Pujie

Pujie (Chinese: 溥傑; 16 April 1907 – 28 February 1994) was a Qing dynasty imperial prince of the Aisin-Gioro.

After the fall of the Qing dynasty, Pujie went to Japan, where he was educated and married to Hiro Saga, a Japanese noblewoman.

In 1937, he moved to Manchukuo, where his brother ruled as Emperor under varying degrees of Japanese control during the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945).

He selected Hiro Saga, who was a relative of the Japanese imperial family, from a photograph from a number of possible candidates vetted by the Kwantung Army.

[3] As Puyi did not have an heir, the wedding had strong political implications, and was aimed at both fortifying relations between the two countries and introducing Japanese blood into the Manchu imperial family.

As Puyi had no children, Pujie was regarded as first in line to succeed his brother as the emperor of Manchukuo; the Japanese officially proclaimed him the heir presumptive.

At the time of the collapse of Manchukuo during the Soviet invasion of Manchuria in August 1945, Pujie initially attempted to escape to Japan with his brother.

Pujie was arrested by the Soviet Red Army and first sent to a prison camp in Chita, and then to another in Khabarovsk along with his brother and other relatives.

He spent about five years in the Soviet prison camps until 1950, when the Sino-Soviet rapprochement allowed him and his fellow captives to be extradited to the newly founded People's Republic of China.

On his return to China, Pujie was incarcerated in the War Criminals Management Centre in Fushun, Liaoning.

In 1935, when Pujie returned to China from his studies in Japan, Puyi tried to help his brother find a Manchu wife.

Pujie, held by his father Prince Chun (left), and his older brother, Puyi (right).
A young Pujie, centre left, with his brother Puyi and sisters