The National Broadcasting Company and its affiliated stations present The Pacific Story. loud trumpet playing on the radio.] In the mounting fury of world conflict, events in the Pacific are taking on ever greater importance. Here is the story of the Pacific and the millions of people who live around this greatest sea, the drama of the peoples whose destiny is at stake in the Pacific War. Here is the tale of the war in the Pacific and its meaning to us and to the generations to come. [♪triumphant music playing on radio and radio with a loud trumpet playing on radio and loud trumpet playing on radio.] Tonight's Pacific Story, Opium, Curse of the Far East, comes to you as another public service with drama of the past and present and a special sixth war loan feature with Dr. H.H. Chang, former Chinese ambassador to Portugal, Czechoslovakia, and Poland. [♪triumphant music playing on radio and radio with a loud trumpet playing on radio and loud trumpet playing on radio.] Before tonight's Pacific Story opens, here is a brief introductory statement from Dr. H.H. Chang. Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. I have been asked tonight to convey to you through the Pacific Story a message of good cheer, a message which has come down to us through the hoary pages of the longest surviving country in the world. The Chinese are among the greatest of freedom-loving peoples, and they love to enjoy that freedom with their neighbors and friends. That freedom was, however, in danger of being eclipsed by cruelty and tyranny. It was true of China, as it was true of many other parts of the world. But now, happily, we know, we are positive, that this thing which you and I all love, this thing which we treasure above all else, freedom, is being restored to all the peoples wherever they may be. Another supreme effort, and freedom will be completely won. Now, excuse me for being blunt, but I wish to come straight to the point. I want to ask you to buy a United States war bond, an extra war bond, during the current sixth war loan. The purchase of an extra bond during the present drive will bring us victory sooner. Now may I invite you to listen to the Pacific story, Opium, the Curse of the Far East. Opium is a weapon as deadly as a gun. The Japanese are masters at using it against us Chinese. I was one of their millions of opium victims. Captain Leon. Yes, Sergeant. Here are some more of those opium cigarettes. Where did they come from? They are being passed around among the men of the company. No one seems to know where they came from. It is the work of the Japanese. Pick up all of the cigarettes in the company and give the order that anyone smoking these opium cigarettes will be punished. Yes, sir, Captain Leon. The fact that Japanese opium cigarettes were circulating in our sector meant that the Japanese were planning a drive at this point. They were trying to put out of action as many of our men as possible before they attacked. And one day, my company was ordered to take shots in the arm against smallpox. Hold your sleeve up, Captain Leon. How was that, Doctor? Good. Now we will go into the needle right here. Quiet now. There we are. That is all. The Chinese doctor injected every man in the company. By the next day, all of us were in pain. I sent for the doctor. Where is the pain, Captain Leon? Right here. In the pit of my stomach. Here, take these pills. The instructions are on the bottle. Thank you, Doctor. They will ease the pain and fight the infection. I took the pills. A week later, I was feeling well enough to stop taking them. Then it hit me. It seemed that I had lost control of myself. The same thing happened to the men of my company. I sent for the doctor. He was gone. At last, we found out what had happened. The shots he gave us were not against smallpox. It was opium. And the pills he gave us later were morphine. The doctor was in the pay of the Japanese. One of our own doctors. He has gone over to the Japanese. We had been made addicts by the Japanese almost before we knew what had happened. For relief, we smoked the new supply of opium cigarettes that suddenly circulated among us. Why, I lost interest in everything. One day, the colonel sent for me. Captain Leon, do you have your orders? Why has not your company moved out? The weather. I knew this was a weak answer. I could think of nothing else. War does not wait on weather. The Japanese are within two hours of here. The rain. It is so wet, our cigarettes will not burn. Cigarettes? Are you smoking those opium cigarettes? Yes, sir. Captain Leon, move your company out at once or be caught, Marshal. You are useless with opium. And you are useless without it. We moved out. But we could not fight. We gave up to the Japanese. When they took me prisoner, I made up my mind to cure myself and then to escape. Well, in the weeks that followed, I thought I could not live. When I was strong enough to get along without opium, I made my way back into free China. And there, for the first time, I realized how the Japanese were using opium to destroy us. And at the same time, to help pay for the war. They systematically encouraged the use of narcotics by our enemies, yet act vigorously against Japanese using them. The use of narcotics is unworthy of a superior race like the Japanese. Only inferior races that are decadent, like the Chinese, Europeans, and the East Indians, are addicted to the use of narcotics. This is why they are destined to become our slaves and eventually to disappear. I remember when they started the production of opium in Manchuria. The Japanese proclamation says that this part of our land must be given to the production of poppies for opium. My father was a peasant. But already our land does not yield enough for food. Most of the time we were hungry. We cannot do this thing that the Japanese demand. We will starve. My father and many of other