mccloskey who will answer your questions about capitalism and socialism. check your program guides for more information. >> now it is my pleasure to introduce harvey solomon, a freelance writer based in washington dc and the author of three nonfiction books including book of days, the 60s, a day by day look at the pop-culture movements that made history. he has written articles for dozens of publications including the boston herald, los angeles times, and variety. today's book on the detention and repatriation of more than 1000 german japanese and hungarian diplomats, staffers and service journalists and spies. this follows those whose privileged world came crashing down after 1941, a squat cackling ambassador and his charming but conflicted wife, a wily veteran japanese journalist, beleaguered american wife of a japanese by posing as a diplomat and a spirited but nacve college age daughter of a german military at cachet. harvey solomon re-creates this period of detention, public outrage, hidden agendas, political machinations and assassinations into a compelling story. pleasehelp me welcome harvey solomon . [applause] >> thank you all for coming. there i am driving along one day and the car phone rings and i take a look at the caller id and it says respond germany and i'm thinking all right, i emailed a few archives and germany and i even hired a genealogist but a phone call? so i do what you are not supposed to do when you're driving, i picked up the phone. it was a gentleman named dietrich . he was six years old in 1941 but he was interned with his family at the greenbrier so i pull over and we had a lovely half-hour conversation so the moral of the story if you learn nothing else you today is that the little-known cause of distracted driving can be history. thank you all for coming and especially thanks to politics and prose, i just heard oneof thousand authors, i'm glad i made the grade . i've defended many author events here over the years, i see at least a few people in the crowd who had author events and it's a great privilege to be standing up here today i'd like to start by acknowledging up couple of people who were here and i apologize in advance if i butcher the pronunciations in german and japanese . first off we have a dc treasure, fran five. it is yuki mormon here? translator and teacher, taught me so much in this book, thank you.sekuya arare of the kyoto news agency? peter smalls, peter spalding is a career foreign service official. he and a few world war ii books, his grandfather was the austrian ambassador when germany annexed austria in 1938. he told me a couple of stories that have never been in a book before. peter, thank you so much for that and the last person i need to introduce right now who unfortunately i could go on forever is a guywho's fingerprints are all over this book . robert conti, this gentleman here is on staff historian at the greenbrier. how many hotels do you know that half and on staff historian ? he is that and he is much more. he is a prince of a guy and provided materials for me that i never could have found anywhereelse . thank you, bob. so just so you know i'm going to talk for 15, 20 minutes tops and then there will be a test. no, i'm sorry. and i'd be happy to answer your questions. when you talk about events that happened 75 years ago you don't expect to find too many people alive who remember that. returning to sort of a half genealogist, half gumshoe doing a lot of online sleuthing, hitting a lot of dead ends and i was able to find four books of hardystock including dietrich , eyewitnesses to history. they also provide you with images. and if i can get it to work, whoops. immediately problems with text so i'm sorry about that. i'm going backwards. i always need the help. of course, it worked in reversal. a couple more back. 2 more. can we get that up? be that as it may, this is dietrich, the little boy there is with his older brother georg and they also tracked down descendents and if it's a last name like smith or jones you're not going to get anywhere but you need an obscure last name, a name like brooks. here we go, meet charlie spruchs. he was number threeat the state department division of protocol which means he handled all things diplomatic . in 1939 he oversaw the visit to the king and the queen, a visit that turned this town upside down. he was later in charge of the attainment of diplomats and in his letters and memos the words leapt out at me and i was fortunate to find and i'm delighted that she'shere today charlie's daughter, jean russell . jean showed me photographs and telegrams and postcards because charlie was a bit of a pack rat. but it doesn't get any better for the writer so jean, thank you so much for making history come alive. let's dive into history. we will go back tothe spring of 1937. it's cherry blossom season and we are off to a dinner party . we're off to a house just off eckstein street block in from rock creek park, maybe three, four miles. the house is still standing today. outside is nothing to distinguish it from the other houses in the neighborhood nor inside, except for one feature. hanging above the mantle is an autographed photo of adolf hitler because our hosts are career diplomat hans thompson and his wife annalisa who likes to be called baby was anglicized to