Jap diplomat lauds Roosevelt
By the United Press
A former Jap diplomat in a signed editorial in one of Tokyo’s newspapers today termed the late President Roosevelt “one of the world’s great leaders” and acknowledged that the Pacific War would be fought “to a finish.”
The statement, a reversal of previous Jap propaganda which had blamed the Pacific War primarily on Mr. Roosevelt, was made by Kumatoro Honda, former Jap Ambassador to Germany and China, broadcast by Radio Tokyo. In a signed editorial in the newspaper Nippon Shimbun, Honda said:
Roosevelt has died but the design he made for world hegemony will not, I think, change… Roosevelt’s death is purely an American internal affair and will have no bearing on the war against Japan.
No matter who may succeed Roosevelt or even his successor will carry on the war to a finish with Japan.
His death is a loss of one of the world’s great leaders and in that respect, it was not without a feeling of regret that I heard the news.