 The National Broadcasting Company and its affiliated stations present the Pacific story. This is the story of the Pacific. The drama of the millions of people who live around this greatest sea, where the United States is now committed to a long-term policy of keeping the peace. This is the background story of the events in the Pacific and their meaning to us and to the generations to come. The Golden Thread. That the east and the west shall be tied together by a golden thread. It shall reach across the sea and across the mountains and the plains. And it shall encompass the world and be a token of peace. But war shall come and calamity shall come. And they who fashion the Golden Thread shall suffer. Men will search the earth for a credit equal. But they shall find none until again there is peace. And the people of the east and the people of the west live together, one with the other. Today the silk looms are again spinning in Japan. The mills smashed by the war are being put back into operation. And the mills converted from silk manufacture for war industries are now being reconverted to silk. But a great deal of water has gone over the dam since Japan's Silk Hay Day of 1929. We're lucky to get in. This place is very exclusive, Pat. What if they raided the place while we're here? Oh, not this place. Nick has got a fix. We will bring it. Never know from the outside, but this is way down in the cellar. They say Nick sank $50,000 in this speak. Look, here comes our drinks. Well, what do you say, Alphard? Too much business. That'll be a dollar six bits. Two gin rickies and two dollars for cover charges. This gin is directed in Cuba, imported. I'll bet Nick made it in his bathtub. Well, there you are. Thanks. Well, he's looking at you, honey. At you. Oh, brother. They must have made this stuff out of motorman's mittens. So isn't this the way gin rickies are supposed to pay? Come on, Pat. Let's dance, huh? Why not? Well, at least the music's good. What's the matter, baby? Yeah, hate you? Let's sit down. Sure, I'll run it to the ferris for you. Look at that. She stepped way up on my heel, and look what she did to my stockings. Yeah, ruined them. Yes, look at that. Her new silk stockings. Well, don't worry about it, baby. I'll buy you another pair. I'll buy you a dozen pairs. What do you think about that, huh? Now, come on. Let's not let this wreck our evening. Hey, Alphard, fill them up again. That was 1929. That was the height of prosperity, the peak of the prohibition days. That was the year when everybody had money and everybody was spending it. That was the year the Japan sold to the United States alone, 100 million pounds of silk. That was the year when the golden thread meant nothing more than a run in a young flapper's sheer hose. But there was an age when silk was the fabric of kings. And in China, 3,000 years BC, the process of spinning the silk, the process of spinning and weaving the thread of the silk cocoon was a carefully guarded family secret. Observe closely, my daughter, for this tiny creature which crawls on the leaf of the mulberry tree will serve you in all your lifetime as it serves me and my father before me. It is the silkworm. See, Father, how even now it covers itself with the silk and fiber, spinning a cocoon. And from this cocoon, my daughter, you, in turn, will spin the golden thread to delight the hearts of all mankind. Yes, Father. The raiment of princes and emperors will be woven from what you spin. Documents of state will be written on your silken cloth and messages and the stories of our people. It is a heaven-sent secret guarded as you would your life. I will remember, Father. And come now to the marketplace with me. At sundown, the caravan departs for Lulang, carrying silk for Bahta in the Occident. For nearly 3,000 years, all the silk known in the civilized world was made in China and carried by slow caravan west through the mountains over primitive trails which came to be known as the Silk Road. The journey was much, sometimes years long. The first stop was Lulang, an ancient fortress near the shores of Lake Lothnore. Up the caravan, animals, we must wait outside the walls of the city. Why do they not open the gates? Sentry, open the gates. It is the caravan from Tung Weng. Sentry! See, your shouting will wake the dead. My cries have roused the village. Even now, men are climbing from the walls. Good. They come to examine the cargo. Welcome, caravan! Greetings, men of Lulang. You have come far across the great desert from Tung Weng. My men are weary. They are impatient to enter the city. Our village rejoices that you have arrived. What goods do you bring to Lulang? We bring silk from Siang, 4,000 bales. Break open the packs for the sentry to see. Silk! It is silk! The village? No, merchant. To the people of Lulang, silk is no vain at all. It is too precious to be worn. To us, it is bread for our family. For with your silk, we can buy wheat from the caravans, which come from the west. To us, your silk means life. Open the gates for the caravans! They bring silk! Lulang and other junctions on the silk road from the Orient. Silk was a medium of exchange. The bales arriving from Siang were in turn sold to other caravans, traveling west, who carried the silk to more distant cities. Byzantium, Antioch, Tyre. None but Roman patricians could afford to deck their wives and daughters in the luxurious