beatty. she's just arrived in america . she's an animal lover, she's an equestrian and she's also a close horse. in years to come, reporters will say things about her like thompson was costumed entirely in wine colored velvet. doctor real splendor indeed. in fact, tonight bb is wearing, wait a minute, is something moving? indeed it is. meet a red squirrel that she reportedly brought over on the ship from england, excuse me, from germany. one reporter gushed that it drapes around her neck like a lovely for next piece. i guess if you like your for next pieces with claws. the book opens with this party in april 1937 and roughly the first third runs from this party up until december 7, 1941. the squirrel of the diplomatic and social scene. parties, receptions. here are hans and bebe. off to a reception at the white house. and she's got a little bit of a for right there, i think you'd agree. life in dc wasn't lived in a vacuum. it was impacted by the events overseas, especially the onslaught of nazi and japanese war machines. as the drumbeats of war grew louder, america was sharply divided between the interventionists, ready to confront fascism and totalitarian threats andthe isolationists , led by, anyone know the group that led the isolationists? america first. america first who detractors called the nazi transmission belt. maybe today we would call the latest incarnation of america first the russian transmission belt. i'll stick with history. hans and bebe are the first of five main characters with whom itried to tell the story so i'd like to briefly tell you about the other three . meet massimo cotto, he was the bureau chief for the japanese news agency. he was born in japan, came to the us for college and covered the league of nations in geneva and london as a fullyaccredited member of the press . he can go places and hear things that is diplomats can't. which is perhaps why he was rumored to be a spy and the fbi bugged his apartment. next we have hildegard von sekuya arare berdecher. her father friedrich who was the nazi military on cachet. he was born in germany, came here in 33, went to france and in the fall of 41 she began her senior yearof college . a year that didn't turn out quite the way she thought it would . our last main character is when harasake, an american marriedto a japanese businessman . obviously my magic touch is back. on a summer day in 1941 she's at a small airportin eastern tennessee , a stone's throw from where she grew up. she's waiting for herhusband and while she's there she strikes up a conversation with a stranger, something we've all done at airports . she tells him her husband travels so much on business, this trip alone he's been gone for six weeks and flown over 20,000 miles. remember, this is 1941 flying that amount of miles is pretty extraordinary so the plane lands and off they go. and what will never know is the man she was talking to was a federal agent. who later wrote this memo and i'll quote just one partof it . he was head of the japanese intelligence network in the us and he's probably been on a trip organizing the intelligencesystem in mexico, central and south america . think about it, that's what he did. so welcome to my world. memos like this are pure gold. in real estate the mantra is location, location, location. in a book like this is research, research, research and i'm happy to bore you with that if you want to ask any questions later on . now we come to the morning of sunday, december 7 and there's a new issue out of a general magazine that hits the newspapers in america, unknown now it was published by colliers which might be a name people remember. it would have set you back $.25, two mercury dimes . the cover as you can seethese is only one story . we can win on both oceans by frank knox, secretary of the navy. inside there's a 2 page spread, a battleship with guns a gleaming. the united states todayhas the greatest navy in history . if there's an award for the worst timing in history, i would put frank at thetop of the list . i'd like to ask a question and a show ofhands, how many people have been to the greenbrier hotel in west virginia ? how aboutthe homestead in virginia ? the grove park in in north carolina, the hershey hotel and the bedford springs hotel, also in pennsylvania. well traveled route. so america is at war and fdr once the diplomats out of the embassies and quickly. there are only three requirements. it needs to be isolated, reasonably close to dc and it needs to be nicec-span2 . >> bebe. >> .. three agencies are assigned to cover the detention. state logistics, the fbi for security and imfs who provide the border guards. only 12 days after pearl harbor, or talking efficiency here, the first group of germans leads by special train and they are led by our old friends. on the front page of the "new york times" for the first and last time. ten days later the japanese leave for the homestead and americans are outraged. one man writes, why does our government deem it necessary to pamper the delegation of yellow rats i housing them one of the countries finest winter resorts? he gets a three-page response that could be summed up in one word, reciprocity. by giving the access diplomats first-class treatment we hope that hours trapped overseas will get the same. that didn't happen. that is a