“It looks as though European financial circles have gotten on to something,” said the head of the International Monetary Bureau of the Treasury. “This morning large-scale selling of Japanese bonds began. We’re supporting them by buying through figurehead groups, but if this flood of selling keeps up, it’s going to take a toll of our purchasing assets.”
“I think we’d be best advised to let things ride for a bit,” said the president of a certain private exchange bank. “If things go down some and small investors get out, I think that would be to the good.”
“What’s the present withdrawal rate?” asked the Minister of the Treasury.
“Very soon it will be fifty percent.”
“Maybe it would be good to hold it temporarily at about fifty-five percent,” muttered the Minister. “After that we’ll just have to let it drop as far as it will go.”
“I wondered if anyone has discovered that we’re using our assets to buy,” said the president of the Bank of Japan in a low voice.
“It’s hard to say,” said the Bureau head. “The idea is to move deliberately and not stimulate the market, but the rate of increase is steadily climbing.”
“In view of the way that European and American financial interests are manipulating their speculations, this cashing in of bonds seems to indicate that we’re foolishly letting ourselves be taken advantage of,” muttered the president of the exchange bank. “We shouldn’t throw good money after bad. I think that now is the time to let them take a bit of punishment.”
“Fine—in any other circumstances but the present,” said the president of the Bank of Japan. “But even if hard-eyed financiers call us foolish, we must consider this: it’s a matter of the Japanese people losing their very homeland and thus being dependent upon the good will of the rest of the world. We cannot trick either individual investors or even large financial groups and pin the loss on them. We cannot afford enemies. Nor are we going to be reduced to the level of beggars. Rather, holding tight to what is our own, what we must do is see this thing through in such a way, hard though it be, that no other nation suffers loss from the sinking of Japan. If we do this, bitter pill though it be at the time, we will reap untold benefits in the not too distant future. Our ancestors in the Meiji Era started out empty-handed and conducted themselves in such a way as to win the respect of the world.”
“But the question is, I’m afraid, to what extent such purity can stand as currency in world society,” said the head of the International Monetary Bureau.
“It will stand, all right,” said the president of the Bank of Japan forcefully. He had a magnificent head of white hair. “And more than that, going beyond politics as such, nothing like an international industrial society can ever come into being without such a conviction. In the long run, I believe this has to be so.”