Wednesday, 12 April

The broadcast from Turkey said Hitler convened an important military meeting. Participants included Mussolini, Laval Kisling and puppets of the various vassal states, and the Japanese Ambassador also joined. Apart from discussing how to cope with the pressing situation on the East line, they also discussed other things as follows. 1) How to make Japan strengthen its assistance to Germany. 2) Mobilising the resources, human power and materials of the various occupied areas and vassal states. 3) The issue of the German army withdrawing from various vassal states and occupied areas. If this is the case, then Germany might possibility collapse and Japan also has the possibility to take a gamble on triggering an offense against the Soviet Union. All in all, I estimate that the war will soon end.

In the afternoon, I went for a hair cut. After that I went with Jingchen, Shijie and Zhaorui to a jewellery shop to see sapphires from the Ural Mountains. The price has soared ten times since before the war. I was unable to afford any. But I got an old crystal seal, which is beautifully carved, and the price is not too high.