ABSTRACT
The crucial force behind Ethiopia's wish to use Japan as a model was Emperor Haile Selassie himself. Japan's modernization guaranteed its peace and prosperity, while Ethiopia's continued backwardness threatened its very survival, the Japanizers argued. Heruy Welde Sellase was fêted and toasted throughout Japan by military leaders, local and national political figures, as well as by businessmen and exporters. He told Emperor Hirohito that Ethiopia had chosen Japan as its model for modernization, and Foreign Minister Shidehara Kijuro promised Japan's friendship. On Japan's economic penetration of Ethiopia, the ambassador explained that 'certain middlemen mostly Jewish' had bought Japanese goods at Kobe. Japan's own army programme and energetic policies in East Asia made it impossible to divert stocks of munitions to Ethiopia. Japan's interest and interference in Ethiopia - Italy's self-perceived sphere of influence - provoked vigorous protests from Rome. After the Great War, Ethiopians tried to widen their contacts with the outside world, including the Japanese.
