MARRIAGE ALLIANCE:
THE UNION OF TWO IMPERIUMS, JAPAN AND ETHIOPIA?
Paper Presented to
The Annual Meeting
of the
Association for Third World Studies
San Jose, Costa Rica
November, 1999
J. Calvitt Clarke III
Jacksonville University
http://users.ju.edu/jclarke/wizzat2/html
Luke Roberts of the
University of California at Santa Barbara tells a story. While in Japan, an old
Japanese historian was driving him to an archive in Aki city in Kochi
Prefecture. On the way, around Tei village, they saw a store advertising
"Ethiopia Manjuu"—a shiny, brown, sweet, steamed dumpling stuffed
with azuki bean paste. Told that Americans would consider such a name to be
racist, the historian simply explained, "Oh, this local product was first
developed in the 1930s, and the name was to show solidarity with the Ethiopian
people."(1). How do we explain this seemingly odd connection between Japan
in East Asia and Ethiopia in East Africa?
Italy, ruled by Benito Mussolini and his fascists, attacked Ethiopia on October
2, 1935, and in seven months conquered the country to create the Italian
Empire. Italy’s military preparations before the attack had gone on in earnest
for more than a year. It resembled
America’s military buildup before the Gulf War of 1991—especially for the sustained
press coverage and intense, if not always earnest, multilateral diplomacy aimed
at averting war. More earnestly, the two antagonists sought to find allies and
undermine hostile coalitions. (2)
Of the many reasons that led Italy to decide for war, one stands out for its
importance to contemporaries and for the oblivion later commentators consigned
it. Japan’s real and perceived economic, political, and even military
intrusions into its spheres of influence, including Ethiopia, upset Italy. (3)
In early 1934, the Italia Marinara, the official publication of the
Italian Navy League, put the matter plainly: “Italy is watching with great
interest developments in the Far East. Because of Japan’s recent energetic
invasion of Italian markets not only in Italy itself but in the Colonies and in
the smaller countries bordering the Mediterranean, her attitude is not
pro-Japanese.”(4)
Explaining why
Italy had militarily reinforced its colonies of Eritrea and Somaliland,
Alessandro Lessona, Under-Secretary of Colonies, proclaimed Italy’s fears in a
speech at Naples at the end of the year:
In the Far East, the political situation tends to
get worse. In the face of the complexity and importance of European interests
in this region of the world, Japan, for the first time in history, offers the
example of a people of 80,000,000 inhabitants extraordinarily developed
economically, industrially and militarily
The birth rate, energy and spirit of sacrifice of the Japanese, the
imperious necessity for always seeking new markets—all these combine to make
Japan a great danger for Europe. Her pretensions and her force are the axle
around which turns all Oriental policy.
The more one restrains the Japanese expansion in the East, the more she will
try to expand in other sectors and in other continents. Japan’s activity in
Ethiopia proves this.
Lessona ominously
added that Africa could well represent the final objective of Japanese
expansion:
To draw the Dark Continent into her own orbit would
signify for Japan not so much in acquisition of power, as a means of depriving
Europe of the possibility of using Africa for the defense of her civilization.
(5)
The Japanese
understandably reacted. The Yomiuri newspaper in January 1934, for
example, complained that Mussolini seemed obsessed with the old "Yellow
Peril" theory for a base reason—that is, Italy’s defeat in African markets
at Japanese hands. (6)
Romantic Japanese visions (7) and presumed plans for cotton and opium
cultivation in the Ethiopian highlands by thousands of Japanese colonists
excited observers the world over. Germany’s press in December 1934 insisted
that this economic threat also jeopardized white racial supremacy and
symbolized the West’s progressive decline. Yellow dolls of Japanese
manufacture, Germans lamented, were replacing white dolls in the hands of "Negro"
children in Asia and Africa. The crowning psychological effect would be
enormous. The Osaka Mainichi & Tokyo Nichi Nichi cynically added
that the Germans were reacting hysterically because their toy trade had been
the hardest hit among all German industries by Japanese competition. (8)
What we might expect from Nazi Germany, Communist Russia surprisingly
underscored. Rejecting its class-based rationalism for passionate nationalism,
the Moscow Daily News on January 11, 1935, described Italy’s imperialism
and sympathetically editorialized that Italians had sought Ethiopia’s peaceful
economic penetration. However, “The reversion of Italian policy in Abyssinia
to the old methods of direct seizure is bound up to a considerable degree with
the intensification of Japanese economic and political influence in Abyssinia.”(9)
The Soviet editorial added that Japan’s increasing influence was fraught with
dangers not only for Italy’s interests in Ethiopia but also for British
interests in Egypt and the Sudan. The
editorial thereby implied the Kremlin’s belief that Britain should go with
Italy and France on the Ethiopian question.
One issue, minor in
itself, for many in Italy and elsewhere came to symbolize--and
personify--Japanese encroachments . . . a marriage. One particularly
hyperventilated account argued that,
[P]lans have been made for effecting mixed marriages between the
eligible Japanese settlers (estimated at about 2000 in number) and native
Abyssinian women. This declared policy, intended to produce a new race of
leaders in the united revolt of the coloured peoples against the white races,
was to have been inaugurated by the marriage of Princess Masako, a daughter of
the Japanese prince Kurado [Kuroda], to the Ethiopian prince Lij Ayalé [Araya]. (10)
The many articles
in newspapers and magazines, especially those appealing to women, showed that
the proposed marriage had stirred popular excitement in Japanese. The emotions
produced were genuine and have remained etched in some memories to this day.
For example, my wife’s grandmother, born in western Japan, grew excited on
hearing about my work:
There was a nationwide atmosphere of friendship toward Ethiopia in the
1930s, and I, then a girl’s middle school student, also have a strong
impression on the matter. There was a rumor of a marriage between the Ethiopian
royal family and the Japanese nobility. I imagined that Ethiopia must have been
a wonderful country. The Japanese prewar-generation people still feel closeness
to Ethiopia even today. In the 1970s, Japanese people expressed their support
for Abeba, an Olympic marathon runner, because he was from Ethiopia. (11)
And in the spring
of 1999, a popular quiz show on Japanese television asked a question about the
marriage. (12)
How did all of this
come to pass? One year after signing a Treaty of Friendship and Commerce with
Tokyo in 1930, Ethiopia’s foreign minister, Blaten Geta Heruy, made a grand
tour of Japan. The visit dramatized the potentialities of future Ethio-Japanese
cooperation in the political, diplomatic, and economic arenas. One Araya Abeba
had accompanied Heruy’s embassy. (13)
Impressed with Japan, Araya, seemingly a prince and nephew of the Emperor Hayle
Sellase, expressed his desire to marry: "It has been my long-cherished
ambition," he explained to a Japanese reporter in February 1934, "to
marry a Japanese lady. Of all first-class nations, Japan has the strongest
appeal."(14) The original initiative was seemingly his. (15)
Sumioka [Kadooka] Tomoyoshi, (16) a Tokyo lawyer, philo-Ethiopian nationalist,
and Pan-Asian activist, stage-managed much of the marriage affair. Heruy had
visited him during his 1931 trip to Japan. Sumioka now wished to facilitate
Japanese trade and investment in Ethiopia.
