Japanese journalist advised rejection of Dutch naval bill according to the Dutch newspaper Dutch newspaper Suriname: koloniaal nieuws- en advertentieblad dated 20 November 1923

Dutch naval shipbuilding wasn’t popular in the politics in the years before the Second World War. The Netherlands succeeded in maintaining the neutrality during the First World War and although there were plans to built battleships they were never realized despite  that except the needs for a defence of the Netherlands and her merchant trade interests the possession of colonies in the East and West Indies. In the twenties a bill for a new program didn’t make it. In this century were Australia and Japan considered as threats for the Dutch interest in the South Asian area. While Australia became an ally during the Second World War Japan was the aggressor who captured the Dutch East Indies in 1942. The comment of the Japanese journalist A. Torisawa published in the Dutch newspaper Nieuwe Rotterdamsche Courant dealing with the naval bill is at least remarkable. This naval bill mentioned Japan as a potential threat and what wrote Torisawa? In his opinion the money could be better spent for a further exploitation of the colonies as the West Indies, Borneo, Celebes and so on. There was a lot to do and Dutch unemployed could there earn a living. If this problem was solved the whole humanity would be happier!? It’s not more as naturally that the Japanese were lured by the Dutch East Indies while the Japanese population was too large to be supplied by their own country . So Japanese went to the Dutch East Indies to obtain their part of the abundance. They just went to help with the exploitation hoping for equal rights and no one in Japan intended to attack, that was just a Dutch conception. But if Japan wanted to do so, Torisawa wrote that he was the first to fight against his own country.