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National Geographic : 1964 Nov
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Silk culture I found his story in a copy of China Recon structs. The emperor, now called simply Pu Yi, described in a signed article how he ad vanced from being the sacred Son of Heaven to a post as common gardener in Peking's Botanical Gardens. "The most memorable day of my life was December 4, 1959," he began. That was the day when, after ten years of "re-education," he received a special pardon from the Peo ple's Republic. He had been condemned as a war criminal for his role as emperor of the Japanese puppet state of Manchukuo. He described his emotions-no bitterness, only gratitude; he had come to see "how thoroughly soaked in crime and evil" was the first half of his life. He had experienced "reve lation and rebirth." When he lived in the Forbidden City, 1,000 eunuchs, more than 100 physicians, 200 chefs, and 200 guards had attended his every whim. But that remembered luxury paled before the pride he felt when he made his first paper box for a pencil factory-not a good one, but made with his own hands. Pride became triumph when he achieved his best total of eight boxes in two hours. To celebrate this achievement, the warden gave him a treat of candy, and it "tasted bet ter than all the sweets I'd ever eaten." As a climax to his article, he wrote: "For the first time in my life, on May 9, 1960, I marched in the ranks of a million people of our capital, shouting my support for the struggle carried on by the Japanese people against the signing of the Japan-U. S. Treaty of Military Alliance." Poor Pu Yi-once a Japanese puppet, now a Chinese puppet. At Shanghai's People's Hospital No. 6, I 635
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