Puyi: The Emperor Used as a Seal by Three Regimes

On February 12, 1912, a document of abdication was read inside the Forbidden City. The person named in it was Puyi, just over five years old and the last emperor of the Qing dynasty. He had not chosen the throne and could not choose to leave it. Adults around him had placed a child at the centre of a transfer of power, then used his signature to close a dynasty that had ruled for centuries.

Twenty years later, another power needed the same name. After Japan took Manchuria, Japanese agents moved Puyi from Tianjin to the region, created a government called Manchukuo, and presented it as a self-governing nation. A 1932 U.S. diplomatic document described it directly as a puppet government; the report said Puyi had been taken to Manchuria and placed at the head of a system controlled by the Japanese army. In 1934, he was crowned the Kangde Emperor.