Dainan Koshi
Dainan Kōshi ( Japanese 大 南 公司 ), in older literature often after the Nihonshiki romanization Dai Nan Kōsi, was a trading company in Indochina at the time of the Pacific War under the direction of Matsushita Mitsuhiro , which, like the Japanese Cultural Institute , had close ties to the Kempeitai and the army intelligence, carried out covert activities in Indochina, which is still under French administration.
Basics
Beginning with the Nishihara mission in July 1940 and the beginning of stationing some troops in northern Vietnam in September, the Japanese armed forces had begun to block supplies to their national-Chinese enemies via Yunnan . On May 6, 1941, Japan and its ally France concluded a trade agreement through which mutual exports and imports were offset by clearing procedures between the Banque de l'Indochine and the Yokohama Specie Bank .
Company boss
The later company boss Matsushita Mitsuhiro (born August 3, 1896 in the village of Oe near Amakusa-machi) came to Vietnam at the age of 15 in 1912, where he initially worked for a retailer at Nam nh . Since 1915 he has done the customs clearance in Haiphong for Ikeda Hiroyuki's company, which Curio exported to Japan. He worked for Mitsui's Saigon branch since 1918. He soon learned Vietnamese and French. He studied commercial law and English through a correspondence course at Waseda University . In 1922 he went with a capital of 5,000 piastres with Dainan Koshi (or Dainan Koosi independently) in Hanoi, but he had the hotelier Samejima as partners. He married his niece Kise († September 1942). After the death of his first wife, he married Yatabe Chie (* 1919, 谷 田 部 千代 ) in June 1943 , with whom he had two sons and a daughter.
Matsushita served on the board of several Japanese-Vietnamese friendship organizations. He received various awards, such as a Cambodian Order of Merit (4th grade 1955, 3rd grade 1961), the Order of the Sacred Treasure (4th grade 1964) and several South Vietnamese awards. Matsushita died on February 9, 1982.
trade
The attempt to expand the business on a trip to Japan from July 1923 failed as a result of the economic crisis caused by the devastating earthquake . The company's headquarters was in 1928 in Saigon , the 46 rue Viénot. Over the years, contacts were established with branches in all of the major trading centers in Southeast Asia. In 1930 there were around 300 Japanese and 5,000 local employees.
In 1932 the company's share capital reached four million piasters. A joint-stock company of the same name was entered in the commercial register in Tokyo. The Hanoi branch was located at 47 rue Vieille-des-Tasses. The main official business purpose was initially the textile and hardware trade , then diversification. After the start of the war, the company became the most important contractor for the Japanese Navy in the southeastern operational area. An important major order was the expansion of the runway at Saigon airport to 1,500 m. Orders for three more air bases and a naval base followed. The staff employed, almost 9,000 at the end of the war, mainly belonged to the nationalist Cao Đài . Due to the nature of the activity and the circumstances of the time, comparatively few original documents or balance sheets have been preserved.
Intelligence activity
Already since a meeting in Taiwan in 1928 the independence efforts of the organization of the exiled imperial prince Cuong De were supported . The colonial authorities investigated him in 1937, and Matsushita, who had fled, was sentenced to eight years in prison in absentia . He was able to return after three years when the Nishihara Mission brought the French to cooperate with Japan in the summer of 1940.
Matsushita made his resources available to the secret service, working closely with the consul general in Hanoi Minoda Yoshio , although it is unclear when exactly his intelligence work began. Likewise, the company boss had connections to Ōkawa Shūmei since 1943 at the latest . The Japanese wanted to create a "bloc of Asian nations led by Japanese and free from Western influences" with the Greater East Asian Prosperity Sphere. To this end, they caused Emperor Bảo Đại to terminate the protectorate treaty and to form an independent government under Tran Trong Kim . On behalf of the secret service, Matsushita managed the restaurant-theater (with gambling den) Aristo, directly opposite the Saigon train station. Ngô Đình Diệm had lived in company accommodation for his protection since October 1943.
One of the most important goals of the French colonial rulers in 1940-45 was the suppression of the numerous Vietnamese freedom fighters. B. the groups around Ho Chi Minh (supported by the American OSS since 1945 ), the nationalist Cao Đài with the imperial Prince Cuong De, Bình Xuyên in Cochinchina and the Hòa Hảo . In many cases they were in opposition to the colonial rulers. The Japanese intelligence service brought numerous freedom fighters to Singapore or Bangkok in 1943-44 and thus to safety from French access. Matsushita was a covertly important mediator. Until disarming on 9/10 March 1945 ( Operation Meigō ), the French colonial officials and troops continued to operate.
post war period
After the end of the war, all assets of members of the former Axis powers were confiscated, Matsushita and his employees returned to Japan impoverished, and the Japanese joint-stock company in Tokyo was revived. In the early 1950s, Dainan Kōshi traded with Korea. Relations with Vietnam could be resumed in 1959 after the reparations agreement was signed on May 13th. They specialized in trading in high quality articles. The company, now based in Osaka , went bankrupt in 1962. It was soon re-established in Nagoya as Dainan Bōeki KK ( 大 南 貿易 株式会社 ), with around ten employees. The old connections to Diem, who had meanwhile become president, helped the business for the next few years. As a trading company, the company continued to exist in Saigon until after the final independence of a reunified Vietnam in 1976.
literature
- 牧 久 : 「安南 王国」 の 夢 - ベ ト ナ ム 独立 を 支援 し た 日本人 . Wedge, 2012, ISBN 978-4-86310-094-7 .
- 立 川 京 一 : 第二 次 世界 大 戦 期 の ベ ト ナ ム 独立 運動 と 日本 . In: 防衛 研究所 紀要 . 第 3 巻 , 第 2 号 , November 2000, p. 67-88 .
- 大門 正 克 : 同時代 史 研究 へ の 挑 戦 . In: 大 原 社会 問題 研究所 雑 誌 . No. 589 , December 2007 ( PDF - oral history).
- Shiraishi Takashi (Ed.): Indochina in the 1940s and 1950s . Ithaca 1992, ISBN 0-87727-401-0 .
- Eric Jennings: Vichy in the Tropics: Pétain's National Revolution in Madagascar, Guadeloupe, and Indochina, 1940-1944 . Stanford 2001.
- The library of his former middle school in Ōe near Amakusa on Kyushu has been collecting material on Matsushita Mitsuhiro since 1975.
Individual evidence
- ^ Accord franco-japonais relatif au régime douanier, aux échanges commerciaux et à leurs modalités de rèlement entre l'Indochine et le Japon. Ratified and in effect July 5th. Differences of more than 5 million yen had to be settled with gold, rubber was still billed in US dollars. Change to a fixed exchange rate Dec. 28, 1941, then transfer yen as of Jan. 1, 1943. Tabuchi Yukichika: Indochina's Role in Japan's Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere: A Food Procurement Strategy . In: Indochina in the 1940s and 1950s . Ithaca 1992, ISBN 0-87727-401-0 .
- ↑ In the finding aid of the Japanese National Archives only: 戦 時 金融 金庫 ・ （資） 大 南 公司 書 類 綴 （在外 貸 付 金 23 号）
- ↑ Vu Ngu Chieu: The Other Side of the 1945 Vietnamese revolution: The Empire of Viet Nam (March-August 1945) . In: Journal of Asian Studies . Vol. 45, No. 2 , February 1986, p. 293-328 .
- ↑ Paragraph after: 山田 勲 : 白 い 航跡: 大川 塾 卒業 生 が 見 て き た 戦 争 と 東南 ア ジ ア の 国 . Bungeisha, 2004, ISBN 4-8355-7980-1 .
