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Line 69: Historians have noted the stridency with which Townsend put forward his pro-Japanese views before World War II.<ref name="mintz"/> Justus Doenecke, for instance, described Townsend as "The most adamant and extreme of the voices in America defending Japanese policy."<ref>Doenecke (1987), 346.</ref> Judith Papachristou concurs that "Few anti-imperialists were as extreme as isolationist Ralph Townsend",<ref>Judith Papachristou, "An Exercise in Anti-Imperialism: The Thirties," ''American Studies'', Spring 1974, 65.</ref> though Townsend himself rejected the "isolationist" label during his life,<ref>Ralph Townsend, ''There Is No Halfway Neutrality'' (San Francisco: self-published, 1938), 31.</ref> and instead called himself a "realist" and "Pro-Peace".<ref>Townsend (1936), 2.</ref><ref>Ralph Townsend, "Sedition ... Then and Now," ''American Mercury'', Summer 1968, 45.</ref> Townsend is still held in esteem by many members of the extreme right in the United States, and recently in Japan as well. After his death his widow Janet turned over his papers to Larry Humphreys, an Oklahoma multimillionaire and supporter of right-wing [[~~Militia~~American militia movement\|militia]] and [[Christian Identity]] groups, who referred to Townsend as a man who "knew FDR was trying to entice Japan into attacking the United States, and FDR had him jailed".<ref>Douglas Hand, "The Making of A Right-Wing Radical," ''Harrowsmith'', March/April 1987, 65.</ref> Humphreys stored Townsend's papers in his so-called "Heritage Library", though today many of them are held by [[Barnes Review]], an anti-Semitic organization under the leadership of Townsend's old friend Willis Carto.<ref name="sedition"/> In 1997, Barnes Review re-published ''Ways That Are Dark: The Truth About China'' for the first time since World War II with a new foreword written by Carto, who praised Townsend as "a profound, genuinely courageous and painfully honest writer".<ref>Willis Carto, "Publisher's Foreword," in ''Ways That Are Dark: The Truth About China'', (Washington DC: Barnes Review, 1997).</ref> In 2004 a Japanese translation of the Barnes Review edition of ''Ways That Are Dark'' was released in Japan where it became a runaway success<ref>Tanaka, 307.</ref> and quickly elevated Townsend to "hero" status among the Japanese far right.<ref>{{cite web\|url=http://www.japantimes.co.jp/opinion/2004/10/11/commentary/new-mindset-is-the-only-salve\|title=New mindset is the only salve\|author=Gregory Clark\|work=Japan Times\|date=11 October 2004\|accessdate=3 December 2014}}</ref> The opinion of recent scholars on the quality of his writing have been mixed. Limin Chu, who analyzed his articles on China for the ''[[Overland Monthly\|Overland Monthly and Out West Magazine]]'', considered some of the claims as "either incredibly gullible or deliberately vicious",<ref>Limin Chu, "China and Sino-US Relations, 1900–1930: The Overland Monthly," ''Sino-American Relations: An International Quarterly'', Summer 2001, 78.</ref> while historian Justus Doenecke described his pamphlets as "crudely written".<ref>Doenecke (1987), 73.</ref> In contrast, Peter O'Connor, professor at [[Musashino University]], found the same pamphlets "well-argued and researched."<ref>O'Connor, 35.</ref>

Ralph Townsend: Difference between revisions