Chinese peasants in Manchuria resisted. And for their resistance, they paid dearly. Effective at once, all taxes will be payable only in opium. That was a Japanese order. That means that we must grow poppies for opium in order to pay our taxes. And if our taxes are not paid, we shall lose our land. In order to live, my father had to turn over part of his land to the cultivation of poppies for opium. The other peasants of Manchuria were forced to do the same. But that was in 1931. By 1934, the acreage of poppies in Manchuria had doubled. By 1936, it had increased three times. And by 1937, it had doubled again. The houses of Matsui and the Suzuki interests built big narcotics factories in Chaiten and Harbin and Mukden. You wish to work here in the factory? I am only a peasant. We will teach you. The work is very simple. You permit smoking during working hours? Ah, yes. We are very lenient. Our workers can smoke as much as they wish. But I am totally working hours alone. Hours go quickly when you smoke. Yes. Our workers are very happy and patient. They are not eager to leave here. What I saw in that factory sickened me. My own people lulled into weakness and producing opium to destroy their blood brothers. I went to Harbin and to Changte and to other places where opium factories had been built. Everywhere it was the same. The Japanese had made Manchuria a humming center of narcotics production. Trains carried the narcotics from the production centers of Manchuria down to the port of Diren. I talked to the Chinese on the docks. The narcotics business is very profitable. Yes. Yes, it must be. All those cases over there are being shipped out to different parts of the world. To where? Come over here and we will see. We walked over to where the workers were handling the cases of narcotics. This shipment is confined to London. London. Check. This shipment is confined to Bucharest. Bucharest. Check. Paris. Paris. Check. New York. Check. Cairo. Check. San Francisco. Check. New Town. Check. All right. Move them out. You see, the Japanese are out to monopolize the narcotics trade of the whole world. Yes, but much of it must be sent to China. Too much. When I went to join the army, I found out how the opium was peddled. Cigarettes. Cigarettes. Fine cigarettes. Good cigarettes. Koreans were used to peddle the opium to the Chinese. You buy some cigarettes today? No price? No. No cigarettes. No price today? No. Cigarettes? Good cigarettes. No price today? They openly peddle the opium cigarettes where, before the Japanese came to sell opium, meant death. A line of Chinese was passing me, walking toward a little hut. I followed them. You have your arm ready. My arm? Yes. You just put your arm through the hole in the wall of the house. They take care of you inside. Have your arm ready. There's a Chinese in the line ahead of me. Put your arm into the hole. The Chinese pushed his arm through the hole. Now hold steady. Steady. The one inside was talking to him. When the Chinese pulled out his arm, there was a mark where he had been injected by the needle. All right. Next one. Put your arm into the hole. Cigarettes. Cigarettes. Good cigarettes. No price today? You buy cigarettes? No. No cigarettes. No cigarettes. Military police. Military police. Chinese police. The Chinese military police arrested everyone there. The peddler, the one selling the injections inside the hut, all the addicts, and me. They put me in the cell with a cigarette peddler. What is there to be afraid of? You know, the punishments for peddling opium are severe. I will not be punished. And neither will the ones in the hut. You are so sure. The Japanese have agents in every place, narcotics are sold. And if a Chinese magistrate should find me authentic, the Japanese will say that nothing happened. He was set free. They held me prisoner for weeks, investigating me, they said. At last they let me go. On the street I met the Korean peddler again. He was still peddling the opium cigarettes and leading people to the hut for a shot in the arm. He was in a bad humor. Now the Japanese are taxing us. I thought they taxed those who use the opium. They did. They did. But now they tax us too. So they sell it and they tax both the buyer and the seller. Yes. The army buys it for $8 an ounce, but they charge us $19 an ounce. How much can you make on it? Only $3 an ounce. The Japanese army takes all the profit. Why do you not quit? Well, they brought me here to sell opium. And they would kill me if I quit. By 1934 the opium traffic in China was so bad that some of our far-seeing leaders became alarmed. The Japanese are poisoning our people with opium as the first step toward military operations against us. You expect them to attack us? They are already attacking us with their opium. Opium is not only the Japanese, one of our own Chinese dealers. Indirectly they are working for the Japanese. And their traffic must be controlled too. Our measures must be more effective than they have ever been before. It is vital that they are. To get at the source we must control the illicit traffic. Then we must cut down on poppy acreage. Then we must launch a systematic campaign and use all possible propaganda to the end. The Opium Suppression Commission was organized. Death was to be the penalty for manufacturing, selling, or using opium. Some of our leading Chinese were put at the head of the commission. Two hundred special police were hand-picked to root out the opium traffic. Then one day one of the leaders of the Opium Suppression Commission was crossing a street. Stop those two Japanese! Stop there! They shot at the distinguished Chinese! Stop them! The two Japanese gunmen jumped into an automobile and got away. Did they hit that Chinese? No, no. He managed to escape their bullets. Why did they try to shoot him? The answer did not come out for some time. Do you know who that Chinese