著者

張 志雲 姜 水謡

出版者

東洋文庫

雑誌

東洋学報 = The Toyo Gakuho (ISSN:03869067)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.103, no.1, pp.01-028, 2021-06-30

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The Inspector-General (IG) of the Wang Jingwei government’s Maritime Customs Service, Kishimoto Hirokichi 岸本廣吉, was one of the most outstanding employees in the history of the Chinese Maritime Customs Service. He had the third longest years of service after Robert Hart and Frederick Maze among all the IGs and held the post of Chief Secretary for more than nine years, the longest term in history. His career demonstrated that an East Asian could be as successful as a Westerner in the Chinese maritime customs even before the Second Sino-Japanese War. During the ‘Solitary Island’ period of Shanghai, Kishimoto collaborated with Frederick Maze, the British IG at that time, for securing the integrity of the customs service. Having taken office as IG, Kishimoto initiated a series of reforms to the Wang Jingwei government’s custom houses in the middle and lower Yangtze plains. The biggest challenges he had to stand up to were brought by the Northern Political Council in North China and the Japanese army in South China, both of which acted virtually independently. He managed, however, to maintain the status quo of the Wang Jingwei government’s customs service until the end of the Second World War by using his best endeavours. Kishimoto paid off 1001 Japanese employees during the final days but failed to do same for the other nationals. The present article will illustrate how Kishimoto, as the Japanese head of the British dominated Chinese institution, displayed his political flair in balancing the power of employees from the three countries and how he combined his own national identity and his sympathy to China.