Japanese Rackets

SECRET AGENT OF JAPAN--Amleto Vespa--Little, Brown ($3).

Amleto Vespa was born in Italy, became a secret agent of Chinese War Lord Chang Tso-lin in 1920 and a Chinese citizen in 1924. When the Japanese took over Manchuria, they also took over Amleto Vespa. He was useful to them for his knowledge of the country, and for his status as a European who nevertheless could not claim the protection ''of a European country. According to Amleto Vespa, the Japanese forced him to become their agent by threatening his wife and children. Secret Agent of Japan is his account of his experiences from 1932 until his flight from Manchuria in 1936, covering his operations in Harbin, accounts of the Manchurian drug traffic, thefts, kidnapping, assassinations, torture, all of which he ascribes to Japanese army officers.

To pay for the conquest of China, he claims, the Japanese sold monopolies in gambling, prostitution and opium to racketeers. But individual officers and police (there are five distinct Japanese police forces in Manchuria, often at odds) sold protection to other racketeers and kept for themselves money intended to pay for Japanese arms. Vespa organized gang raids against rivals of the monopoly (his European birth minimizing interdepartmental conflict, since officers blamed him rather than the army). A fascist and an admirer of Mussolini, Vespa nevertheless believes that "the nations of the world are committing a most terrible mistake in dealing with the Japanese as though they were a civilized people." The authenticity of Secret Agent of Japan is vouched for by Edgar Snow (Red Star Over China) and by Harold John Timperley, Far Eastern correspondent of the Manchester Guardian. Without such confirmation, readers might question Vespa's story, not because he fails to cite chapter and verse for his statements, but because its account of Japanese rule is such an unvaried, stupefying record of unchecked, fanatical robbery.

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