BERLIN COMPLEX

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 86, Issue 62, 14 March 1942, Page 4

BERLIN COMPLEX

JAPANESE AMBITIONS AMERICAN JOURNALIST'S EXPERIENCES This is the sixth of James R. Young’s series of “inside Japan” articles, which are being published in the “Chronicle.” Young, who was in Japan for 13 years, tells about the rigid system of censorship the Japanese authorities exercised over foreign correspondents. Young, a famous American journalist, has a first-hand knowledge of this. He was gaoled in 1940 by the Jap Gestapo for disseminating news “injurious to Japan.” pRIOJI to Japan’s Axis ambi lions, which are almost entirtly of military inspiration, the well-meaning and serious-minded Hort ign Office officials'were busy sending Japanese delegations as; well as some sympathetic foreigners abroad to justify Japan’s actions in Asia. Regularly attached newspapermen anti correspondents were being accused of misrepresenting Japanese actions and motives. One of Japans foreign employees was Henry Kinney, adviser to the ; president of the South Manchurian Railway. Kinney arrived in Japan from Hawaii, w here he had in vn Superin- ' tencent of Schools. He et.ame a colourful figure in the Joi.ugn and .a.panese community, an i aid as ?ood a jar; as any American could n ive done • under the circumstances in interpret-] ing the complexiti \s of .lapanese methods and motives t-« the Press. At the height of the League ot , Nations condemnation of Japan’s I actions in Manchuria, Henry Kinncv I ' was sent to Geneva. His theme was ’ to show how Manchuria was to be I pacified and benefitted under Japanese influence. En route to Geneva, b< lore the train i had left the Manchurian border, Kinney was kidnapped b;. bandits, from his own train, on his own railroad. Not only did they take his money, hut his pants as well. Kinney an I his fellow passengers had to walk many long miles into Harbin clad only in underwear. . Kinney will never live that down. Suosequentiy he retired, ana is now living in Tahiti. Possibly his choice of a home in his retirement indicated his personal views on the future peace ol japan and Asia in general. And now for the episode of the Axis clock! The new order of things in Japancontrolled Asia disregards Greenwich mean time. As the Japanese army moves westward on the continent ol Asia H makes the people reset their ? clocks in accordance with Tokio time. In consequence, in Peking at. nine o'clock you may be having a winter breakfast in the light ot a full moon. This change of time was announced to the Chinese as "friendship time." j On completion of the new Yomiuri newspaper building in Tokio 1 had an . electrical engineering firm draw up , plans tor a large clock, intended lo be a goodwill gesture to the publisher t who had collaborated so closely with me in the past. The design was sent on to my home office in New York, and was instantß approved. The clock, when completed, weighed three-quarters of a ton. It measured six ieet high, three feet thick, and had a double face, made lo suspend from the corner of the building so it could be seen from all sides. A dinner parly was arranged for . the surprise presentation of the clock. .1 had managed to keep the whole thing under cover. Shortki, the publisher, was a great hand at surprises, ; and to top him really required something mammoth. Al. the dinner party we unveiled the clock. From the con- , versation in Japanese between Shoriki and his staff, 1 gathered that something was amiss. His managing editor told me in English that Mr. Shoriki preferred to have Berlin time, and not London time. I said that could be done, but it would require drastic changes in the clock’s mechanism. I pointed out that there’s an hour’s difference between time in London and Berlin. But that, I was immediately in formed, was of no importance. It was not necessary for the clock toi go hack to the factory for altera-i tion. Ail that was needed was to, paint over idle word juontfon wit 11 the word Berlin! I was tot I it would bp known as Axis “friendship time.” Ln the article to he published on Monday the famous American fori eign correspondent discloses ti:c ] fact that Japan’s plans to invade American possessions in the I’arific were revealed in a startling private report which reached Washington on October 28, 1911. Young warned the l .S. State Department in newspaper articles, in lectures, on the radio and iq his hook, “Behind the Rising Sun." Further, he reveals that Japan’s Pacific attacks were ! outlined two years ago by her naval stm 1 egists.