The "Real" Last Manchurian Princess?

     I first did a blog on "The Last Manchurian Princess" last year and it was about the traitor Yoshiko Kawashima, the distant cousin of the last Chinese Emperor Puyi.  Kawashima, as explained was adopted by Japanese and raised and educated in Japan.  In a sense she was more Japanese than she was Manchu or Chinese.  I did another blog more recently also titled "The Last Manchurian Princess," and this one was about Yoshiko Kawashima's youngest sister, who although educated in Japan, was much more of a Manchu/Chinese and never committed any traitorous acts against her people.  She died recently and she was by all accounts, the last Manchu princess.  However, like everything else in life, nothing is definite, nothing is set in stone!
     It is a known fact that royalty around the world had a tendency to intermarry, mostly for political reasons.  This practice goes back centuries when couples were often forced into marriage because the rulers of their respective kingdoms or countries wanted to insure ties, blood ties with their former enemies or rivals.  That is how Catharine the Great became the Empress of Russia.  She was but a minor German princess who was forced into marriage by her king and family to assure peace between Russia and Germany who have been warring historically for ever!  Later on in time Queen Victoria's children, about a dozen of them scattered and inter married with foreign royalty so that about a dozen or so European royalty were her grandchildren and cousins with each other!  Kaiser Wilhelm of Germany was a first cousin of George V of England who was first cousin of Nicholas II of Russia, so on and so forth!  You could say there was a lot of interbreeding among European royalty, some would call it inbreeding.  The situation was not all that different in Asia.
     China was always the big power in Asia and it was advantageous for many weaker countries to marry off their royalty with Chinese royalty to assure "protection" as well as favorable trade.  The various Korean dynasties married off their young to Chinese royalty.  During the Mongol reign in the 13th Century, they married with Mongol royalty.  Later, during the Imjin Wars in the 16th Century, a Korean Prince married a Jurchen (Manchu) Princess  to secure their alliance.  Korea needed Jurchen's help to fight the invading Japanese.  So, Koreans make no bones about it.  They admit that their royalty intermarried with Chinese, Mongol, and Manchu.
     Japan was a different story. Being an island country and somewhat isolated, the Japanese did not seek alliances with China or other countries.  However, Japan's constant invasion of Korea and abduction of Korean artisans, also brought about the capture and abduction of some Korean aristocracy which intermarried with Japanese.  So the often cited claim that the Japanese are completely homogeneous is false.  The modern Japanese is not only a product of Japanese mixing with aboriginal Ainu, but intermarriage with Korean and Chinese as well.  This increased dramatically during the period that Japan colonized Korea and Manchuria and attempted to conquer China.
     When Japan gained concessions in Manchuria after the Russo-Japanese War, the Japanese immediately set about to try to find likely candidates to be their "puppets" in the future political arena in Manchuria.  Shortly after the Ching Dynasty fell and the Chinese Nationalists came into power, the Japanese immediately launched into a campaign of befriending Puyi, the ousted last Emperor of China.  Yoshiko Kawashima was recruited to spy for the Kwantung Army and later became one of the key figures in Japan's attempt to establish the state of Manchukuo. The Japanese also sent Puyi's younger brother, Pujie, to Japan to be educated.  Pujie attended the Gukushuin (Peer's College), an exclusive prep school for aristocrats and royalty.  After graduating from Gukushuin, Pujie was sent to the Japanese Imperial Military Academy.  Upon receiving a thorough Japanese education, he was married off to Princess Hiro, a cousin of Emperor Hirohito.  You can imagine what the Japanese plans were like for the couple.  With the establishment of Manchukuo, Puyi was brought back from Peking and crowned the new Emperor of Manchukuo.  No doubt Pujie would have fit in the role someplace in the military.  Temporarily, Yoshiko Kawashima was given the rank of Colonel General and commanded the Manchukuo's military.  But Japan's plans for Manchukuo did not pan out.
     Puyi became increasingly disappointed with the Japanese until he reached a point where he actually became anti-Japanese.  Even Yoshiko Kawashima became disillusioned with the Japanese and the whole Manchukuo scheme, and she too began to side with Manchu nationalists.  So, Pujie and his Japanese wife never got the chance to become part of Manchukuo's royalty or leaders, they remained in Japan.  They had a daughter, Kosei, in 1940 and lived rather a simple life.  The daughter was educated in the best schools, Guskushuin's Women's College, and ended up marrying a Japanese aristocrat by the name of Kenji Fukunaga, who was an executive in the automotive industry.  So, Kosei Fukunaga, who is now 75 and still living in Tokyo, could be called the last Manchurian Princess.  She is certainly the last known tie to the Asin-Gioro, the ruling Manchu clan that established the Ching Dynasty of China.  But then, who knows, may be another "cousin" or other relative will turn up someplace!