Meanwhile, in 1932, two young men had gone to Addis Ababa. (17) One of them,
Shoji Yunosuke, had played an important role in Heruy’s reception in 1931.
Preaching racial solidarity uniting Ethiopians and Japanese, he approvingly
citing a professor who had written: “It is obvious that some superior races
moved from West Asia to the Nile basin a long time ago. . . . [I]t is
uncontroversial that the Ethiopian people a very long time ago had some racial
connections with the Japanese people.”(18) Upon his return to Japan, he
explained his relationship with Sumioka:
When I left Ethiopia, the Ethiopian Emperor, who greatly favored Japan,
especially permitted his meeting and granted a picture, rhino’s horn, musk,
etc., to me. At that time, he entrusted his recent picture as a gift to Mr.
Sumioka Tomoyoshi to me, and I handed it to Mr. Sumioka after my return, which
was my first acquaintance with him. Since then, his excellent understanding and
right belief on racial issues and world statecraft deeply impressed me. I
gained an opportunity to be consulted about the Ethiopian marriage issue, as it
has progressed, because I fortunately have a close friendship with Prince Araya. (19)
At least from the fall
of 1932, Sumioka was eager to find a bride for Araya. Araya soon did tell him
to advertise for applicants and from them select suitable candidates. The
announcement that Araya was seeking a Japanese bride went out in May 1933 and
the first article on the marriage appeared that same month. (20) In his monthly
report for June 1933, United States’ Ambassador Joseph Grew noted that for several
weeks the Japanese press had carried stories of Araya’s request to have a
Japanese bride sent to him. The ambassador mistakenly identified him as a
prince and nephew of Hayle Sellase. He added that the press was saying that
after his return home his longing for a Japanese maiden was such that he had
requested "Imperial sanction" for his marriage to a Japanese. (21)
The wedding was to be held according to Christian rites in April or May 1934,
first in Japan and then again on the Prince’s return to Addis Ababa. According
to press accounts, the twenty-three-year-old prince was reassuringly
light-skinned, monogamous, and Christian. Hence, "Scores of adventurous
girls who were willing to be a Princess of Ethiopia answered. . . ,"
apparently at least twenty in all. (22)
From these, Araya made two preliminary choices. The second was Kabata Shigeko,
the twenty-two-year-old, third daughter of Tabata Kametaro, a millionaire
businessman of Moji. On the morning of January 21, Sumioka announced as Araya’s
first choice, a young woman who had been among the first applicants. (23)
Kuroda Masako, the first choice, was the twenty-three-year-old, second daughter
of Viscount Kuroda Hiroyuki of the forestry bureau of the Imperial Household.
Viscount Kuroda was descended from the former Lord of Kazusa, a feudal lord in
Chiba. She had presented her picture and other credentials to Sumioka without
her parents’ knowledge. Despite early objections, her father was soon preparing
to visit Ethiopia. The Kuroda family lived in a tiny suburban house, and she
was graduated from the Kanto Gakuin Higher Girl’s School in Yodobashi-ku. She
spoke English fluently, having been one of the first Japanese girls to take
part in an English oratorical contest and to win a prize. At five feet, three
inches, she was taller than average. After her enrollment as a candidate to be
the "prince’s bride," she studied the habits and customs of Ethiopia
through books and conversations with those familiar with conditions there. (24)
In school Kuroda had been a keen athlete who enjoyed swimming, basketball,
volleyball, and tennis. In an interview in February 1934, she enthusiastically
remarked:
I understand the people of Ethiopia are extremely interested in sports,
and I believe that I shall be able to indulge my taste for athletics when I go
there. Unfortunately I did not have the opportunity of meeting Prince Abeba
[Araya] when he visited Japan a few years ago, but I have firmly decided to go
to his country and I am willing to put up with whatever circumstances come
along. (25)
Women’s magazines
immediately jumped on the topic. For instance, in its March issue Fujin
Kurabu [Women’s Club] carried a round table discussion entitled,
"Fairyland Ethiopia Will Receive a Bride for the Royal Nephew from
Japan" and detailed the process of Sumioka’s selection of the bride. It
quoted Kuroda as saying: "When I heard the report of ‘It is decided to be
Kuroda. Please take means accordingly,’ my heart was filled with joy, and I
exclaimed, ‘Banzai!’"(26)
Reflecting the popular excitement, a set of dolls for the Girls’ Festival
(March 3) were made specially for her to take to Africa when she married Araya.
The Girl’s Festival is a beloved, traditional holiday, and in their homes girls
formally set up dolls surrounded by special sweets. These dolls often pass from
mother to daughter. The dolls bore the crest of the Kuroda family and of the
prince of Ethiopia. (27)
Throughout 1935, Japanese women continued their interest in Ethiopia. The Fujin
Kurabu [Women’s Club] reported on Ethiopia’s condition in its October and
November issue. The Shufu no Tomo [Friend of Housewives], also discussed
the Ethiopian conflict in its September and October issues. (28)
Beyond the exotic romance, what had stirred such interest in the proposed marriage?
Kuroda allowed that with its ever-increasing population Japan would have to
found colonies abroad. Wanting to increase the ties of friendship uniting Japan
and Ethiopia, she saw herself as the first of many who would emigrate to
Ethiopia. (29) Such statements sparked alarm among those, especially in Italy,
who feared Japanese competition in East Africa. And, in truth, many in Japan
did see in the proposed marriage the opportunity to cut into interests of the
colonial powers. Japanese newspapers and nationalists further argued the
necessity of uniting the colored races against whites. The marriage would
personify this solidarity. (30)
On the other side of the world, a faction of Ethiopia’s intelligentsia, known
as the Japanizers, were favoring intermarriage between upper-class Ethiopians
and Japanese. These intellectuals for several decades had been imploring
Ethiopia to model its modernization along Japanese lines. (31) For example, an
Eritrean intellectual and Ethiopian patriot, Blatta Gabra Egziabher, was an
early Japanizer. He wrote verses extolling modernization:
Let us learn from the Europeans; let us become strong
So that the enemy may not vanquish us, on the first encounter.
