“INSIDE JAPAN"

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 86, Issue 60, 12 March 1942, Page 4

“INSIDE JAPAN"

GERMAN INFLUENCE ON OFFICIALDOM DESCRIBED BY AMERICAN JOURNALIST This is the fourth of James R Young's series of “inside Japan" articles, which are being published in the "Chronicle." Young, who spent 13 years in Japan, was gaoled last year by the Jap Gestapo while awaiting trial in Tokio for “spreading fabrications and false rumours.” He gave yesterday a first-hand account cf the methods of the Japanese military police. In this article he reveals how the hand of Germany has, slowly *but firmly, closed upon Japan. "P’HIS incident with thu Japancsi Gestapo illustrates Japancs ■ aggression as ii is typified in mon important, more Lasting affairs. People in the United Slates often ask me to-day who was actnallx running Japan during recent years. My answer is. the police sergeants and German agents in the Japanese Home Ministry in Tokio—opposed by ihe Japanese people, who detest both. Mention of Nazi influence in Japan reminds mo that the “Kimignyo,” Japan's national anthem, the words of which are from a Japanese poem written a thousand years ago. is based on the work of a German. Franz Eckert, a musical instructor tor Japanese bands from 1879-98. It. was first played in 1880 for the Emperor Meiji. It is disturbing and more than embarrassing to admit that anything so closely associated with the sacredness of Japanese nationalism stems from foreign inspiration. It is a closely-guarded secret that, the two bridges in front of the Imperial Palace over which his Imperial Majesty the Emperor must ride whenever he sallies forth from the Royal household in his State horse and carriage or official maroon car were made in Hamburg, Germany, by C. lilies and Co., who entcrpixsinglx brought the bridges to Japan in sections from a Baltic seaport. This early influence of Gorman bands, batons, and bridges subsequently placed lilies and other German! companies ahead of all others in sell-; ing spark plugs, magnetos, toothpaste, and pills to the Japanese people. The Gorman bridges were “pi’o- 1 tectod" during the nights of the 1936 revolution by the Imperial bodyguard and two regiments, who immediatelN joined in the uprising. They had been drilling energetically to German-type military music. With this had come the natural development and demand for buglers, most of whom were' country boys without half an ear for music. These, wo were supposed to understand, wore buglers heralding the dawn of enlightened peace in a now Japan. A squad of khaki Gabriels appoint I in a park opposite my house in Tokic. some months before the revolution, and from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. practised their bugling. A protest to the police that (his seemingly unnecessary noise might he made elsewhere brought the reply that this was the Imperial Arm.- - , and the Imperial Army could nol be moved. I approached a spokesman for the War Ministry, and on his recommendation I wrote a letter to the commander of the regiment. My letter to the commander had an immediate result. The buglers wore increased from a company of 12 to a company of 20. 1 began Io fool that there was something personal about all this. My distress over the activities ol the buglers was matched and oven surpassed by the disgust, of Japanese residents around the park. A Peruvian military chief thought ho could use his influence. At 1 hat time the Japanese wore wooing Peruvian military and economic missions. In fact, the Peruvians made some sizable contracts for Japanese military merchandise. As a result of the Peruvian at tacho’s entrance into the case, tlw buglers wore increased from 20 to 28. The Peruvian moved. The Young household remained. The buglers increased to 34. Another loiter addressed Io the commander of the regiment brought no response. A revolution broke. Ton days later an honorable Mr. Stool Pigeon, who had the disconcerting habit of showing up at 6 in the morning (sometimes with fail and more often with fancy acquired durin his psychic wanderings of (he night before) told us the police wanted us to move. Bv that lime we had come independently to the same conclusion. . In the article tn ho publislie-'l to-morrow Young tolls about the rigid system the Japanese authorities exercise 1 over foreign cor respondents, and relates the incident of a suggestion that President Roosevelt might hold a radio-telephone conversation with the Emperor of Japan. The son s'ltion this caused in Japanese official circles is significantly described.