lot to unpack about the detainment so let me briefly cover it under three headings, cabin fever, palace intrigue, and bad blood. cabin fever -- just back to the cover. no visitors, no reporters, no phone calls, mail censored and very sparsely delivered. only one newspaper allowed, and outdoor area for walking, very restrictive. there were indoor diversions, swimming, you do for forming pools, ping-pong, movies but with no newsreels. and the top two activities, dining, gourmet food, all three although alcohol was extra. and the number one, shopping. one german woman wrote, one could find an entire new outfit, shoes only the best, a beauty salon in the antique shop everything exquisite, including the prices. intrigue, the envoy stay for longer in america than anyone had thought. basically you could put that down to bureaucratic red tape. that countries were at war soaking medications had to go through neutral third parties like switzerland and spain. cables had to be translated and transmitted around the globe back and forth, counter offer after counter offer. decisions, delays, even ships wasn't easy because in wartime ships were at a premium. of course the captains who numbered at the peak over 1000 were not privy to any of this. their world was one of gloom and gossip in guest work. rumors flew everywhere but none of them were going anywhere. not for more than six months. finally, bad blood. lots of conflict. first between the captors and the captives, the two most hated man in america, for example, were ambassador special envoy, literally these men were in court ills office when the bombs raining down on pearl harbor. scribble on the walls of one of the carjacks with the words i don't know which one he is but i'd like to wring his neck. that anonymous guard sentiment was probably something virtually every american would have agreed with. even worse was the conflict between the delegations. just like mussolini forever chased under hitler's boot so too did the italians resenting arrogant germans smearing and sniping a favorite target for the nazis was the suspect military capabilities. i will when a pipe was bought a dress was wife return next day. why? because she thought it made him look to germanic. things got so bad that after april fools' day, statement italians 300 miles away and to take their place, surprise, the japanese because the homestead wanted to reopen to the public for its lucrative spring season. problem solved, right? not even close. two days after the japanese arrived, two days, an fbi agent rights, the germans seem to be taken a dictatorial attitude towards the japanese insofar as their rights here. it was a classic case of going from bad to worse. a big part of the reason was racism. both sides, allies mind you, viewed the other as inferior. racism and rancor, a nasty combination. suppressed a stiff drink might help. the japanese requested to state to ship them ten cases of whiskey that were still in the embassy here in d.c. they got this response -- not feasible. the groups were not monolithic your any people struck up friendships including gwen and bebe who bonded over their plates and are uncertain futures going back to countries already at work. gwynn later book about her new friend she seemed like a small bird lost from her nest. this detainment was the only time in american history, in world history, excuse me, to access diplomats were forced to live together, and it didn't go well. their mutual distrust pre-sought tensions that would last about the war. when it finally crossed paths with american counterparts returning home, he went to two exchange sites, lisbon for the europeans, and mozambique for the japanese. there the news reporter we talked about met up with an old friend, an ap reporter named max hill and over drinks they compared the respective confinements, the luxurious life versus mistreatment. at the end when they finished, hill said simply, i am proud of my country. thank you. [applause] >> and now that test but in lieu of that, if anybody has any questions i'd be happy to answer them. they are taping it for c-span so there's one mic up here if anyone would like to come up. >> could you discuss a little more how the american diplomats were treated in the in the countries where they were? >> sure. basically, america was the gold standard. we treated the diplomats, better than they were true in any of the other countries. the one caveat being these other countries were at war so that shortages and low things they had it. but notwithstanding, i could rank them for you, very easy, the american diplomats, the treatment of the access diplomats in america were up here. next game the italians. the italians, the americans enrolled were never even sequestered. they were allowed to stay in the own apartments and every time they without they had to have a member of the cabinet but with the. next came the germans who put the american diplomats at eighth stated resort town and the treatment there was so poor that the people there nicknamed, they said they were at black sulfur springs as opposed to the greenbrier at white sulfur springs. the bottom of the pack by far with the japanese who mistreated not so much the diplomats but journalists and businessmen were in many cases imprisoned and tortured. so they with the bottom of