Opium Monopoly in Manchukuo: Bureaucrats Stifled Drug Addiction
Since it is not easy to find photos of opium dens, and their publication is, let's say, reprehensible, here are photos of Manchu military personnel to get a sense of the spirit of the era.
Opium and opium smoking. In East Asia during the era of world wars, there was no other issue like this that would affect almost all aspects of social life in China, Japan and other neighboring countries. For Japan, which was building its sphere of influence in this region at that time, opium was also becoming a problem that needed to be solved somehow, since many social, economic and even political factors depended on it.
Moreover, in this topic, various distortions and “historical "unconsciousness", that the Japanese allegedly almost imposed opium smoking on the territories under their control.
Distortions arise from two sources.
First, Japan's opium policy is almost always divorced from the context of the time. The most significant aspects of this context were that in all territories under their control or with dominant influence, the Japanese were trying to carry out industrialization, which required workers, and more workers. So the destruction of human resources by opium smoking was seen by the Japanese as a factor that thwarted their long-term plans. Hence the policy of combating opium smoking.
On the other hand, there was China nearby, where there was a lot of opium, it was smuggled in, and this circumstance made attempts at a direct and complete ban ineffective. The Chinese Republic banned opium – and so what? It could do nothing about either the cultivation or the secret sale of opium, or the opium dens and the hordes of drug addicts in them. The Japanese, however, always took this factor into account, and this is where their specific methods grew from.
Secondly, there are still political interests and orders to demonize imperial Japan. As far as one can judge, there are more than weighty reasons behind this. In the course of this demonization, some researchers take up the topic, then carry out some distortions and manipulations, and a sharply distorted picture emerges.
However, the original materials convince us of the opposite: the Japanese administration and the states allied with Japan tried to suppress the consumption of opium, although by specific methods. Opium greatly interfered with the implementation of various plans. Here is one of the most interesting, although not the only example - the creation of a state monopoly on opium in Manchukuo.
First Laws
Opium had been known in Japan since the 13th century, but became a serious political problem with the outbreak of the First Opium War. the war in 1839. The Tokugawa government was very familiar with the background of the Opium War in China, thanks to Dutch merchants who valued their monopoly on trade with Japan and did not want European competitors in the port of Nagasaki or anywhere else. After the Dutch explained in detail what opium was and how destructive it was, the Japanese government was determined to prevent opium from being imported into their country.
By the way, even later the Japanese remembered the Opium Wars in China well, wrote a lot about them, and this was a clear lesson for them about how large empires that lose a war perish.
In 1858, the dying Tokugawa shogunate signed a treaty with five powers to open up trade, and a clause was included in this treaty banning the import of opium from all signatory countries. However, this agreement was not observed, and opium smuggling began through Nagasaki and Yokohama, which were open to foreign merchants.
Emperor Meiji issued the first decree banning the use and sale of opium in June 1868. On September 4, 1870, the "Opium Sale Law" was issued, confirming the previous bans. Interestingly, this law was incorporated into the current Japanese criminal code almost unchanged.
However, a simple ban was not enough. Foreign merchants enjoyed extraterritorial rights, and it was impossible to punish them for importing and selling opium.
That's why Japan took a different path.
On May 1, 1879, a law was passed establishing a state monopoly on the purchase of opium both domestically and abroad, as well as its sale to specially licensed dealers for medical purposes. At that time, opium and its tincture were often used as the most accessible painkiller and antidiarrheal. As part of the state monopoly, all producers, sellers, and buyers of opium had to undergo mandatory registration.
Taiwan and Korea
After that, various events took place, and Japan again encountered opium in Taiwan, which had been taken from China as a result of the Sino-Japanese War. At that time, opium cultivation was the main branch of local industry in Taiwan, and there were more than enough drug addicts.
In 1898, the Japanese Government-General enacted a law according to which the production, purchase, and sale of opium, as well as the means for its use, were declared a state monopoly.
In general, the system repeated the Japanese one, with one important exception, which later became important, including in Manchukuo. Drug addicts were allowed to buy opium from government-licensed sellers after registering with the police and only upon presentation of the appropriate document. Everyone else, both Japanese and Taiwanese, were allowed to buy opium only for medical purposes and with a doctor's prescription.
