During the opening months of 1941 Nazi Germany was positively drunk with power; their army seemed able to march wherever it chose and all of Europe was trembling. Foreign correspondent for the Hearst papers, H.R. Knickerbocker (1898 – 1949), pointed out that on April 29, 1941 the Axis forces had printed, what he termed, a “trial balloon” on the pages of The Japan Times Advertiser that clearly indicated the peace terms that were acceptable to them.
“It is not a negotiated peace, it is a dictated peace…The Axis statement begins with the declaration that the day of small or weak nations is over, and no nation which cannot stand on its own feet may be permitted to exist… The nations called upon to settle world peace would be Germany, with Italy as a junior partner, Japan, the British Empire and the United States.”
“Since the British government ignored it and the British and American press derided it, Germany dropped the idea for the moment, but you may be sure it has not dropped it for good. Seven weeks after its publication Hitler sent his armies into Russia.”
Knickerbocker provided an outline of the proposal as well as commentary in his 1942 bestseller, Is Tomorrow Hitler’s?
Click here to read about the post-war trial of Norway’s Quisling.