fabric of the east. It is beautiful. Father, it is beautiful. Perhaps you will wear it at the Colosseum. Oh, it is so soft. It is surely the finest material that has ever been made. It should be fine for the price the scoundrel charged me. Did you find it in the marketplace? I have never seen it before. It is called Syracum, a seaman brought it from Tyre. Where it really comes from is a mystery. Somewhere in far eastern Asia, it is said. The process is a secret known only to the seers, or Chinese, as some call them. For over 2600 years, the Chinese did manage to keep their secrets. Although their caravans stretched the golden thread across half the ancient world, the secret process of producing silk was not revealed. Until in the third century of the Christian era, a Chinese princess married a prince of Tibet and brought a strange wedding gift to her husband's court. Fire. For highness, the princess of China. We welcome the princess of China. Your Highness. Rise, princess. Your Highness is most generous. If it pleased your Highness, I would ask permission to remove my headdress. Here, princess? Now? Now, Your Highness. I bring a gift for my people. You offer the headdress of a princess as the gift of your people? That which is concealed within the headdress, my prince. Is this a dress, princess? I see nothing, or perhaps my eyes are not so keen. Here. Here, courtiers. What do you see? What? Why? It is worms, Your Highness. Worms? Worms? Worms? A joke? A wedding gift to worms? Your Highness, please. I do not jest. This is a gift from my people to the people of Tibet. Your forgiveness, princess. What I have brought are silkworms. Silkworms? The true silkworms that have been a source of China's wealth for 3,000 years. Silk from worms? A miracle. No miracle, sire. But a knowledge which I shall consider an honor to impart to your people. Princess, you bring us a great gift. If our people can make silk, they shall never want. This is truly a gift to our people. It is written that a golden thread shall encompass the world as a token of peace. But war shall come, and calamity shall come. Please, we must flee. The enemy is upon us. But the emperor is for Qin. The house of Qin has fallen. We are lost. But where can we go? This warfare of those brothers of our land, where is there less to go? Quickly, there is no time. We go to Korea. We are leaving the country at once for Korea. But husband, our home, all we work for is here, our possession. We can take nothing except the silkworms. Quick, while there is time. With the fall of the Qin dynasty, refugees streamed into Korea, carrying as their only possessions their silkworms and the knowledge of silk production. And from Korea, the secrets of silk spread further abroad. From across the sea of Japan, in the third century B.C., the general Semirimus led his invading army against the Koreans. Peace, sire. Peace, sire. The Semibarbaric Japs horde easily conquered the more peaceful Koreans, and returned with prisoners and loot to their homeland. General Semirimus reported to the throne. Victory, excellency. Korea is conquered. I come only now from my vessel. And our fleet, Semirimus, is safe. Our ships are safely returned. There are holes filled with tribute from the enemy. Your brain captives. Many captives, excellency. And the prize more precious than jewels. More precious than jewels. The secret of the white cloth of China. We have brought silkworms, excellency, from which the golden thread is produced. A silk. And captives who will teach our farmers how to reel the silk from the cocoon and weave it into fabric. This is indeed a prize, Semirimus. I have also brought the push of mulberry on which the silkworm feeds. A plant? It is part of the secret. The leaf of the mulberry tree is eaten by the silkworm as food. And then we shall plant mulberry trees throughout the land. It is my will that an edict be issued at once. Wherever possible, our farmers will cultivate mulberry trees and learn the culture of silk. As an example to the people, the Empress will tend our silkworms with her own hands. That was the Emperor Nin Ken, more than 2,000 years ago. That was the beginning of Japan silk industry, which in 1929 had grown to $100 million a year export trade. An industry which was to provide Japan's second most important peacetime foreign credit. In that time, men of many lands have marveled at the silkworm, each in his own way. My entire family engaging in manufacture of silk in all our lifetimes. Honorable father, mother, grandmother, son's wife and the four children. From youngest child to great-grandmother, nine silk workers in one Japanese farmer's family. Multiply that by the 2,200,000 families engaged in the silk culture in Japan before the war and see how closely, from birth to death, are the lives of the Japanese literally entwined with silk. But while they lived, ate, and slept with their silkworms, the average Japanese wore no silk. It was far too valuable a commodity to be wasted on clothing for domestic use, as long as 100 million pounds could be sold to the United States in a single year at $5.23 a pound. Or in the United States of the 20s, women controlled purchasing power. At a fair demand, U.S. weavers became Japan's best raw silk customers. The American wives descended their prerogatives. But Wilbur, you're just being unreasonable. You talk of silk as though it were a