The Pittsburgh Press (January 23, 1941)
NOMURA LEAVES TOKYO FOR WASHINGTON POST
Tokyo, Jan. 23 (UP) –
Admiral Kichisaburō Nomura sailed for San Francisco today, with a three-point diplomatic program and an assortment of artificial eyes, to be the new ambassador at Washington at one of the most delicate periods in Japanese-American diplomatic history.
Nomura, it was understood, had been instructed by the Foreign Office to conduct negotiations at Washington on the program that Japanese diplomacy is entered on the Japanese-German-Italian alliance, that Japan insists upon being recognized as the “stabilizing factor” in the Far East and that the government is willing to make vigorous efforts to improve relations with the United States consistent with its alliance.
Nomura, once naval attaché in Washington, and friend of many senior American naval officers, took along spare glass eyes because, as he explained recently, he was sure he would be a long time at Washington and:
I thought I’d take along three of four extra eyes to see me through the years.
He lost his right eye in a bombing at Shanghai in 1932.
