Japanese Committee on Trade and Information

The Japanese Committee on Trade and Information was a Japanese-run propaganda organization that was active in the United States between 1937 and 1940. In Japanese it was called the Jikyoku Iinkai (時局委員会^?) , literally the "Committee for the Crisis".

Many of its former members and paid propagandists were tried and imprisoned in the aftermath of the bombing of Pearl Harbor.

The Japanese Committee on Trade and Information was established on September 26, 1937 by the Japanese consulate in San Francisco with the close cooperation of local Japanese businessmen. Located at 549 Market Street, it was created soon after the outbreak of the Second Sino-Japanese War with the objective of influencing public opinion in the United States towards Japan and against China. Officially, the Committee sought to foster the "traditional friendship" between the USA and Japan.

A secret cable sent by the Japanese consulate to the Foreign Affairs Ministry notes that the Japanese Committee on Trade and Information was the main organization responsible for the "creation of propaganda and information for the United States". It was headed by K. Takahashi, a local manager of Nippon Yusen Kaisha, until March 15, 1940, and from then on by Mitsubishi executive S. Takeuchi, with one Tsutomu Obana, secretary of the Japanese Chamber of Commerce in San Francisco, serving also as the Committee's secretary.

Following the passage of the Foreign Agents Registration Act in 1938, the Japanese Committee on Trade and Information registered as an agency controlled by Japanese nationals, though when registering Tsutomu Obana had concealed that the organization was directly funded and guided by the government of Japan. Over the course of its existence the Committee spent at least $175,000 to promote pro-Japanese causes, money which was disbursed at the Japanese consulate. Among the individuals the organization funded were Frederick Vincent Williams, who was paid $300 monthly to make pro-Japanese articles, speeches, and radio broadcasts, David Warren Ryder, who wrote a series of pamphlets entitled "Far Eastern Affairs", and Ralph Townsend, who also printed pamphlets with the Committee's support.

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