SECRET ARMIES
72
home of August Jacobs-Kantstein, Panamanian merchant
and Austrian Honorary Consul.
Five Japanese, headed by Tetsuo Umimoto, also came. One,
K. Ishibashi, formerly captain of the "Hokkai Maru" and a
at the
reserve officer in the Japanese Navy; K. Ohihara, a Japanese
agent staying with the Japanese Consul but having no visible
reason to be in Panama; two captains of Japanese fishing boats
and A. Sonada, the barber who organized the labor union and
in whose presence the Consul does not sit until the barber is
seated.
Throughout the meeting, presided over by the elderly but tall
and soldierly Austrian Consul, the Japanese said little. It was
primarily the first get-together for Nazi-Japanese cooperation in
the Canal Zone area.
Umimoto
"Mr.
"There
is
has not said
so little to say
much,"
when
remarked Jacobs.
there are so
many
1
present,
little Consul
apologetically.
others understood. The Japanese were too shrewd to dis
said the
The
cuss detailed plans with so
A
many
present.
few days later Umimoto called upon Heildelk and was
closeted with him for three hours. Shortly after that Sonada
made a hurried trip to Japan.