Let us examine our history; let us read the newspaper.
Let us learn languages; let us look at maps.
This is what opens people’s eyes.
Darkness has gone; dawn has come.
It is a disgrace to sleep by day.
Modernization, for
the sake of national strength, found expression in another of his poems, which
declared,
He who accepts it, fears no one.
He will become like Japan, strong in everything. (32)
Commercial and
economic negotiations were the tangible, practical result of such talk. One
Japanese business enterprise became entwined in international diplomacy to the
injury of both Japan and Ethiopia. Popularly known as Nikkei-Sha, the Nagasaki
Echiopia Keizai Chosa-kai Nikkei-Sha [Nagasaki Association for
Economic Investigation of Ethiopia] had been founded in 1932 in Nagasaki to
conduct import/export operations with Ethiopia. Its director, Kitagawa Takashi,
had gone to Ethiopia that same year. In September 1933, he received permission
to negotiate a deal with Ethiopia. A glib-talking and unscrupulous fixer, he
negotiated with Heruy for authorization on: the rights to use 500,000 hectares
of land in Ethiopia; a permit to grow cotton, tobacco, tea, green tea, rice,
wheat, fruit trees, and vegetables; a permit to grow medicinal plants; a grant
of fifteen hectares of land for each immigrant Japanese family; and 1,000
hectares of land next to Addis Ababa for a Japanese investigation mission to
examine what plants could be grown in Ethiopia. Kitagawa managed little but to
earn Ethiopia and Japan international suspicion. His scheme provoked Great
Britain, France, the USSR, and, especially, Italy. (33) Some drew the
conclusion that Hayle Sellase, satisfied with the progress of the marriage
idea, decided to grant 1,600,000 acres to Japan and was planning to permit
Japanese immigration. (34)
Not all Japanese were dizzy with the marriage fever. On January 18, 1934, Juo
Hyoron [Free Critics] published an article tying the marriage to the
international discord. In part it read:
Although we do not have any ambitions in Ethiopia, countries such as
Italy, France, and England which possess close and unalienable interests in
Ethiopia, will most certainly understand the royal engagement as a part of
Japan’s African ambitions, including colonization. Though England and France
are unworthy of any trust in a crisis, Italy as well as Germany are still somewhat
the allies of an isolated Japan. It would be capricious of Japan to undertake
an adventure that could damage Italy’s feelings.
We should firmly eliminate any ambitions toward Ethiopia and warn against
rumors for the sake of the integrity of the Japanese lady who is to be
sacrificed for concessions worth only 500,000 yen. . . .(35)
Shoji objected to
such logic. He argued that Japan could not count on Italy as an ally: those who
could write such things were no better than spies purveying treason. (36)
The Japanese government did not agree with Shoji. Tokyo could not allow a free
hand in Ethiopia to ambitious, pan-Asiatic adventurers such as Kitagawa.
Matters reached the point when Japan’s Gaimusho [foreign ministry] in February
1934 decided to send a high-ranking officer to investigate conditions in
Ethiopia. The Second Division of the Trade Section explained why:
Reports say that the Ethiopian government intends to approve a wide
land lease to Japanese people, and that Ethiopian royal family wishes to arrange
a marriage with a Japanese noble family. Ethiopia recently has shown a
pro-Japanese attitude. . . . When the Japanese people extend their business to
Ethiopia, we need to understand the domestic conditions of this country and
carefully consider its delicate international position. Otherwise, our plans
will fail, or we will unnecessarily invite the envy and misunderstanding of
other major countries. Such a result will negatively influence future relations
between our two countries. . . .(37)
To go, the Gaimusho
chose Tsuchida Yutaka, a Gaimusho secretary, who had described Ethiopians as
half-black Semites, one-third of whom formed the traditional ruling class and
believed in Christianity. The other two-thirds, he added, were either Muslim or
non-religious. Often barbaric, Ethiopians were lazy, uncultured, and
"benign."(38) Like so many Japanese in government, he was not one to
excessively romanticize any presumed racial solidarity binding the Japanese
with the Ethiopians.
In any case, he arrived in Ethiopia just in time. He reported that the
Ethiopians no longer trusted the Japanese as they had before. They complained
that Japan’s press had written too much on the Nikkei-Sha and marriage
affairs. An irresponsible press and the Anti-Opium Bureau of the League of
Nations had treated the first as if Ethiopia had signed a concession for
cultivating opium. The second, presented as if it was the heir to the throne
who wanted to marry, had led to an embarrassing complaint from Mussolini to Hayle
Sellase. (39) An exasperated Heruy spoke of the marriage rumors as
Fairy-tales! Goodness knows where they sprang from! . . .
It is also rumoured, probably from the same source, that Japan is settling
peasants in Abyssinia, some of whom are to work on cotton plantations. Others
are to become soldiers for an expect war. Two hundred thousand is the number
mentioned. Now, I ask you, have you seen or heard any sign of this Japanese
invasion in the country itself? At the moment there are not 200,000 nor 2,000
but only 4 Japanese in the whole of Abyssinia. There is still no Japanese
Legation and our four Japanese guests are little merchants who have built a
small shop where they sell Japanese goods to compete with the cheap Czech
glassware the Galli and Somali women like so much. As far as I can tell, this
outpost of the Japanese invasion is not doing well, and its owners are thinking
of leaving the country. (40)
Difficulties rose
to the point at the end of February 1934, when Kuroda defensively asserted:
"I will go to Ethiopia even in the capacity of a private citizen, if the
Imperial Household authorities should disapprove of my trip."(41)
At that time, her
mother admitted that the Imperial Household Department had not yet sanctioned her
daughter’s betrothal or proposed trip to Ethiopia. She added that Araya had
been, "scheduled to visit Japan in May of this year, but his trip has been
indefinitely postponed. No direct word has been received from the Royal Family
of Ethiopia, but Mr. Sumioka, a lawyer, is negotiating the matter."(42)
Not misled by the publicity hullabaloo, the American embassy in Tokyo reported
in February 1934 that the Japanese government had provided little information
on the marriage and disparaged its political significance. (43) The next month,
the embassy reported that the marriage was about to fall through because of
official Japanese opposition. The embassy added that the press continued to
write colorful stories. As a new variation, the Tokyo Hochi had written that
Ethiopia’s imperial family had become so interested in Japan that it would
request a bride for the crown prince. The newspaper gave as its source a letter
written by a Japanese cook employed by Ethiopia’s Emperor! (44)
Providing more reliable information, Haniyu Chotaro, a businessman from
Kamakura, had spent five months in Ethiopia at the Gaimusho’s request. On his
return in April 1934, he publicly discussed the available commercial
opportunities. He then declared that the marriage was receiving little
attention in Ethiopia while in Japan it had created a public sensation. His
comments were hardly encouraging:
This matter is delicate from a viewpoint of the
international situation, . . .
