Skip to content

July 4, 1944 (Tuesday)

Lecture of Prof. Victor Freue. At 1:30 this afternoon we heard the lecture of Dr. Victor Freue, a German naturalized Chinese, graduate of the University of Munich, an eccentric old man of 62, who spoke on “You and the War.” We had been looking forward to this lecture since last week, being the first lecture in English since our arrival in Tokyo. But, personally, I was disappointed and not at all impressed by the doctor’s lecture. (I think the other boys agree with me on this.)

The doctor started his lecture emphasizing science as the basis of all study, lambasting Christianity as superstition and supernaturalism as hypocrisy. But I think his lecture was nothing but a series of contradictions—all assertions without proof. Perhaps the professor thought we would take everything and anything he said as gospel truth. Although the topic of his lecture was “You and the War,” he talked of many things but never really got to the point of his subject. He lambasted all other systems, including the German, and praised Japan’s as the perfect model of government, and this he said was his greatest discovery attained upon making “a scientific analysis of Japan.”

He classified Christianity as “a second edition of Judaism,” called Hitlerism an “invented myth” and described German philosophy as “nonsense”; he scoffed at democracy and freedom and ended his long lecture by wishing all of us the blessings of Amaterasu Omikami (the Japanese Sun Goddess). Nuts!

After the lecture, I did not feel it worthwhile to make his talk the subject of questions, but I was afraid our silence might be misconstrued as assent to everything he said, so I stood up to shoot a few questions, followed by the others. He could not even answer our simple questions but always tended to evade them with his characteristic eccentricities.

Present during the lecture were officials from the Daitoa Ministry who listened silently during his lecture and interpellations. I wonder what they were thinking as the old professor was delivering his lecture.

Air Raid Alarm. Alert was sounded at 9:00 a.m. this morning.

Books. Bought Y10 worth of books at Hokuseidō Publishing Co.