Mitsuhirato

Mitsuhirato (Japanese: 蜜平等 or みつひらと) is a character from "The Adventures of Tintin" series of classic comic books drawn and written by Hergé. He is a sadistic Japanese double agent who appears in "The Blue Lotus". He owns a women's clothing shop in "Tai P'ing Lu" in Shanghai, but is also involved in a drug trafficking cabale with Rastapopoulos and is also working for the Japanese government. Mitsuhirato is, along with the other Japanese principal characters, characterized as an evil, scheming person, exploiting political turmoil in China to his and his country's advantage.

Political Role

Apart from his involvement with Rastapopoulos's international drug ring, Mitsuhirato also functions as a Japanese government agent. Tintin witnesses his prominent involvement in the Mukden Incident, as the events are portrayed in the "The Blue Lotus". Mitsuhirato pays an accomplice $10,000 to assist him in the destruction of the railway line, providing a "justification" for the Japanese invasion of Manchuria, a precursor to the Japanese invasion of China. Upon their arrival in Shanghai, he enlists the Japanese Army in his attempts to have Tintin killed.

Mitsuhirato is also well-acquainted with members of the International Settlement in Shanghai, and skillfully manipulates the Settlement's corrupt Western officials, such as Dawson, to his advantage in his quest to capture Tintin.

Opium Dealing

Upon Tintin's arrival in Shanghai, Mitsuhirato initially uses his charm to dissuade him from pursuing his investigation of the drug ring. Although Tintin is initially fooled into believing his intentions to be good, he is soon informed of the truth by the Sons of the Dragon (an anti-opium organisation led by Wang Chen-Yee, who view Mitsuhirato as their "greatest adversary" ). Mitsuhirato attempts several covert assassinations of Tintin, on one occasion trying to turn Tintin insane by injecting him with the fictional "Rajaijah" juice, which induces madness (see "Cigars of the Pharaoh"). After this fails, he tries to kill Tintin with his knife, before discovering that it has been substituted with a tin knife and the poison replaced by water, by order of Wang Chen-Yee ("Mr. Li" in the video).

Mitsuhirato relies heavily upon the potency of "Rajaijah" to intimidate his opponents, using the poison to drive Wang's son insane. He also kidnaps a scholar, Doctor Fan Hsi-Ying, to prevent him from developing an antidote to the poison.

Although Mitsuhirato shows a consistent degree of determination and sadism in his efforts to kill Tintin, at one point in the book, after Tintin has been arrested and condemned to death by Japanese military authorities, Mitsuhirato confidently offers him $10,000 and his freedom on the condition that he return the legitimate "Rajaijah" juice and join the Japanese counter-espionage service, an offer which Tintin vehemently refuses.

After Tintin exposes his link to the drug ring and involvement with the Japanese invasion of China, he commits seppuku.