the wrong. >> i remember when i was doing the research and films you, that at the time the french were still, the vichy government still in the embassy. still a great opportunity for us to produce this by 50 want to relate that? >> sure. basically all of the embassies prior to the war were rife with informants. american security agencies at the time were a very fractured. there were army intelligence, oni, office of naval intelligence, the fbi, state department. they didn't get along very well but all hated the idea of cli/oss which was founded by o'donovan. basically there were a lot of break-ins into the foreign embassies especially the spanish embassy -- excuse me, , the freh embassy because we're planning operation torch which was a first american ground action in november of 42. we got people in there, got information and it help with the invasion. right at the invasion the vichy french became persona non grata. i have talked about the first detainment which are right after pearl harbor of the germans and italians and japanese. the second batch with the vichy french in november of 42. they were on the long time, around until early 44, at the hotel hershey for a while and then moved to slightly less harsh date. the third detainment which ends the book of the japanese diplomats that actually served in germany, when germany collapsed with captured about 40 or 50 diplomats and the families, and there was no place in europe simply turn up the ship to america to bedford springs hotel in pennsylvania where they were when the bombs dropped on nagasaki and hiroshima, and they were returned later that fall back to japan. >> if i remember it was an oss female member who pretended to have an affair with a -- that's the story that's why i remember it. >> okay. see, i want people to get the book for that. [laughing] >> the woman that she's talk about her codename was cynthia. she was an american who is married a british diplomat but the marriage ended and she befriended an envoy, a press envoy at the vichy french embassy, and they began an affair and one night, ask her to come three nights before they were finally able to get in and crack the sake and get the military secrets that they wanted within. she and the man that she had the affair with went on to get married and moved back to france right after the war and land in a beautiful château for 20 20 e years until she passed away. >> harvey, can you talk about the actual transfer of the repatriation? you said lisbon and mozambique. how did they get there and white of the american diplomats have anything come in a congress at all? >> as i said, it was hard to even get ships because it was wartime. the atlantic was a u-boat infested. there were a lot of ships that were being sunk daily and certainly weekly by the germans. they eventually got two ships that were swedish ship, very beautiful fancy ships. greta garbo was one of the first passengers. but they chose the two points, one was lisbon because that's where they could unload all the germans and italians who then took trains back to her home countries. and mozambique was just -- the japanese went three-quarters of the way around the world. they went from america, they stopped in rio de janeiro. one point is we didn't just have diplomats in america. it was a thought let's get them all into one plaisance in the back together. but imagine the thousand plus diplomats, a lot of them from countries in south america but there was still some japanese left so that ship went from new york to rio to mozambique and they all met there because the ships bring back our diplomats met at the same time. that's how they were able to talk entity there was a lot of back and forth. none of it all that pleasant. ambassador, the american ambassador to japan had come over, and one day the japanese ambassador to america saw him on the street and stopped in and basically encourage images we should get together and have lunch. he kept going and that story made headlines everywhere. >> they were at liberty. >> yes. they were there for several days basically a matter of unpacking everything in the ships. the germans did want to leave the ship when they cut the lisbon. they didn't have a hotel in delhi can we extra night? we've got 400, i have people need to get on the ship but all right. one more night. the same ships. the american ship them back on the ships that the american diplomats had come over on back to tokyo. they got on on the ships and wt back. >> that's a great story, harvey. i want to know any of your research had this been contemplated in world war i? number one, human thought to do this in 11? at the two projects that going into specific political scenarios, would anything like this happen in our digital age today? >> well, going backward or forward, i really don't know if the could happen today but in terms of world war i it was very different world for world war i. basically what happened there and is going to sound crazy but a special agent for the fbi basically accompanied the german diplomat from d.c. to new york and got him on a ship and he sailed home. i never was able to read much about what happened with the staff at that time. but anticipating when world war ii happened, the written memos circulating at state for a couple of years talking about there's a a war, will