A Study On The Post Censorship Implemented By The Japanese Kwantung Army During The Occupation Of Northeast China

Post censorship in wartime originated from Alexander the Great.Then Britain,France,German and Russia followed the example in order to realize state power and consolidate its ruling.During the World War I,the Entente countries and the Allies adopted post censorship to control speech and prevent disclosure of military secrets.The implementation of Japan's post censorship began after Meiji Restoration.Meiji Government formulated the post censorship to ease social contradictions,suppress all kinds of social thoughts and free civil rights movements.During the World War I,Japan began to implement its post censorship.Even after the end of the World War I,it still kept its implementation.After the September 18 th Incident,with Japan's occupation of northeast China,and establishment of Puppet Manchuria,it faced the most difficult problem that was how to change the public consciousness and prepare what kind of public opinion for avoiding the other states' interference.So the agent of the Japanese government in northeast China,the Japan's Kwantung Army completely followed the example of Japan's post censorship.The Kanto gendarmerie was in charge of its implementation,at the same time strengthened and expanded the inspection constantly according to the situations.Its aim was to unify consciousness of northeast China and prevent spread of adverse information.In order to implement the post censorship effectively,the Japan's Kwantung Army also established the Central Investigation Department,the Local Investigation Department and the Security Bureau of Puppet Manchuria creatively to secretly inspect enemy's spy and conspiracy organizations.Without any legal basis,the Army used the post censorship that was against human rights in Puppet Manchuria.Although all the people in northeast China were involved in the inspection,the Puppet Manchuria government had no voice,no freedom to enact laws and no right to take part in law enforcement.The post censorship completely exposes both the Japan's Kwantung Army's true aim of controlling the discourse power of people in northeast China and the fact that the Manchuria government was just a puppet.The implementation of post censorship by the Japan's Kwantung Army in northeast China had the other aim that was espionage prevention.There were two ways to prevent espionage.One was passive espionage prevention that mainly depended on instilling of concept about espionage prevention in the local people.The other was active way that depended on inspection of publication,eavesdropping of telecommunications,secretly reading of private letters,trial of captives,investigation and destroying of enemy's spy and conspiracy organizations.According to Monthly Reports on Correspondence Inspection collected by the Archive of Jilin Province,it shows that the letters of Japanese which were handled involved a lot of Japan's military secrets.The Japan's Kwantung Army destroyed several anti Japanese activities,even made anti Japanese organizations paralyze by using the mean of post censorship.It also played an important role in investigation of Russian spy organizations and intelligence.The post censorship implemented by the Japan's Kwantung Army in northeast China made progress in helping Japanese aggressive war against China,but it still met sniff resistance for regional reason.Because the Japan's Kwantung Army had to implement the post censorship secretly in Puppet Manchuria's jurisdiction,it only had a little time to inspect a small number of people.So the censorship couldn't be implemented effectively.In addition.The Japan's Kwantung Army supported Puyi who had abdicated for twenty years and had no effect on the people in northeast China.Then it forcibly instilled in the people spirit about founding of Puppet Manchuria and the concept of he according to Japanese national character.But the Chinese were influenced by Confucianism whose opinion is harmony but not sameness.So it was very difficult to change the people's concept in such a short time.The regional and cultural difference had a negative effect on the implementation of post censorship.The post censorship is Fascist and against human rights.Its implementation ever brought great hurt and pain to the people in northeast China and Japan.