Opium growers were taxed, and taxes were gradually increased, forcing farmers to abandon opium cultivation. Within 40 years, the Japanese had virtually eliminated opium production in Taiwan.
Things developed in roughly the same way in Korea.
As early as 1905, the Japanese Resident General demanded that the Korean government take measures to control opium smoking. Opium was banned in Korea in March 1912, and subsequently in June 1919 a special law on opium and rules for its production and circulation were adopted. It also provided for the introduction of a state monopoly, in which a special department registered farmers engaged in opium cultivation, bought their products at a fixed price scale depending on the morphine content, since in Korea opium was intended mainly for the production of morphine, which was needed for hospitals, hospitals and, in particular, for armies.
Korea had better conditions for opium poppy cultivation and cheaper labor than Japan. By 1941, the General Government had raised opium production in Korea to about 50 tons per year.
"Drug Addict's ID"
At the end of 1931, the Japanese invaded Manchuria, which they had taken from China and formed Manchukuo, formally established on March 1, 1932. Along with territorial gains and natural resources, the Japanese also received opium smoking on a scale typical for China at the time, but hard to imagine for Japan. Suffice it to say that out of a population of 30,8 million, approximately 1,5 million were drug addicts. That was 4,8% of the population.
Therefore, among the priority issues that had to be resolved first by the Supreme Ruler and then by the Emperor of Manchukuo Pu Yi, was the introduction of a state monopoly on opium, following the already tried and tested Japanese model.
Emperor Kangde, better known as Pu Yi.
On September 16, 1932, the Preparatory Committee for the Introduction of the Opium Monopoly was formed. On January 10, 1933, the Provisional Opium Trade Law was proclaimed, and on January 17, the Provisional Opium Trade Regulations were published. On November 3, 1933, the state opium monopoly system in Manchukuo was formed and approved, and on November 30, 1933, the prohibition of opium use was announced.
As in Taiwan, exceptions were made for medical purposes and for drug addicts. Drug addicts were considered sick, were given certain treatment, and were therefore temporarily and limitedly allowed to purchase and use opium for smoking, under strict and rigid control.
The Japanese system of state monopoly on opium, introduced in Manchukuo, was simple and elegant, like a blow with a club to the spine, completely in the spirit of the morals of a military-feudal monarchy. This method could be characterized as follows: let's strike drug addiction with bureaucracy. In essence, it was a prohibitive system of permits and reporting, with which the Japanese-Manchu bureaucrats entangled the entire process of production and sale of opium so that it would be easier to quit than to suffer further.
In order to legally buy opium, a drug addict had to apply to the police for permission. The police would inquire about him: name, age, place of residence, occupation, and so on. All of this was recorded in a special card file, and the drug addict himself was given a card, a kind of "drug addict ID." The seller could sell opium only upon presentation of this card.
A sample of a "drug addict's certificate" from the Manchu collection of police legislation, 1940 edition.
If anyone thought that the Japanese-Manchu bureaucrats allowed people to buy as much opium as they wanted, they would be mistaken. The card indicated the daily ration of opium that the owner of the card could buy. Moreover, opium could only be bought at the shop whose name was indicated on the card.
The cards were usually valid until the end of the year. For example, according to the Mukden police report for 1936, 1934 cards were issued in the city in 4. In total, 345 thousand drug addicts were registered in 1933, and 56,8 thousand in 1934.
The number of registered drug addicts grew until 1938, when the peak of permits was 700,2 thousand. But at that time, this system covered about 90% of the territory of Manchukuo, the main populated areas. It was not on the outskirts due to the unsettled situation and the actions of the partisans.
And a little more Manchu military crap
Statistics of the Manchurian Monopoly
There were many rules and requirements, down to the most minor regulations, such as the fact that the shop had to have a sign of a specially approved sample and size. All these rules were monitored by inspectors who checked the documentation and the goods. Any opium without documents, without an explanation of its origin, or simply seemed illegal to the inspector (the law strictly prohibited independent purchase from the manufacturer, as well as import from abroad), was subject to immediate confiscation. Such a system was profitable for the monopoly, since the money for the confiscated opium was not returned, because it was considered illegal.
