 It was also in 1940 that Matsui commissioned the construction of a statue of Kannon, the bodhisattva of mercy, and then had a special temple built in Atami to enshrine it. He named it the Koa Kannon, which means the "Pan-Asian Kannon", and he consecrated it in honor of all the Japanese and Chinese soldiers who perished during the Second Sino-Japanese War. At the time the newspaper New York Times praised Matsui's act, noting that "few Western generals have ever devoted their declining years to the memory of the men who died in their battles." Henceforth, on every single day that Matsui spent in Atami for the rest of his life he would pray in front of the Koa Kannon once early in the morning and once in the evening.
