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National Geographic : 1947 Mar
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The National Geographic Magazine Humbled by Defeat, a Japanese Colonial Serves as Barber to the Chinese Working in the shade of a wall on a Changchun street, he gains a slender living until time comes for repatriation to his homeland. No crew cut here, but a quick over-all job with a big-handled pair of horse clippers. Particularly in summer, Chinese often shave their heads. that makes you think at once of the old castles at Osaka or Himeji. The State Building em bodies some of the same lines used in the new Diet Building in Tokyo. Here, too, are department stores, large busi ness blocks, marble-pillared banks, and Jap anese monuments and shrines. The whole town reflects the zeal with which its sponsors set out to create an appropriate capital. Unfortunately, many of these fine structures were gutted by fire during the fighting between the Nationalist and Communist Chinese troops in the spring of 1946, a few weeks before I was there. Unlike many Manchurian towns, Changchun luckily still had electricity and its crowded streetcars ran. The only other transportation, except mili tary cars, was ancient Russian droshkies, seemingly in the last stages of dilapidation (page 413). I saw one lose a wheel when the driver had whipped his horse to a canter! Relic of Manchu Splendor The morning after I arrived in Changchun I engaged one of these venerable wrecks to seek out the palace of Emperor Kang Te, alias Henry Pu Yi. The palace is a cream-colored brick structure and has several adjoining stucco buildings. Only a red encircling wall 404
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