Prince Ababa [Araya] is called a Prince only in Japan. In Ethiopia, he is
called Lij Ababa, and the word Lij means "lord" in English. There are
only three Princes of the Blood in Ethiopia. The Japanese Foreign Office has
nothing to do with this marriage. Some time ago, an Italian newspaper
sarcastically remarked that Japan intends to invade Africa with "kisses
between the dark and the black by having a daughter of a Japanese peer married
to an Ethiopian." The Ethiopian press from the outset has been taciturn on
the matter. If Miss Kuroda really wants to marry Ababa, she had better, I
think, personally inspect the actual conditions of Ethiopia. (45)
Sound comments and
advice. Yet, his visit unintentionally added fuel to the burning concerns over
the political and economic implications of Japan’s encroachments into Northeast
Africa. Inspired by the visit, in what appears to be a semi-official letter in
early March 1934, Jacob Adol Mar, self-proclaimed, retired counselor of state
and friend of Ethiopia’s foreign minister, wrote to "C. Hanew"
[Haniyu Chotaro]. He declared that all
"logical thinking" Ethiopians wanted to see the Japanese come to
Ethiopia for industrial and commercial purposes. Mar proposed an extensive set
of concessions for Japanese commercial and business enterprises. (46)
Ethiopia, he wrote, felt squeezed among the colonies of Britain, France, and
Italy. He added, "In this critical
situation we all hope that the presence of many Japanese may encourage Your
Government to give us a political help in difficult circumstances." He
lamented the "regrettable faults" by those in both Ethiopia and
Japan, which allowed European powers to oppose Ethio-Japanese friendship. All
important Ethiopian governmental officers had received instructions against
making such missteps, but the Ethiopians feared that Japanese journalists,
manufacturers, and traders knew so little about Ethiopia that new blunders
might again trouble relations between Ethiopia and Japan. (47)
Therefore, continued Mar, his friends had suggested that he go to Japan to
speak publicly to build sympathy for Ethiopia. He proposed that he would
explain to the Gaimusho the best way to open political relations with Ethiopia
and how Japan’s bankers, exporters, and manufacturers could set up successful
enterprises. The necessary first step would be to establish an Imperial
Legation in Addis Ababa. The Japanese could do this cheaply--one diplomat would
be enough, and he could get a house at low rent from Ethiopia’s government. Mar
could act officially as an adviser for Japan’s legation. Mar thought that the legation’s
permanent representative ought to be in Ethiopia at beginning of Japan’s
business activity. If Tokyo could not send him immediately, Mar suggested
letting an important merchant act as a consul or consul general until his
arrival. (48)
Presumably unaware of Mar’s proposal, Rome’s embassy in Tokyo on Saturday
afternoon, October 6, 1934, issued a communiqué rejecting the ideas that Italy
was interested in aggression against Ethiopia or the proposed marriage.
The Italian Government hold none but friendly intentions towards the
Ethiopian Government with which Italy has a treaty of amity since 1928. Italy
intends to continue with Ethiopia the most friendly relations as a necessary
basis for further increasing such mutual relations politically and economically.
The Italian Embassy seizes this opportunity to formally deny that the
Italian Government has ever and in any way been interested in the question of a
proposed marriage between a notable Abyssinian and a Japanese young lady. (49)
Despite these
assurances, the projected marriage between the "wealthy" Japanese
girl and the Ethiopian "prince" was quashed, many thought by Italy’s
diplomatic pressure. (50) The Economist (London) in December 1934,
repeated that it had required Italian diplomatic pressure to quash the
projected Ethio-Japanese marriage. (51) Likewise charged Kato Kanju, president
of the National Council of Trade Unions of Japan, the largest group of workers
in the country. While visiting the United States in July 1935, he claimed that
Mussolini had blocked the marriage. (52) The New York Times did not
regard the idea as illogical. (53) Some believed that Emperor Hirohito was
bitter with Italians because their protests had broken off the proposed
marriage. (54)
Resonating fears of Japanese competition, Japan’s competitors in East Africa
continued to raise the marriage issue long after it was dead. In a December
1934 meeting with Sugimura Yotaro, Japan’s new ambassador, Mussolini linked it
to many contentious issues: "Japan is actively supplying weapons and
ammunition to Ethiopia, sending a princess, and a newspaper in Tokyo is
vigorously maneuvering Japanese-Ethiopian friendship."(55)
Sugimura, who had represented his government at Geneva when Japan withdrew from
the League of Nations, soon thereafter spoke with La Tribuna of Rome.
The ambassador endeavored to dispel suspicions of conflicting Italo-Japanese
interests in Asia and Africa. He emphatically denied charges that Japan’s Army
had sent instructors to Ethiopia. Denigrating Japan’s economic penetration of
Ethiopia, Sugimura explained that middlemen, "mostly Jewish," had
purchased goods at Kobe that were finding their way into Ethiopia "by
means of these same middlemen and not by direct importation."(56) Sugimura
also denied that there was any foundation for the rumor of a projected marriage
between a Japanese princess and an Ethiopian prince. On the Far East, Sugimura
said that he was convinced that Italy could pursue its interests in that field
without fear of Japanese opposition. There was a vast Chinese market to
exploit, the Japanese ambassador pointed out. He opined that Japan and Italy
might well come to a reciprocal agreement for the exchange of goods, which
would be profitable to both. (57)
In truth, beyond Japanese exports to Ethiopia, most of which went through
Indian merchants, there was little direct contact between the two nations. In
1932, fifteen Japanese had settled in Ethiopia, and in 1933 seven more had
arrived. In 1934, four more. Most, however, did not stay long, leaving after their
enterprises had failed. For example, although Nikkei-Sha got
agricultural concessions from Ethiopian, failing to find the necessary capital,
it could not exploit them and went out of business after six months. Tsuchida
Yutaka noted that not many Japanese visited Ethiopia: in the summer of 1934,
there were only four including himself. In 1935, only three. In August 1935, no
Japanese shipping company included Djibouti in its list of ports of call. (58)
The New York Times on July 11, 1935, summed up the situation nicely:
Japan’s economic interests in Ethiopia were new and still small; Japan still
had no legation in Addis Ababa and Ethiopia had no representative in Tokyo; the
number of Japanese residents in Ethiopia was small; reports of Japanese
capitalists having gained concessions for cotton growing in Ethiopia were
unfounded; and stories that an Ethiopian prince had been seeking to marry a
Japanese princess were groundless. (59)
The principals, Kuroda, Araya, Shoji, and Sumioka moved off center stage.
