This Week's Historical Theme: China
12 February 1912
A significant event throughout the history of China that occurred in February was the last emperor's abdication. Hsian-T'ung was forced to abdicate following Sun Yat-sen's republican revolution. A provisional government was established in his place, ending 267 years of Manchu rule in China and 2,000 years of imperial rule. The former emperor, only 6 years old, was allowed to maintain his residence in Beijing's Forbidden City in exile. He took the name of Henry Pu Yi and was granted a large government pension. In 1934, Pu Yi was enthroned as K'ang Te, emperor of Manchukuo. He would hold onto this title until 1945, when he was captured by Soviet troops.
In 1946, Pu Yi testified before the Tokyo war crimes tribunal that he had been an unwilling tool of the Japanese and not, as they had claimed, an instrument of Manchurian self-determination. Manchuria and the Rehe province were returned to China, and in 1950, Pu Yi was handed over to the Chinese communists. He was imprisoned at Shenyang but was granted amnesty by Chinese leader Mao Zedong in 1959. After his release, he worked in a mechanical repair shop in Peking. He married in 1962 to Li Shuxian, but died five years later, and was buried near the Western Qing tombs in a commercial cemetery.
Want to find out more about Pu Yi? Click here for more information, or here for more about the wider history of China.
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