was that those two Japanese gunmen tried to kill? I heard that it was one of the leaders of the Opium Suppression Commission. Yes. And as a result he resigned. And all the two hundred special hand-picked narcotics officers have been let go. And soon it was rumored that Tu Yusen, who had been in the narcotics traffic for years, was one of the members of the Opium Suppression Commission. Tu Yusen on the Opium Suppression Commission? They say because he knows the ropes of the drug traffic that he can round up all the leaders. But after the special officers were disbanded, Tu Yusen himself had gained control of the opium he took from the smaller dealers. Tu Yusen? I think he's working with the Japanese. The Japanese extended their opium traffic. I was a man keen when it fell. I hid in the occupied city. Almost before the great fires had been put out and the dead buried, the Japanese were bringing in opium. A Chinese narcotics victim was brought to where the Major and I were hiding. We must be patient with him, Captain Liang. Yes, sir. Wang, where did you get your opium? It was sold in all the stores. Before the Japanese came here, there was no opium to be found in Nanking. It is sold everywhere, like rice and tea. It is distributed by the Japanese army? No, by the Opium Suppression Bureau. The Opium Suppression Bureau in Nanking was really the Nanking opium monopoly. Under this name, they were able to peddle the opium with less opposition. The Japanese extended the narcotics traffic far and wide. In Beiping, there are 500 places selling narcotics. In Guangdong, the narcotics traffic is worse than in all history. On the border of Manchurian Correa, laborers are being paid in opium. Nearly one third of the population of Manchuria have become addicts of opium. The Japanese promoted the use of opium in a hundred ways. They set up Correans in business running opium gangs. Careful. Watch your head. The ceiling is very low in this passage. Yes. It is so dark I can hardly see. Keep your hand on my shoulder. Yes. A strong stench. The stench of the den we were approaching. At last we turned a corner in the pitch black passage. And then, far away, I saw a flickering light. There, see? That's it ahead of us. Well, you see that candle? Yes. The light was at the doorway to the den. Careful now. Duck down a little here. Yes. It will take you a minute or so to accustom your eyes to the dark. Good Lord. Not so loud. Quiet. Yes. I have never seen such filth and misery. In the dark shadows I could make out the outlines of men in the bunk. Opium addicts. Every one of these men is a wreck. Are they all old men? Not one of them is yet thirty. They are all promising young men, young intellectuals. That is why they are here. The Japanese singled them out to ruin them? Japan considered them dangerous. The awkward smell almost stifled me. There were no windows in the den, only flickering candles. I made my way through the gloom to the bunks of some of the victims. They sold me opium cigarettes and put morphine in my drinks. That is how this young patriot was brought down. A girl started me on the habit. She was paid by the Japanese. She stayed with me until I could not get along without opium. This young man had been a brilliant writer. They arrested me for nothing. And in jail everything they fed me had dope in it. Then when I needed it most they threw me out. This one could not live long. We went out. On the streets the peddlers were hawking their narcotic cigarettes as never before. Take doctors were prescribing narcotic pills for all diseases. Salesmen gave away samples. So much opium was used as newly developed industries in Asia were not able to provide it. And the Japanese army bought additional supplies in faraway Persia and brought it all the way to China. The narcotics traffic boomed. Behind the scenes everywhere the Japanese were promoting its use. But not the Japanese. What is the charge against this man? Possession of opium and an opium pipe. I found these on him. Are these yours? This opium and this pipe? I did not want to be a peddler. They made me peddle. And then you started using it yourself. I worked so hard. I needed it. Do you know that there are 1,000 beds in the hospitals here filled with Japanese soldiers and workers who have become drug addicts? You can hardly keep from it when you are away bed all of the time. It is hard not to use it. I will help you keep from it. The illicit traffic among Japanese must be stopped. Seven years of hard labor. We fought the traffic among the Chinese. It is hereby ordered that all poppy fields in free China must be converted to the production of food crops. Those failing to convert their land face the penalty of death. Measures were taken to stop the production of opium at its source in the poppy fields. And the League of Nations took up the fight against opium that same year, 1938. Well, there are delegates here from 27 countries. They ought to settle something. Settle, you mean put the blame for the narcotics traffic? That is what this committee on opium and other dangerous drugs was set up for. And all through these sessions, the documented reports have certainly been skinning the Japanese alive. The documents seem almost superfluous. Well, they have got to bring them in for the record. Well, we will hear the conclusions pretty soon now. I see. Look at those Japanese over there. That one there, the leader. He could murder some of the American investigators who brought in evidence. Report from the assembled delegates investigating opium and dangerous drugs. The evidence is all in. The following findings have been made. That Japan is systematically promoting illicit traffic in narcotics. That Manchuria has been made the center of the narcotics production on the mainland of Asia. That the Japanese finance is behind this enormous production. And the Japanese finance is