Mistaken for a communist, Kuroda was taken to the Ueno police station in Tokyo
on the night of July 24, 1935. The problem began when a policeman noted a
suspicious-looking woman in black afternoon dress walking up and down the
street near Ueno Park for two hours until about 8:00 p.m. The policeman
disguised himself as a worker and arrested her. As it turned out, she had
earlier reported to him that she had lost her purse containing about ¥5. She
had borrowed 20 sen from him but had given a false name—therefore the trouble.
Even after she had given her real name and had explained that she had been
waiting for a friend, the policeman was still suspicious and took her in. She
was, however, shortly released. (60)
In August, the Osaka Mainichi and Shoji sponsored a round table
discussion in Addis Ababa and invited prominent Ethiopians including Heruy. (61)
The next month as war was ready to break out, Araya suggested that Japan obtain
concessions in Ethiopia, according to the Nichi Nichi correspondent at
Addis Ababa. He said that Ethiopia would gladly grant such concessions to Japan
for industrial development. The Emperor was ready to approve such grants and
Araya offered his services as an intermediary. (62) Later, in 1943, Araya attended
a New York City meeting of the Ethiopian World Federation and thereafter became
involved in its internal politics. (63)
The Japan Advertiser of March 28, 1936, reported that Sumioka had been
awarded the Commander Class of the Order of Menelik II by Emperor Hayle Sellase.
In his letter of thanks, Sumioka praised the good will of the Japanese people
toward Ethiopia and his own conviction that Ethiopia’s brave army would defeat
Italy. (64) A month later, Hayle Sellase fled his country.
Meanwhile, only two months after the marriage affair had been put to bed, a
military mission headed by Marshal Pietro Badoglio, chief of Italy’s General
Staff, visited Eritrea to begin planning Ethiopia’s conquest. (65)
The summer of 1935
had plumbed the depths of Italo-Japanese relations, especially during the
so-called Sugimura Affair of July. The contretemps was born of the Gaimusho’s
inept attempts to "clarify" Ambassador Sugimura’s assiduous efforts
to reassure Mussolini about Japan’s interests in Ethiopia. In smoothing over
the ruffled feathers, Rome and Tokyo began building in August the foundation
for their alliance that ultimately went to war in 1941. (66) As part of that
process and to recognize Italy’s control over Ethiopia, Japan’s government
transformed its newly created Legation in Addis Ababa into a Consulate General.
In return, Italy’s foreign minister, Galeazzo Ciano, promised to protect
Japanese interests there. As if to emphasize that suspicions lingered, he
simultaneously referred to the proposed marriage and the Negus’ desire to draw
closer to Japan. In the end, Rome broke its promises. But no matter. Japan had
accepted its exclusion from Ethiopia--Japan had left Ethiopia at the marriage
altar to elope with Italy. (67)
ENDNOTES
2. J. Calvitt Clarke III, "Periphery and Crossroads: Ethiopia and World
Diplomacy, 1934-36," Ethiopia in Broader Perspective: Papers of the
XIIIth International Conference of Ethiopian Studies, 3 vols., K. E. Fukui
and M. Shigeta, eds. (Kyoto: Shokado Book Sellers, 1997), 1: 699-712.
3. See, e.g., Mario dei Gaslini, "Il Giappone nel’economia Etiopica"
[Japan in the Ethiopian Economy], in Federazione Provinciale Fascista Milanese,
Corso di Preparazione politica per i giovani [Course of Political
Preparation for Youths] Riassunti dello lezioni tenute nel scondo trimestre
(Milan: Tipografia del "Popolo d’Italia," 1935), 99-107.
4. Italy (Naval Attaché), 2/20/34: National Archives (College Park, MD),
Decimal File [hereafter cited as NA] 765.94/4.
5. "Italy Fears Oriental Power Seeks to Win Africa Away from European
Nations, "New York Times, Dec. 2, 1934, 28: 1.
6. "Japanese Press Opinions," Japan Times, Jan. 30, 1934, 8.
7. See, e.g., Oyama Ujiro, Echiopia Tanpo Hokoku [Report on a Visit to
Ethiopia] (Tokyo: Shunnan-sha, 1934); Oyama Ujiro, Abyssinia Jijo,
Madagascaru Jijo, Porutoraru ryo Higashi Africa Jijo [The Situation of
Abyssinia, of Madagascar, and of Portuguese East Africa] (Tokyo: Foreign
Ministry, 1928); Aminako Yasuhiro, Fugen Echiopia Teikoku no Zenbo [The
Whole Story of the Ethiopian Empire: Source of Wealth] (Tokyo: Osaka-sho,
1934); Shoji Yunosuke, Echiopia Kekkon Mondai wa Donaru, Kaisho ka? Ina!!!:
Kekkon Mondai o Shudai to shite Echiopia no Shinso o Katari Kokumin no
Saikakunin [What Will Happen to the Ethiopian Marriage Issue, Cancellation?
or Not!!!: I Request the Recognition of the (Japanese) Nation by Narrating the
Truth of Ethiopia with the Marriage Issue as the Central Theme] (Tokyo: Seikyo
Sha, 1934); Tsuchida Yutaka, "Echiopia o Miru" [Viewing Ethiopia] Chuo
Koron [Center for Opinion Leaders] 50 (Nov. 1935): 308-15; and Tsurumi
Yusuke and Komai Shigetsugu, Fuun no Rutsubo Echiopia [A Whirlwind in
Ethiopia] (Tokyo: Yashima Shobo, 1935). Okakura Takashi and Kitagawa Katsuhiko
in Nihon-Afurika Koryu-shi: Meiji-ki kara Dainiji Sekai Taisen-ki made
[History of Japanese-African Relations: From the Meiji Period to the Second
World War Period] (Tokyo: Dobun-kan, 1993), 42, discuss this romanticism. For
example, the Dai Tsuran Seinen Domei [Youth League of Great Turan] which
included Sumioka Tomoyoshi and Shoji Yunosuke as central members, Aikoku
Seinen Renmei [Youth Union of Nationalist], Dai Nihon Seisan-to
[Great Japan Manufacturers] Kokusui Taishu-to Teishin-tai [Volunteers of
Nationalistic Populace Party], and Dai Ajia-shugi Kyokai [Society of Pan
Asianism] expressed support for Ethiopia. Turan refers to the Turan
Plateau--the claimed ancestral home of both the Japanese and Ethiopian peoples,
that is located between Altai Mountains and the Caspian Sea. When Heruy visited
Japan, Sumioka invited him to his house and explained that there were many
common vocabulary words between Japanese and Ethiopia’s Amhara language. He
also wrote a letter to Heruy: “[T]here is a description in the Old Testament
of same national roots of Ethiopians and Japanese. Chapter 10 of the Genesis
records that the brave Japanese and Ethiopian peoples are the descendants of
Yawan, a son of the third son, Yabete, of Noa. (42-43).” Okakura and
Kitagawa describe these movements as a racialist and anti-white (43). My thanks
to Mariko A. Clarke who has translated these Japanese materials and guided me
through the Gaimusho’s archives in Tokyo.
