JAPAN: Interludicrous

An office boy in the Imperial Japanese Consulate at Nanking stopped at the desk of Vice Consul Eimei Kuramoto fortnight ago.

"The Honorable Minister is returning to Shanghai," he hissed politely. "He would like to say a few words to you before he goes to the station."

With a perfectly expressionless face Vice Consul Kuramoto stepped into the presence of his superior, Akira Ariyoshi, Japanese Minister to China. A few minutes later they emerged together, on their way to the railroad station. Vice Consul Kuramoto was carrying the Minister's bags. There seemed to be no room for the vice consul in the limousine which took Minister Ariyoshi to Nanking Station to join dozens of Chinese government officials and prosperous Nanking merchants waiting for the most popular train in China, the week-end express to Shanghai. Vice Consul Kuramoto signalled a jinrikisha, stepped in, and that was the last anyone saw of him for five days.

Late that evening his family grew worried and telephoned the consulate. The consulate waited an hour or two before leaping into action. Part of Eimei Kuramoto's job in recent months had been writing firm but minor complaints on specific acts of anti-Japanese boycotting and agitation. Had he been kidnapped? Had he been murdered? Japan's Navy did not wait to find out. The gunboat Fushimi already lay in the river opposite Nanking. Within a few hours the destroyer Ashi joined her. Downstream the cruiser Tsushima swung around. Admiral Sunjiro Imamura on his flagship Idzumo was at Hankow. 400 miles in the interior.