Browning chief. [volume] (Browning, Mont.) 1941-1953, 1943-08-27
"Con'' Man
(WNU Featme-Through special Arrangement
with Golfers Weekly
BY Clark Lee


(WNU Featme-Through special Arrangement
| with Golfers Weekly
If you should twirl the short-wave
dials of your radio one of these
nights and hear an announcer say:
'This is Colonel Jiro Saito speaking
from Manila" listen carefully!
The voice will be that of Japan's
ace undercover man, a man you
should know if you are to understand
how the Tokyo war lords operate,
how they are using every possible
weapon in their bid for world con-
quest-trickery as well as troops;
propaganda, bribery, fifth column
nism and intrigue as well as SUBJ
marines and airplanes.
And more important, it will be
JirO SaitO or somebody very much
like him whom the Japs will call
on when they are eventually forced
to cry "uncle" to Uncle Sam. The
Japs don't expect to win their war
to conquer the world all at once.
What they want now IL tha Pacific
is a Stalemate and a negotiated
peace that will let them keep part
of what they have taken and give
them time to prepare for the next
step toward world mastery.
When the situation looks ripe, they
will "depose" the miltarists. put in
a conservative" cabinet of bust
ness men and one-time friends of
America. They will produce men
like Jiro Saito to plead their case,
shy, soft-spoken, "so-sorry-for-you'
fellows, who will attempt to con-
vince the United States that it was
all mistake and let's be friends
again.
When you listen to Jiro Saito's
smooth, cultivated voice. speaking in
grammatically perfect English, with
| lust an occasional suggestion of
Honolulu "pidgin," you will be hear
| ing a man who exemplifies Japanese
| deceit. Saito is a medium-sized, TO-
tund man of 48, with powerful neck
and shoulders and with hair
trimmed close to his broad pate in
traditional Japanese army style. He
looks like typical Jap, but doesn't
act like one. He spent his early
years in Honolulu.
Started Two Wars.
There is nothing of the sword rat
tier or swashbuckler about him.
| On the contrary, he is extremely
shy. Meeting him in peacetime, you
would have thought him nice,
pleasant character. totally unlike the
average run of Jap army officer.
But Saito has started two wars
| and stopped one. In his wake, there
has always been trail of bloodshed
and tragedy. He was-and undoubt-
| eddy still is-the Japanese army's
first expert on American psychology,
its star secret agent, and one-man
fifth column.
You can scarcely stick a pin any,
where in the map of Asia without
touching region that has felt
Saito's influence; and for the past
decade and longer, a large part of
Asia has been bathed in blood Even
so, there is no blood on Saito's own
pudgy hands. He always gets out
of a place before the shooting and
bombing start, or he goes in after
they have stopped. Indeed, in near
ly 30 years in the ill-fitting khaki of
liiS AlliPti my, ilC lldo llCNSl
plunged his sword into one of the
emperor's enemies, never heard a
shot fired except on maneuvers,
never commanded troops in the
field
The portly colonel was very popu-
lar with the American correspond
ents in Shanghai. Squatting cross
legged at a geisha party, he looked
like a bronze statue of a paunchy,
heavy-jowled Chinese god, benevo-
lent, but with a metallic quality
about him.
Saito was especially sentimental
about the Hawaiian Islands, where
his father was consul general from
1903 to 1910, and where Saito at
tended private school and Mckinley
high, class of 1911.
81 feel more at home in Honolulu
than any place in the world" the
colonel told me.
BY the summer of l941, Japan de-
cided it was time to drop the mask
| and take over southern Indo-China,
| which she needed as a jumping-off
| place for attacks on Singapore and
tiiS butSii ISiot dllu " plO-
| tect her flank while she assaulted
the Philippines.
Once again, the advance agent of
empire was-you guessed it-Jiro
Saito.
The colonel did his usual back
stage job in Saigon, the capital
of southern Indo-China. Then he
emerged into the open as head of
the military mission to supervise
occupation of the strategic southern
portion of the French colony.
The occupation of Saigon finally
awakened the United States to the
seriousness of Japan's penetration of
southeastern Asia. But by then, it
was too late. The Japanese had
seized their springboards. They
were ready for war.
| We were soon to face the tragedies