8. "White Race Menaced," Osaka Mainichi & Tokyo Nichi Nichi,
Dec. 22, 1934, 4g.
9. F. Korradov, "Italian Expansion In Abyssinia," Moscow Daily
News, Jan. 11, 1935, 2f-3b. For more on this interpretation, see J. Calvitt
Clarke III, "Japan and Italy Squabble Over Ethiopia: The Sugimura Affair
of July 1935," paper presented to the Florida Conference of Historians,
Daytona Beach, FL, March 12-14, 1998; and Clarke, "Periphery and
Crossroads," 1: 699-712.
10. Roman Procházka, Abyssinia: The Powder Barrel (London: British
International News Agency, 1936), 60. Translated from the German edition of
1935, this book was printed in Austria.
11. Makiuchi Yoshiko, Spr. 1998.
12. Personal communication from Mark Caprio, April 9, 1999.
13. Furukawa Tetsushi, "Japan’s Political Relations with Ethiopia,
1920s-1960s: A Historical Overview," unpublished paper presented to the
35th Annual Meeting of the African Studies Association, Seattle, WA, Nov.
20-23, 1992. Araya’s father was Ato Abbaba Ayalawarq, the cousin of
Haile Selassie, and he was the brother of Wayzaro Mazelaqiyawarqa-Awarq,
the mother of Ras Emeru. His grandmother was Wayzaro
Eheta-Maryam-Walda-Mikael, the sister of Ras Makonnen. See Aoki Sumio
and Kurimoto Eisei, "Japanese Interest in Ethiopia (1868-1940): Chronology
and Bibliography," Ethiopia in Broader Perspective, 1: 714, 723.
Also see Yamada Kazuhiro, Masukaru no Hanayome: Maboroshi no Echiopia Ojihi [Bride
of Mascar: Phantom of an Ethiopian Consort] (Tokyo: Asahi Shinbun-Sha, 1998),
59-64, 92-96, 105.
14. "Prince Advertises for Bride in Japan," New York Times,
Feb. 18, 1934, IV, 8:6. For Heruy’s comments on Japanese women, see Yamada, Masukaru
no Hanayome, 114.
15. Yamada, Masukaru no Hanayome, 113, 123, 230-33.
16. The Chinese characters representing his name may be transliterated into
English as either "Kadooka" or "Sumioka."
17. See Aoki and Kurimoto, "Japanese Interest in Ethiopia," 1: 714; Heruy
Walde Sellassie, Dai Nippon [Great Japan], trans. Oreste Vaccari and
Enko Vaccari (Tokyo: Eibunpo Tsuron, 1934), 3. This is the Japanese translation
of Mahdere Berhan Ha-Ager Japon [The Source of Light, the Country of
Japan] (Addis Ababa, 1932), 91-99. See also Okakura and Kitagawa, Nihon-Afurika
Koryu-shi, 33, 36-37.
18. Shoji, Echiopia Kekkon Mondai, 5. Shoji wrote this article to
correct rampant misinformation and to "report a true picture of the
marriage issue and Ethiopia," which he could do because "I was
luckily permitted to read correspondence concerning the marriage issue."
From the Introduction. Also see Aoki and Kurimoto, "Japanese Interest in
Ethiopia," 1: 724. The whole statement in Shoji by Dr. Kogami (Tonoue)
Komanosuke of Kyushu Imperial University to the Fukuoka Nichi Nichi
newspaper on November 17, 1931, is instructive:
It is obvious that some superior races moved from West Asia to the Nile
basin a long time ago. It should be seen as an old mystery from which place our
race originated. However, as I have already argued in my publication. Nihon
Minzoku [Japanese People], I believe that our race started in the basin of
Tigris-Euphrates in West Asia by surveying studies of the Asian continent’s
ancient history, languages, and anthropology. I believe that the ancient Hyksos
tribe had racial connection with our ancestors. Seeing names of places around
the basin of the Nile today, I cannot help judging that they were named by the
tribe which was our ancestor. For instance, the mountain region of Ethiopia is
called Amuhara, which must correspond to our Amahara (a short term for
Takamagahara). Also names like kashi, koshi, and kushi around the Nile basin
are clearly named by the tribe migrated from West Asia. I think that our place
names, kashi, koshi, kushi (note: place names as Tsukushi, Kushiro, and
Echizen, Ecchu, Echigo in Etsu no Kuni, and personal names like Kushimoto,
Kishi, Kusumoto, Etsuda, etc.) are derived from the same etymological origin.
Therefore, it is uncontroversial that the Ethiopian people very long time ago
had some racial connections with the Japanese people.
19. Shoji, Echiopia
Kekkon Mondai, from the Introduction.
20. Yamada, Masukaru no Hanayome, 126.
21. Japan (Grew), 7/6/33: NA 894.00 P.R./67.
22. "Masako Kuroda Chosen to Wed Ethiopian Prince," Japan Times,
Jan. 21, 1934, 1; "Prince Advertises for Bride in Japan," New York
Times, Feb. 18, 1934, IV, 8:6; Japan (Grew), 7/6/33: NA 894.00 P.R./67;
Yamada, Masukaru no Hanayome, 128.
23. "Masako Kuroda Chosen to Wed Ethiopian Prince," Japan Times,
Jan. 21, 1934,1; "Prince Advertises for Bride in Japan," New York
Times, Feb. 18, 1934, IV, 8:6. For Kuroda’s application, see Yamada, Masukaru
no Hanayome, 128-29.