importing great quantities of narcotics from Persia. That the Japanese are reaping an enormous revenue from the illicit narcotics trade. And at the same time are poisoning and breaking down the Chinese people. The Japanese interests are now attempting to dominate the world narcotics trade. Back in China, we knew that Japan had been officially uncovered as the most powerful and the most dangerous promoter of the narcotics trade. The Japanese railed against the report, but they went on producing and distributing opium. They sent battalions of peddlers along with their soldiers. And where the Japanese put their foot down, there they started the use of opium by those around them. I watched the peddlers in Japanese occupied China. Here, here, these cigarettes will help you. You buy them. Can't, too much. The peddler was talking to a poor Chinese cooly. You are caught. You need them. Good for you. Not enough money. Caught? Too much? How much money do you have? Only this, here, in my hand. That is not enough for cigarettes. But I will make you a bargain. Give me the money, I will give you this. Powder? Yes. Put it in your rice and vegetables tonight. No, no. Give me my money back. I will give you this much back. There. Now, if you do not want to put the powder in your food, put it into your snuff. As the cooly walked away, an American came up to me. Did you see that dope peddler tell that powder to that cooly? Yes, yes, I watched him. They see to it that no cooly is without narcotics, no matter how little money he has. The Japanese are not interested in the money. They are making a pretty good thing of it. Right here, in these three occupied provinces, they are making three million dollars a month on it in taxes alone. What are they getting for it, an ounce? Forty dollars, right here. And the Suppression Bureau is doing all right for itself. The Suppression Bureau is handling it here, too? They have got the trade tied up. Forty percent of the profits go to the Chinese puppet government here, and the sixty percent goes to the Japanese. I travelled through Jiangsu and Anhui and Zhejiang provinces, and I saw with my own eyes what happens when the Japanese are able to distribute their narcotics without restriction. This was my China. My China, and the Japanese were destroyed. The Chinese puppets were working hand in glove with the Japanese. I left occupied China and headed for free China. Near the Jiangsu-Hunan border, a truck picked me up along the road. I rode up in the seat with the driver. You're on your way to the trading post? I didn't know what the trading post was. Yes, I said. I knew from his talk that he thought that I, like he, was a puppet Chinese. I'm taking a load over there. Load? Your truck is empty. Oh, no, not empty. Did you not see that case back there? I looked back through the window and saw one small case. That case will pay for many loads for me to bring back. Is it opium? Why not? We have plenty. I began to see. We give them Japanese opium, and they give us whatever they have in free China that we need. Copper, lead, medicine, anything. At the border, I saw them exchange the opium for a mixed load of commodities. Our precious commodities were going into the hands of the puppets, and the Japanese opium was going into free China. Even behind our lines, the Japanese are using opium to destroy it, and are paying for the war with it at the same time. Again, here is a brief message from this evening's guest, Dr. H.H. Chang, former Chinese ambassador to Portugal and Poland. You have heard on this evening's chapter of the Pacific story one instance of the rapaciousness and the planned barbarity with which our common enemy has invaded and swept over large areas of China. As I sat here and listened to the excellent unfolding of tonight's story, I could close my eyes and see the toiling millions of my countrymen, patient, cheerful, and friendly. Surely these people, instead of being poisoned by our enemy, a crime for which no punishment is too severe for him, should be given every chance to live a free life. They can contribute enormously to our civilization of the future as they have done in the past. For in China, there is a long and venerable tradition of the things which democracy stands for, the right of the individual, the dignity of man, the sense of individual responsibility. But now our people are still under the murderous heel of the enemy. Soon will come delivery, and with it will come a strong and powerful voice from across the Pacific. I'm convinced that the Chinese people will one day bring to the world a crusade, a crusade comprised of things which the world soarly needs, patience, humility, tolerance, and just plain, everyday good neighborliness. Above all, the feeling that the moral law should be the supreme law in all human relations, whether they be between individuals or nations. That is what we need most of all. Now how can we help bring about that happy day? The allied guns are doing it, but these guns must be fed, fed by the purchase of war savings bonds. It is up to us to keep the planes, the tanks, the ships operating at top speed for a victorious peace and the ultimate fulfillment of the Pacific story by an extra war bond tomorrow. You have been listening to the Pacific Story, presented by the National Broadcasting Company and its affiliated independent stations as a public service to clarify events in the Pacific and to make understandable the cross-currents of life in the Pacific Basin. For a reprint of this Pacific Story program, send ten cents in stamps or coin to University of California Press, Berkeley, California. The Pacific Story is written and directed by Arnold Marquis. The original musical score was composed and conducted by Thomas Peluso. The principal voice was that of Sidney Miller. This program came to you from Hollywood. This is the National Broadcasting Company.