luxury or something. Well, I don't care what you call it. All I know is we're spending entirely too much money later. Oh, Wilbur, don't be up till. We've got to have silk. But why? Why must it be silk, Pat? Don't ask me why, Wilbur. It's just something that's important to a woman. Why, no girl I know would think of wearing anything but silk lingerie. And as for stockings, well, just ask yourself, how many cotton stockings you've used that lately? Yeah, I know. Just... Oh, now look, darling, don't mind doing the housework. And have I ever said a word about taking care of three children without any help? Oh, honey, I'm not criticizing you. It's just that I think... I've never asked you to buy me a washing machine. Or, well, a lot of things I might have. But clothes mean a lot to a woman. Oh, honest, darling, I just couldn't do without silk stockings. Okay, baby, silk it is. The American woman's inability to get along without silk stockings was more than just a philosophic observation in some circles. To certain Japanese meeting with government officials in Tokyo in 1936, it was an important military calculation. There is too much talk of silk and not enough talk of our imperial destiny. Well, gentlemen, I beg of you, we are traveling a full course. Since the turn of the century when our economy was open to war trade, silk has been vital to the strength of our basic economic structure. It will continue to be so. Our people have prospered in the peaceful production and export of silk. More than 34% of our farmers depend for their entire livelihood on the raising of silkworms and the processing of raw silk. The industry cannot be turned to military use without disaster. This is specific talk. What best serves the interests of our people serves also his imperial highness. I give you the facts. Our armies need to steal from America. We need oil from California and East Indies. We must have chemicals and other stuff of life. And we must have them now. Gentlemen, I must warn you that increasing silk production to gain greater foreign credit for purchasing the raw materials of war is dangerous. More than half of our export is to the United States of America. Already they consider our acts unfriendly. You are unduly alarmed, sir. Our Japan produces more than three-fourths of all the raw silk in the world. That is correct, gentlemen. Now, in His Majesty's Imperial Army, I can safely assure you that your American silk market will in no way be jeopardized. They must buy from us. American women would never give us their silk stockings, even for a war. Thousands of refugees are swimming in the international waters. It had begun. Japanese intentions were now clear. But the prophecy was not entirely accurate. For on the campuses of American universities, strange meetings were taking place. Take a joke. But now that you've had your laugh, listen a minute. You tell him, Sally. We're not wearing these cotton stockings to be funny. It's not just a fair to attract attention, either. I know, it's a minstrel show. We like silk stockings just as much as any girls do. And it's going to be pretty tough to go without them, believe me. I don't know how to say it without sounding corny, but... What she's trying to say is... It's happening in China. We know that every pair of silk stockings we buy means more bombs for Japan's air force. Every silk dress means more bullets for Japanese rifles. Killing Chinese babies today and tomorrow, perhaps our own. Let's stop them now. But the earnest resolutions of an intelligent minority in the United States were not enough to stop the military machine that had been set in motion for the warlords of Japan. In 1939, meetings were being held in Washington. But Senator, I wish to point out that since Japan took on her war in China, she has been buying twice as much as she has sold to the United States. But on the evidence thus far presented, no government action can possibly be taken. True, our economic relations with Japan have greatly altered, but no overdacted has been committed. Senator, I wish to go on record as stating that Japan's purchases from us are entirely in the nature of raw materials for war. To pay for these imports, they are putting the squeeze on our silk market. Gentlemen, if all makes speech at this time... Certainly, Mr. Naturo. Gentlemen, I ask Mr. Naturo of the Japanese Embassy to come here this morning in the hope that he might be able to clarify the position of his government. Thank you, Mr. Senator. I wish first to assure you for my government that if a change occurred, it most certainly has not been a hostile one. The gentleman who spoke before me has charged that we are withholding raw silk from the market in order to increase price. I certainly did, Mr. Naturo. Silk mills in my district have informed me that the price of raw silk has reached a nine-year peak since last December alone. It has been raised $1.75 a pound and some types of silk can't be had at any price. Unfortunately, the price rise is true, but your reasons are not entirely correct. You must understand that my country is at war. Either the Japanese were being very clever in taking advantage of their world domination of silk, or they were desperate for a means of lowering their import balance. In Flynn, another type of conference was being held. In the private dining room at the Hotel Adlon. Oh, excellent humor, Mr. Secretary. Thank