24. "Masako Kuroda Chosen to Wed Ethiopian Prince," Japan Times,
Jan. 21, 1934, 1; "Utopia In Ethiopia," ibid., Feb. 23, 1934,
8de; "Prince Advertises for Bride in Japan," New York Times, Feb.
18, 1934, IV, 8:6; Japan (Grew), 2/6/34: NA 894.00 P.R./74; Yamada, Masukaru
no Hanayome, 15-19.
25. "Miss Kuroda Will Visit Ethiopia Even Though Trip Is Disapproved in
Japan," Japan Times, Feb. 25, 1934, 1de.
26. Okakura and Kitagawa, Nihon-Afurika Koryu-shi, 37-38.
27. "Utopia In Ethiopia: An Ancient Empire Now on the Highroad of
Reorganization and Rebirth," Japan Times, Feb. 23, 1934, 8de.
28. Okakura and Kitagawa, Nihon-Afurika Koryu-shi, 38-39. See also Unno
Yoshiro, "Dainiji Itaria-Echiopia Senso to Nihon," [The Second
Italo-Ethiopian War and Japan] Hosei Riron 16 (Jan. 1984): 190.
29. "Utopia In Ethiopia," Japan Times, Feb. 23, 1934, 8de.
30. Kurosawa to Hirota, 1/24/36: Gaimusho Gaiko Shiryo Kan [Record Office,
Ministry of Foreign Affairs, hereafter cited as Gaimusho Gaiko Shiryo Kan
(Tokyo)] A461 ET/I1, vol. 6. Some African Americans also saw the marriage as
heralding the day of Asian-African global unity. The Chicago Defender
argued, not entirely correctly, that intermarriage was common and acceptable to
both races, and that Japanese internationalists had set their hearts on uniting
these two ancient houses to forge a strong union between Japan and Ethiopia.
"Ethiopian, Italian Armies Face Each Other In Africa," Chicago
Defender, July 13, 1935.
31. Ernest Allen, "When Japan Was ‘Champion of the Darker Races’: Satokata
Takahashi and the Flowering of Black Messianic Nationalism," The Black
Scholar 24 (Win. 1994): 30: Ladislas Farago, Abyssinia on the Eve
(New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1935), 70-76; Addis Hiwet, Ethiopia: from
Autocracy to Revolution (London: review of African Political Economy,
1975), 68-76; and Richard Bradshaw, "Japan and European Colonialism in
Africa 1800-1937" (Ph.D. dissertation, Ohio University, 1992), 298-306.
32. Richard Pankhurst, "History of Education, Printing and Literacy in
Ethiopia. 9: Educational Advances in Menilek’s Day," Addis Tribune,
Oct. 2, 1998, http://addistribune.ethiopiaonline.net/Archives/1998/10/02-10-98/Hist-313.htm.
Some Europeans did not assume this collaboration to be benign. See, e.g.,
Procházka, Abyssinia, 4, who writes that the Japanizers, aided and
abetted by the government, were systematically "fostering hatred of the
white peoples...." Nothing good can result: “The application of
European methods of education to the coloured peoples is bearing tragic and
dangerous fruits, more particularly in the cases in which the natives are not
under the rule and control of white people but have a free hand to conceive and
follow up any fatal policy to which their position as a sovereign native state
entitles them.”
33. Tokyo to Blatin Geta Heruy, 9/4/33; Note to Kitagawa, 9/28/33: Gaimusho
Gaiko Shiryo Kan (Tokyo) E424 1-3-1.
34. Okakura and Kitagawa, Nihon-Afurika Koryu-shi, 37.
35. Shoji, Echiopia Kekkon Mondai, 14-15.
36. Ibid., 15.
37. Taura Masanori, "Nihon-Echiopia kankei ni miru 1930 nen tsusho gaiko
no iso" [A Phase of the 1930 Commercial Diplomacy in the
Japanese-Ethiopian Relations], Seifu to Minkan [Government and
Civilians], Nenpo, Kindai Nihon Kenkyu [Annual Report, Study of Modern
Japan], 17 (1995): 141-170, quote, 154.
38. Okakura and Kitagawa, Nihon-Afurika Koryu-shi, 21.
39. Ishihara Hideko, "First Contacts Between Ethiopia and Japan,"
unpublished paper presented to the XIIIth International Conference of Ethiopian
Studies, Kyoto, Japan, Dec. 1997.
40. Farago, Abyssinia, 128.
41. "Miss Kuroda Will Visit Ethiopia Even Though Trip Is Disapproved in
Japan," Japan Times, Feb. 25, 1934, 1de. For more on these
difficulties, see Yamada, Masukaru no Hanayome, 165-66.
42. Ibid.
43. Japan (Grew), 2/6/34: NA 894.00 P.R./74.
44. Japan (Grew), 3/8/34: NA 894.00 P.R./75.
45. "Ethiopia Promising Market for Japanese Goods," Japan Times,
Apr. 22, 1934, fg.
46. Mar to Hanew, 3/4/34: Gaimusho Gaiko Shiryo Kan (Tokyo) M130 1-1-2. Jacob
Adol Mar’s father was Johannes Mayer, a German Protestant missionary who had
gone to Ethiopia in 1856 and worked for Emperor Tewodros II. In 1859, he
married at Magdala an Ethiopian who was related to the family of Negus Mickael
from Wollo. In 1868, Mayer and his wife were among the captives of Tewodros in
Magdala, until released by the British army. In 1869 he returned to Ethiopia
and worked closely in Ankober with the future emperor Menelik II. In 1881, he
settled in the southern province of Bale and opened a mission, which remained
open until 1886 when Emperor Johannes IV expelled all foreign missionaries.