have to o something. but we were really, america was really caught with its pants down. when war happen overnight on december 7, despite the memos that had been sent out there was no real plan and we were incredibly fortunate that it happened in winter because in winter, it was not like today, the winter seasons at the green brand and the those resorts, they were not big skiing packages. there were skeleton staff doing maintenance. the call went out in the greenbrier and hosted signed up immediately and that's why they wound up going there. but to get back today for the digital age, there are a lot of foreign diplomats here. i assume they could be rounded up, i don't know if to the greenbrier, they would like to be. [laughing] for those of you who are interested any of the site of the story, i hope you don't mind a comment rather than a question, my father was in turn in germany as the youngest man and bound up with george kennan and a bunch of others for six months. it was no greenbrier but it still auschwitz either. so the story is here in a colleagues book called an american island by charles burdick if you're interested. it's online speaking of pack rats, , my father kept the baseball bat that they used to while away the hours during the war and that's that's not in te baseball hall of fame, should you happen -- >> thank you. >> hang on to your treasures. >> she says the pronunciation of the germantown far better than me because her dad was there. there was a lot of back and forth and a lot of it was really i would say really noodling on the part of u.s. government. for example, the japanese and the germans wanted come and spring came they want to play golf and so they asked in germany, on the american diplomats glad to play golf? the edge was no. okay. no the baseball for the japanese. we did a lot of things that were spiteful but it was wartime and not criticize against decisions that were made at the time. >> my question is about the hotels and have reacted to this big he does mention the greenbrier had a skeletal staff took to the hotels just say sure, we will house these people? did the government pay them for this? how did that work? >> the government pay them. the gentleman who did the negotiations was charlie brooks. he went to both of hotels and they talked about what was going to be. since it was off-season and that so few people there, literally the greenbrier hat i think maybe a dozen people around christmas and the move them all out because the diplomats had to be completely isolated. ten dollars per day room and board was what they got paid. but there guaranteed a certain number of people, or more than they ever would have had absent the detainment. for federal agents and the protecting powers, people like switzerland with people there, they were five dollars a day. >> harvey, did any of the axis diplomats decide to stay? that is, defect cannot go back to the country. >> was great question. there i was in my research i was able to find about 30 or 40 people that wanted to stay. that speak to really good point because many of the diplomats and families have been in america for a lot of years. some of them came in 20 years. this was where their lives were. some of them probably were not exported of the own governments. so there were a number, interesting enough most of them were hungarian that i was able to find. it was a very, very tough process. the u.s. really just wanted to ship virtue all of these people back but a number of people went through hearings and a number of them were granted not citizenship but allowed to stay in america. but on that, the thing i find really interesting, i didn't touch on here but it's more in a book, think about these people. on december 7 their lives turned upside down. instantly had to think about selling all their possessions, their cars, houses, taking care of everything because they were being forced out of the country. that's something i touch and more in a book that i didn't hear, , but a tough, tough world for those people and most of them wound up going back. many of them didn't want to. some were informers. some of them spoke to the fbi, captain forms of the hotels both employees and some of the diplomats. lesser names. identified a half a dozen of them even with the fbi memos all have good things i was able to work around some things and come up with some names. but most of them indeed went back and a lot of them were not really excited about that. >> congratulations. i'm so excited to read this. i was wondering when you go to a hotel you think of things like food and wondering what they served, just like the basic day-to-day. what did these, people are very particular and suddenly a are thrown into multi cultural situations as we say now. did you get details on what they were fed? >> there's a menu in the book. you would've loved to be dining there. the dining was extraordinary and it was at the same level that guests had. there was no cut back in quality or quantity. so the food was extraordinary but the amazing part is, you might think of this i i still can't believe it, japanese decided that the food was too good. they wanted to feel some camaraderie with their countrymen back in japan there were a lot of shortages. so they requested to the homestead that their meals be cut back, maybe