What happens
The Pacific Story presents the life of Henry Puyi, the last Manchu emperor of China, from his childhood enthronement through his years as a pawn of rival powers. As a boy he is crowned in Peking, then pushed from the throne by revolution and restoration plots. Later Japanese agents take him from Tientsin to the Japanese-controlled territory of Manchuria, where he becomes a symbolic ruler of the new state of Manchukuo. The episode follows his isolation behind electrified barbed wire, his unsettling encounters with plotters and attackers, and the Japanese decisions that shape his fate. Its air date is December 3, 1944, and it was produced by the National Broadcasting Company as a public service feature.
Peking, Tientsin, Dairen, and the palace at Hsinking in Manchuria, China, 1908 to 1934
Characters: Henry Puyi, Chin, Chang Hsun, General Fang, Colonel Tohara, Dr. Chao Hsin-ping, Chen
Listen for: The gradual shift from Puyi's childhood as a figurehead in Peking to his installation as emperor of Manchukuo under Japanese control.
Written from the episode itself; it never gives away the ending. Every recording is remastered for the stream: cleaned of rumble, hiss and mains hum (and the old TV whine where we found it), then levelled in two passes to steady broadcast loudness, so one show is never quieter than the next.