghai Kenpeitai, killed not long ago in the alleys, shown in the beginning of the anime episode 4. He was originally investigating the missing opium from the Kenpeitai, before secretly killed.

- Yutaka Yoshino (豊　吉野) (Yoshino): Leading Private of the Shanghai Kenpeitai. He is Oikawa’s accomplice in smuggling opium. However in the end the poor guy killed Oikawa for killing his lover.

- Hajime Shiotsuka (朔　塩塚) (Shiotsuka): Graduate from Tokyo Imperial University, present day Tokyo University, and currently a writer for a Japanese newspaper based in Shanghai. As a student he was caught by Tokuko (特高) police reading a left-wing magazine, but quickly broke and swore repentence (…) after some questioning and was subsequently released. He left China some time before Honma’s encounter with Fukumoto, who used him as a disguise.

- Yukihito Kusanagi (行人　草薙) (Kusanagi): D-Agency spy of the episode. Graduate from Tokyo Imperial University, classmate of Shiotsuka. He is identified by Shiotsuka as a D-Agency spy, although the Shiotsuka that Honma meets is probably Kusanagi in disguise. In the anime, Kusanagi is Fukumoto.

Kusanagi is described as extremely smart in school, a mysterious loner, with a fair, cold face like a mask. No one knows anything about his family, though some students speculated he is a bastard of an important guy and a geisha. There is no evidence for this. It is also rumored that after graduating with exceptional grades he continued to study somewhere abroad.

When Honma looks at Kusanagi’s graduation photo, he notes that his face is not one of an extremist, those he usually dealt with in the Tokko days. Although the photo is a front picture, it feels as if Kusanagi is looking sideways. While the photo is taken for an entire group of students, it seems as if his personal picture. Honma realizes that Kusanagi has the expression of egotist who believes in noone but himself, aperson who takes huge risks and difficult tasks just because he can.

(This is a possible background for Fukumoto, except for the fact that the Shiotsuka describing this is probably Kusanagi/Fukumoto himself. No doubt he is using Honma, but he may be playing with him as well, as I’ll mention on a later point, but the graduation photo seems real. It is possible that Yukihito Kusanagi is his real name).

 ———————- 

Notes: 

Tokkō (特高): the Japanese secret police that patrols the country for communist suspects. They are called Peace Police but are known more notoriously as Thought Police. They are initially a division of the Home Ministry but was added to the command of the Kenpeitai in occupied regions. Before WWII every Japanese embassy in China had a police department with a Tokko division. (Honma worked as a Tokko officer in Japan, but is not a Tokko when transferred to Shanghai).

Shanghai International Settlement: The following is an introduction from wikipedia.

The settlements were established following the defeat of the Qing army by the British in the First Opium War (1839–1842). Under the terms of the Treaty of Nanking, the five treaty ports including Shanghai were opened to foreign merchants. Unlike the colonies of Hong Kong and Weihaiwei, which were sovereign British territories, the foreign concessions in Shanghai originally remained Chinese sovereign territory. However, the Qing government gave up sovereignty in the concessions to the foreign powers in exchange of their support to suppress the rebellion in 1853-1855. The following year the British and American settlements formally united to create the Shanghai International Settlement. As more foreign powers entered into treaty relations with China, their nationals also became part of the administration of the settlement, but it always remained a predominantly British affair until the growth of Japan’s involvement in the late 1930s.

The Marco Polo Bridge Incident: September 7th, 1937.

Also known as the July 7th Incident, the Lugou Bridge Incident. (七七事变、卢沟桥事变)

The battle marked the beginning of Japanese invasion of North China and the Second Sino-Japanese War from 1937 to 1945, which is also part of the Pacific front of WWII. The story of Mato or Episode 4 takes place in 1940, which means China and Japan had been in state of war for years. The novel notes that since then the British have been favoring the Chinese government in Chongqing and tends to turn a blind eye to anti-Japanese activity in Shanghai.

The Battle of Shanghai: August 13th, 1937.

