JAPAN & U.S.A.

Wairarapa Times-Age, 2 December 1940, Page 5

JAPAN & U.S.A.

OPINIONS OF ADMIRAL NOMURA .WAR WOULD BE TRAGEDY FOR CIVILISATION. v SIGNIFICANCE OF TRIPARTITE PACT. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) TOKIO, November 30. Admiral Nomura, the newly-appoint-ed Ambassador to Washington, in a statement to the United Press of America, said that war between the United States and Japan would be a tragedy for civilisation. “Regardless of who won the first round, peace in the Pacific area would be menaced by retaliatory measures afterward as the loser sought his revenge,” he said. Asked how he expected to explain the tripartite pact as an instrument not aimed at the United States, Admiral Nomura said that he personally thought there was no danger of the treaty involving Japan in a war with America. “In the first place,” he said, “the United States is already aiding Britain to the utmost without finding it necessary or advisable to become a belligerent, which is necessary for the tripartite pact to be evoked against her.”

Admiral Nomura gave his interviewer the impression in the second place that though the treaty provides for the signatories “to undertake to assist,” etc., this does not necessarily bind Japan to go to war unconditionally. The Ambassador observed that the Greek-Italian hostilities started after the pact was signed, yet Japan had not aided Italy. He added that a danger to peace in the Pacific was United States aid to Chungking.