Another source of unscheduled replenishment. In principle, the Opium Act prohibited opium dens. However, shops could, at their own discretion and for an additional fee, purchase a smoking permit from the monopoly. Smoking accessories were manufactured and sold under the control of the monopoly. If the controller considered that the documents were in order and smoking was illegal, he could confiscate the accessories and impose a fine on the merchant.
Of course, the state monopoly fought private competitors for quite a long time. The Manchurian police had to put a lot of effort into combating illegal sales and smoking. For example, in Mukden in 1936, 315 people were arrested, from whom 3 liang (794 kg) of opium were confiscated. According to the police report, this was half as much as in the previous year. No matter how much the dealers and drug addicts did not like the bureaucratic frenzy, it was better not to end up in the dungeons of the Manchurian police. Therefore, the police noted that the volume of illegal opium sales was gradually decreasing.
Thanks to the report of the state monopoly of Manchukuo for the 10th year of Kangde (1943), which contained information on all goods subject to state monopoly, for example, salt, it is possible to trace the dynamics of production, import and consumption of opium in Manchukuo:
700 tons is impressive, but compared to the scale of Chinese opium smoking, it is a mere trifle. In 1928, in Wuchang alone (now part of Wuhan; incidentally, the place where the Xinhai Revolution of 1911 began) there were 340 opium dens and about 3 thousand drug addicts who smoked 110 thousand liang of opium per month – that is 66 tons per year.
The monopoly statistics were kept only until 1939, because on December 28, 1939, the Manchu Emperor Pu Yi deigned to ban the smoking of opium in Manchuria, and all matters concerning opium were transferred to other government agencies.
This was preceded by some events.
First, in 1937, when the control system had more or less covered the sale and consumption of opium, it was decided to strike a crushing blow. In 1937, a large-scale raid was carried out, during which about 6 shops were closed, 400 Chinese and 123 Japanese opium dealers were expelled from Manchukuo.
Secondly, in October 1937, a 10-year plan was adopted to completely eliminate opium smoking and achieve a complete ban on opium. Within its framework, the network of hospitals for the treatment of drug addicts was expanded. In 1939, there were 159 such hospitals in Manchukuo, capable of handling 32,9 thousand patients per year.
Thirdly, already in 1938 almost all small opium shops were closed, only 253 remained. Opium began to be sold in small retail outlets owned by the monopoly. There were 1938 of them in 1.
In 1938, a large-scale confiscation campaign was carried out: 89,9 tons of opium were confiscated and 15,7 thousand hectares of crops that could have yielded 208,4 tons of opium were destroyed. Manchurian peasants, seeing all this, reasonably believed that the purpose of creating a monopoly was the confiscation of opium. The tightening of the screws on many peasants who grew opium brought them to the brink of ruin.
Finally, fourthly, the issuance of permits for opium smoking began to decrease. In 1939, 566,3 thousand permits were issued, and in 1940 – 401,4 thousand. Moreover, there were quite a few cases of previously issued permits being returned to the police.
The picture, due to the difficulties of working with sources, is still incomplete. Reading Chinese and Japanese officialdom of the 1930s is still quite difficult. Apparently, in Manchukuo, the policy of suppressing opium smoking had only gone through the first stage, when the production and sale of opium was taken under control by a state monopoly. The second stage - the strangulation of drug addiction by bureaucratic restrictions, tax pressure and even tacitly approved police arbitrariness - had only just begun before the war. By 1945, as far as can be judged, the complete elimination of opium smoking in Manchukuo had not been achieved.
The Manchurian military, however, is difficult to distinguish from the Japanese
There is still much to explore in this topic. Many details of the opium monopoly need to be clarified, both in Japan itself and in the territories under its control, and in various states allied with Japan. The picture was mosaic. There were territories where opium was scarce, and there were territories, for example, the states allied with Japan in China and the war zone, where the opium turnover was estimated at thousands of tons.
The Japanese government, as follows from the original sources, definitely considered opium and opium smoking as a threat to its plans to build a “Greater East Asia,” but, in view of the current situation, was forced to create intermediate forms of circulation, realizing that it would not be possible to prohibit and destroy opium smoking overnight.
Information