This was one of the largest and bloodiest battles of the entire war, described by Peter Harmsen as “Stalingrad on the Yangtze”. The Chinese and Japanese were fighting in Shanghai for 3 months before the Japanese took control of city. After the battle, the originally bustling Zhabei and Nanshi Districts were destroyed, the Chinese area of the Shanghai concession became essentially slums, the international settlement north of Suzhou River was seriously damaged and occupied by Japan. The settlement south of the River, as well as the French part of the concession, was left out of the battle and continued an eerie four-year prosperity called the “Lone Island Era （孤岛时期）”. The Western District of Shanghai, under Japanese control, became the hotbed for crime, which is where the soldiers in the novel are working.

Yuuki’s designs for Shanghai:

(Note: In the anime, it is revealed in the end that, by encouraging a person from the Kenpeitai to deal with Kenpeitai’s internal issues, the Agency helped the Kenpeitai save face and thus, the army has agreed to Yuuki’s plans. However it does not say what the Yuuki’s plan is, possibly because of the time limit, or because it involved a good deal of political and historical complications. In the novel, Shiotsuka told Honma their plan, and Honma reasons it out in considerable detail.)

The plan: 2.5 billion fake notes of Chinese Yuan brought into Shanghai, to be distributed throughout the country. According to the novel, this is worth the sum 3 years of Chinese military expense in 1937. Numbers aside, this is intended to wreck the Chinese economy with inflation, destroy the currency’s credibility, and ultimately prevent them from importing weapons and raw materials from abroad.

While supposedly this plan can win the war without a fight, not only the army, but also the public if they ever get to know about it, will definitely accuse the plan as being utterly dispicable.

The Green Gang（青帮）: To carry out the currency warfare it is also rumored that the D-Agency will be cooperating with the Green Gang in China. They are a secret society unrelated to national sovereignty, similar to the Japanese Yakuzas. While there were historically many secret societies in China, the Green Gang based along the Yantze River and in Shanghai are said to be the most powerful yet and now commands China’s underground economy. The Green Gang’s primary source of income is opium. Honma remembers how much damage opium has already caused in China and how unsettled he feels every time he passes an opium den in Shanghai.

The War: Honma believes that the objective of war was supposed to be freeing Asian people from the oppression of European imperialists. He then wonders why the war has come to this distasteful state.

Looking at Kusanagi’s photo again Honma feels like Kusanagi is looking down upon the whole world, laughing at every existence. He then remembers several words: daemon, devil, dangerous, darkness. Honma ponders about the meaning of the name “D” agency, but stops himself from overthinking and leaves the scene.

At the end of the chapter, Honma is in Oikawa’s office watching the dead bodies, and he sees the bodies of two men bewitched by Mato, Shanghai, the Devil’s City. A question is raised: “will you be able to handle situations like this?” The final sentences describes a pair of eyes peering at Honma from the dark.

Note: speculations on why Kusanagai/Fukumoto gives Honma Kusanagi’s name

1. He may need a second alias becausing leading Honma to the night club under the name Shiotsuka could perhaps cause unnecessary suspicion. 2. He needs an alias that interests Honma enough to make Honma follow his lead. 3. He announces the presence of the D-Agency as a headsup or warning for Honma to keep an eye out as the agency will continue their surveilling, and they may need direct cooperation from the Kenpeitai in the future.

Or 4. Kusanagi/Fukumoto is playing with him because he can.

A funny note: when disguised as Shiotsuka, he states that even if Honma learns all the languages and habits involved in Shanghai culture, locals will still be able to tell a Japanese apart from sight. The way they wear their clothes could be different, even they way they wash their faces are different. At this point Honma asks about what is the difference. Shiotsuka demonstrates that while the Japanese have their hands closed, moving up and down their faces, the Chinese move their faces up and down their hands. Honma takes note of this.

I will say this as absolute nonsense. Bet 99% that Shiotsuka/Kusanagi/Fukumoto is just playing with the poor sergeant.

@jgfiles