a few less choices, maybe not such generous portions. so we can suffer like our countrymen are. and yet despite that noble sentiment, the ambassador would order room service and he would ask for things that were not even on the menu. so he was obviously to the manner born and that comet came back to state. their great memos i found across the board were a couple people are saying like okay, enough is enough with the ambassador. he's not going to be sitting in his room dining on higher-level food of the people who work for him are asking for theirs to be cut back. [inaudible] >> thank you. >> okay. if that's it, if people want i can spin you a couple more quick stories. okay. one is -- if i can find it. you get a lot of memos when you look through a project like this. a lot of times i'll let both goes off and you think wow, this is important but not that many that brings tears to your eyes -- a light bulb goes off. i'd like to tell you the one from you did. there was a spanish born ambassador, excuse me, a butler whose name was leonora sanchez picky lost his job at the spanish embassy and you don't with japanese embassy. he was indeed interred right after december 7 of the embassies were cut off, the japanese embassy was, no one going in and no going out. he had wrote a letter to cordell hull asking for his advice. he wrote, i am faithful and loyal to this country so want you please advise me what can i do? as far as i am concerned i would not remain here for one moment more but i tried showtimes to go out and the police and the federal man stopped me. they treat me nicely and they do have anything to climb against them but i'm worried to death due to the risk and harm they can make me in staying here. please let me know and can give me up at me to work in some other place. that was a spanish bubble. i don't know the story of how he got out but he did get out any state in america any open an antique shop on 14th street and he lived there by the way, i do that in the back of the book a lot of characters so back to the book has what happened after the war so you can follow up on all these people, when he went and what they did. in the front of the book there's three or four pages of names because as you read it, i guarantee will come to name and think who was at again? look back to the front and you'll see who those people are. one other quick story about eleanor roosevelt because i haven't gotten the roosevelt in your but they played a big part. eleanor was attending a meeting of the state ladies red cross right at this time, they grew to 42 right after the diplomats have been interred. she was asking about, she to questions about the war effort. in have any questions? what of the big things the problems both in america and also at the hotels was hoarding. people were going out and buying large quantities of goods that that would become scarce. some of how to order 50 pounds of coffee. eventually that got cut back. they realize they didn't want to be tailoring to them. one of the senators wise, a woman from down south and a butcher the accent but she asked the first lady, she says i've been very disturbed about all the hoarding that icing going on in washington. she said what can we do about that? mrs. roosevelt looks aghast. she's laundering and coping until the front of the question comes to the rescue and she says mrs. roosevelt, mrs. hill did not mean what you think. it's just her southern accent. she meant hoarding. [laughing] one thing about the stores i mentioned before, they were fifth avenue stores, high in stores at the hotels. but out after the mess ride any were a captive audience they turned into kind of a general store because if you wanted to buy come later under love to do mail order to sears and -- most of time the stores themselves and had a lot of money to spend because they were still getting paid. the swiss liaison came to the greenbrier in early 1941, excuse me, early 1942 with a briefcase that held $35,000. $35,000 in those years is about $590,000 today. everybody got paid, the first question of the morning at breakfast is, what's new in the shops? so that's where people were going to spend their money. >> all keep going if you don't mind. the title, diplomatic became in america, it's a point of semantics but it really was very important. right after pearl harbor we send stanley woodward who work with charlie to this japanese embassy and charlie went to the german and italian embassies and they were told, they told the people from those countries that they would not be subject to any form of internment. quickly that came back to bite america in the aspect because we realize we do want to internment. but he came up with the word detainment. so you never see the word internment anywhere. i only saw it one time and is put in quotation marks from attorney general and his putting it in quotation marks because that's really what it is, but for public consumption it was a detainment and the government never varied from the nomenclature. thank you. [applause] >> and not a program from 2016 with senate majority leader mitch mcconnell. is on her author interview program afterwards to talk but his memoir the long game with republican senator lamar alexander of tennessee. >> host: this is a.

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