you, sir. Here, let me pour you another glass. Oh, thank you. Your dinner was most enjoyable. You seem to have no shortages considering it is a war time. We have no shortages. Particularly, their friendships are involved. Oh, yes, oh, yes. Then perhaps I may be permitted to mention a matter of friendship between our two governments. Naturally, naturally. Karl, he will be disturbed by no one. You were saying, Herr Kubota, that no matter of machinery on the chemicals which your government has so kindly offered to silk, I can guarantee you that shipment will begin at once. And are there any payment for these materials, Herr Schmidt? Let us be frank, Kubota. Your silk is of minor importance to Germany at the moment. We are at war. Any interference, shall we say, you could create for our enemies in the Pacific would be payment enough. And you may be assured that if for any reason your American silk market is cut off, the German government is prepared to supply Japan with sufficient ore materials to fight for her place in the world. Well, this is indeed a friendship, Herr Schmidt. Let us drink. Two friendship. But a war with Russia and the blockade of the British took friendship from fulfilling its commitment. By the fall of 1941, there was a showdown in the Far East. Japan had occupied half of China and moved down into Indochina. We must make it plain to Tokyo that we will tolerate no further move. Economic sanctions must be imposed at once. The stand was strong, but a more serious blow came from the Dutch and the East Indies. The Dutch government hereby finds it necessary to abrogate its oil-packed with Japan, providing for the shipment of 1,800,000 tons of oil per year to the Japanese Empire. As of this date, no further oil will be shipped. And in the Congress of the United States? I wish to call to the attention of Congress and in cooperation with the Allied power, and in the earnest hopes of checking the worldwide spread of the Japanese war, the United States has, to this day, declassened embargo on the import of Japanese silk. With an informed supply of raw silk, Americans have built a hard hit for the embargo, and the American women turned to cotton and rayon, and a limited supply of nylon holes. But the Japanese people were harder hit. They were piling up silk at the rate of 700 to 800 bales a day, as if caught in some ironic fairytale bewitchment, in which riches and luxury mount in unwanted profusion. Demonstrations were held in the streets of Tokyo. We demand a strong action against the United States for a decent, friendly act. Listen to me. It is no matter if the United States will not buy our silk, they are enemies of Japan. We will soon be at war, and our silk will go to war, as medical sutures, a recital inspiration for our planes and those parishes. And what we do not set abroad, we will wear. Look among you. Already it is possible for us to cold ourselves in silk. But what for, for 30 years is this? Where we wear to you, for care by foot for our families? Yes, Japan's silk had gone to war. Once again, in its 5,000 years history, the golden thread had been broken by warfare, and Columny had come to those who fashioned the golden thread. But today, silk once more promises to play an important part in the lives of Japan. According to General MacArthur's headquarters, the silk trade may be one of the first industries to be revived in the peaceful Japan. And the matter of Japanese silk is closely related to the matter of food for Japan. Unless food is sent to Japan, many Japanese will die in the monster cup. The food imports required can be paid for with silk. Silk is an agricultural product of wholly domestic origin, requiring no outside raw materials and therefore offers the best opportunity for Japan to gain rapidly the needed foreign credit. If silk can be exported at pre-war prices, it would be more economical for the Japanese to import grains and use their acreage for silk production to pay for it. Once again, the silk looms of the East are spinning out their golden thread. Silk production may never again be as great as it was in 1929, but it may become the most important single factor in the reestablishment of Japanese economy. And China, a victor in the greatest war of all time, may again pick up the golden thread. For it is written that the East and the West shall be tied together by a golden thread. It shall reach across the sea and across the mountains and the plains, and it shall encompass the world and be a token of peace. They who fashion the golden threads in peace shall prosper, and the people of the East and the people of the West shall live together, one with the other. You have been listening to the Pacific Story, presented by the National Broadcasting Company and a affiliated independent station 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 10 cents and stamp or coin to University of California Press, Berkeley, California. The Pacific Story is produced and directed by Arnold Markowitz. The original musical score was composed and conducted by Thomas Paluso. Your narrator, Gaine Wolfman. Programs in this series of particular interests to service men and women are broadcast overseas through the worldwide facilities of the Army. The Pacific Story is produced and directed by Arnold Markowitz. This program came to you from Hollywood. This is NBC, the National Broadcasting Company.