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Primary sourcePhotograph25 December 1942

Wang Jingwei with Hideki Tojo before a Banquet

Unknown photographer · 25 December 1942

A 1942 photograph of Wang Jingwei beside Hideki Tojo and Japanese military leaders at a Tokyo naval club banquet.

Shows Tojo, as Japan's Prime Minister, hosting Wang Jingwei at a Tokyo banquet during wartime diplomacy.

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Black-and-white photograph of a group of men in formal and military dress standing outdoors on a patio before a brick building. A bald man in a military uniform with cords stands at left, a man in a light suit and glasses gestures at center-left, and a man in a dark suit and striped trousers stands at center. Others in dark suits and a man wearing a decorated dark uniform stand to the right.
Unknown photographer, Wang Jingwei with Hideki Tojo before a banquet, 25 December 1942. Stanford University East Asia Library.

About this source

What it is

A black-and-white photograph taken on 25 December 1942 showing Wang Jingwei, head of the Japanese-sponsored government in China, standing with Hideki Tojo (then Prime Minister of Japan) and other Japanese officials, including Navy Minister Shigetarō Shimada, before a banquet at the Naval Club in Tokyo. The photographer is unknown; the image is held in the Wang Jingwei and Lin Baisheng photo collection at Stanford University's East Asia Library.

Why it matters

The photo documents the close wartime relationship between Japan's military government under Tojo and Wang Jingwei's collaborationist regime in occupied China. It is part of a series of official diplomatic images meant to display unity and cooperation between the two leaders during the war.

Look closer

  • Why might such formal group photographs have been taken and circulated at the time?
  • What does the setting and dress of the men suggest about the occasion?
  • What is left out of a posed banquet photo like this about the realities of wartime occupation?

This photograph is part of the curated material that grounds the AI version of Hideki Tojo on Humy.ai — when students ask about related events, the AI can quote it and cite it.

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