Word: abends
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...biggest news last week of U.S. foreign relations was only an unconfirmed report. But it may well have been true, even if the U.S. had no part in it. From Washington the New York Times's Hallett Abend (who left Shanghai last October, after 14 years of service in the Far East) reported that Japanese Ambassador Nomura for nearly two months had been secretly trying to negotiate a U.S.Japanese neutrality and non-aggression pact with Secretary of State Hull...
...midnight two masked Japanese got into Abend's apartment, forced him to kneel by twisting his arms. They kicked him in the small of his back, slapped his face. Then they made off with 354 typed pages of Abend's new book, did not touch valuable jewelry or $350 in cash...
...after Abend obtained a three-day scoop on the Japan-Axis pact, there were five threats by telephone. Next day there were more. Then anonymous letters began to arrive. So Timesman Abend said a sad farewell to his two Scotties and one dachshund, began a long inspection tour of the democratic bastions in the Far East that took him to Singapore, The Netherlands East Indies, the Philippines, back to the U.S. In part his book is a report of what he saw, in part it is a report of his years as a journalistic China hand...
Like Young, Abend reports that in Japan "life is harder, pleasures are fewer, luxuries are banned, clothing is shoddy, food is rationed, amusements are curtailed." Unlike Young, he is unable to laugh at what he finds. Instead he tries to see Japan's case from the viewpoint of a patriotic Japanese. So he does not run the risk of underestimating the Japanese...
...more than one non-fascist country, Abend finds that in Japan the war is being used as a pretext for setting up totalitarian socialism. In Japan, socialism is the old army game. "Capitalistic and liberal elements are to be driven to earth ... all initiative is being stifled, and Government control is being ruthlessly extended into every branch of industry. Exchange control, production limitations, restrictions on the purchasing and shipment of supplies, rationing of raw materials-these are among the means. . . ." "A mere whispered threat" by the Army to repeat the 1936 Tokyo mutiny keeps politicians and financiers in line...