Jacob Adolf was born in the province of Bale in 1881, the youngest of eight
children. The whole family left Ethiopia for Germany where Jacob Adolf
completed his studies. His features were those of an Amhara, and he fluently
spoke Amharic, Danakil, German, and French. Around 1904, he returned to
Ethiopia and served in the governments of Emperor Menelik, Lij Iyassu, and
Empress Zawditu. Under Menelik, he was a financial controller of the imperial
treasury; he then participated in creating the unsuccessful Bank for the Development
of Trade and Agriculture in Abyssinia. Under Lij Iyassu, he worked as a city
counselor of Addis Ababa and then was appointed as a state counselor around
1914. He owned the largest German agricultural concession before the First
World War in Ethiopia. The plantation was located in the Awash valley and
consisted of 51,000 acres of land. He probably received this concession around
1910 because of his links with Emperor Menelik. Close to the German legation,
the French legation in 1917 explained that he was among the troublesome
characters whom should be expelled from Ethiopia to improve relations with the
Ethiopian government. At the demand of Ras Tafari, Mar wrote a report on
reforming Ethiopia’s foreign ministry. In Ethiopia he was known as Jacob Adol
Mar, and a Belgian administrative document shows that in 1923 he officially
changed his name from Jacob Adolf Mayer to the more Ethiopian form. In 1923, he
departed for Brussels and worked for some years in Ethiopia’s consulate in
Belgium. In 1933 or 1934, he returned for the last time to Ethiopia. Political
differences with Haile Selassie and his close relationship with Lij Iyassu led
to his exile and the loss of his concession. Thereafter, he sought to recover
this land, including, going to Rome to secure recognition of his claims in
1936. He finished his life in Paris. Makeda Ketcham to Jay Clarke, personal
letter, Addis Ababa, March 25, 1998. Ms. Ketcham is the granddaughter of Jacob
Adol Mar. See Bairu Tafla. Ethiopia and Germany: Cultural, Political and Economic
Relations, 1871-1936 (Wiesbaden: Franz Steiner Verlag GMBH, 1981), 174.
47. Mar to Hanew, 3/4/34: Gaimusho Gaiko Shiryo Kan (Tokyo) M130 1-1-2.
48. Ibid.
49. "Italian Embassy Denies Rumors. Says Ethiopia and Italy On Best of
Terms; Refers to Romance." Japan Times, Oct. 7, 1934, 1e; Japan
(Grew), 11/12/34: NA 894.00 P.R./83.
50. Japan (Grew), 11/12/34: NA 894.00 P.R./83; "Mussolini Mobilizes Credit
to Stabilize Lira," Osaka Mainichi & Tokyo Nichi Nichi, Dec.
18, 1934, 7d-e. "Wealthy" was used by the communist press; see
"Imperialism in Abyssinia," International Press Correspondence
(Dec. 22, 1934): 1722-23.
51. "Mussolini Mobilizes Credit to Stabilize Lira. Abyssinia Will Be Drawn
to Japan for Safety." Osaka Mainichi & Tokyo Nichi Nichi, Dec.
18, 1934, 7d-e.
52. "Labor Leader of Japan Here to View Problems," Chicago
Defender, July 13, 1935.
53. "Abyssinian Attack Is Feared by Italy," New York Times,
Sept. 9, 1934, 6:2; Furukawa, "Japan’s Political Relations;" Furukawa
Tetsushi, "Japanese-Ethiopian Relations in the 1920-30s: The Rise and Fall
of ‘Sentimental’ Relations," paper presented at the 34th Annual Meeting of
the African Studies Association, St. Louis, MO, Nov. 1991.
54. "Ethiopian, Italian Armies Face Each Other In Africa," Chicago
Defender, July 13, 1935.
55. Okakura and Kitagawa, Nihon-Afurika Koryu-shi, 39. For a later
example of the continuing rankle, see Kurosawa to Hirota, 1/24/36: Gaimusho
Gaiko Shiryo Kan, A461 ET/I1, vol. 6.
56. For a recent monograph on one aspect of Japanese views toward Jews, see
Pamela Rotner Sakamoto, Japanese Diplomats and Jewish Refugees: A World War
II Dilemma (Westport, CT: Praeger, 1998).
57. Italy (Kirk), 1/25/35: NA 765.94/9. La Revue du Pacific of February
15, 1935, printed another of Sugimura’s denials of reports regarding a
prospective marriage of a Japanese "princess" with an Ethiopian
"prince." France (Naval Attaché), 3/13/35: NA 765.94/10.
58. Tsuchida, "Echiopia o Miru," 312; Shoji Yunosuke, "Abyssinia
Attempting to Modernize," Osaka Mainichi & Tokyo Nichi Nichi,
Aug. 18, 1935, 4bd; Ishihara, "First Contacts;" Adrien Zervos, L’Empire
d’Ethiopie: Le Miroir de L’Ethiopie Moderne 1906-1935 (Alexandria, Egypt:
Impr. de l’Ecole professionnelle des freres, 1936), 483-84.
59. Hugh Byas, "Japan Is Shunning Dispute in Africa," New York
Times, July 11, 1935, 12:3. Iranian papers at the end of summer added their
voices to this song. Okamoto (Iran) to Hirota, Report No. 123, 8/26/35:
Gaimusho Gaiko Shiryo Kan (Tokyo) A461 ET/I1, vol. 2. Earlier, the Cape Times
in January 1935, had concluded that there were no cotton concessions, that
Ethiopia’s laws and religion prevented any marriage between a Japanese princess
and an Ethiopian prince, and that no such marriage had been requested in any
case. The newspaper insisted that nearly all rumors of Japanese intentions had
been started in Rome. "Japanese and Abyssinia," Cape Times,
Jan. 4, 1935, in Gaimusho Gaiko Shiryo Kan (Tokyo) E424 1-3-1.
An article from a Greek newspaper of January 23, 1936, entitled "Japanese
Intentions in Ethiopia--Racial Unity" explained that to smooth out
commercial and political relations between Japan and Ethiopia and to cut into
the interests of other states in Ethiopia, there had been a rumor of marriage
between an Ethiopian prince and a Japanese princess. Japanese newspapers had
advocated the necessity of unity among colored races against whites, mostly
concerning the Chinese issue although in Ethiopia as well. Charge d’affaires in
Greece, Kurosawa to Hirota, Report No. 18, 1/24/36: A461 ET/I1, vol. 6
60. "Miss Kuroda Arrested," Osaka Mainichi & Tokyo Nichi Nichi,
July 26, 1935, 3c.
61. Furukawa, "Japan’s Political Relations."
62. "Wants Grant to Japan," New York Times, Sept. 2, 1935,
5:3.
63. Roi Ottley, ‘New World A-Coming’: Inside Black America (Boston:
Houghton Mifflin Co., 1943), 42.
64. Japan (Grew), 4/16/36: NA 894.00 P.R./100.
65. A. J. Barker, The Civilizing Mission: The Italo-Ethiopian War, 1935-6
(London: Cassell, 1968), 11.
66. Clarke, "Japan and Italy Squabble." See "Italy and the Far
East," 2 vols. (New York: International Secretariat. Institute of Pacific
Relations, 1939) for an analysis of the progress of Italo-Japanese relations,
esp. 1: 16-20, which specifically discusses the Italo-Ethiopian War.
67. "Il Giappone riconosce l’Impero," Giornale d’Italia, Dec.
3, 1936: Gaimusho Gaiko Shiryo Kan (Tokyo) M130 1-1-2.
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