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Foreign Devil: Thirty Years of Reporting in the Far East

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I came to know Richard Hughes (1906-1984) in his last years. At that time he was Richard Hughes the legend, "dean" of foreign correspondents in Hong Kong, and I was working at the American Consulate General.

He had been the last Western reporter in Japan before war broke out in 1941. During the occupation, he was the lion of the Tokyo Foreign Correspondents Club. He had covered Japan, Hong Kong, China, Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, and Thailand in the 1950s and 1960s, as the momentous events that shaped the postwar era unfolded.

To many of the young journalists in Hong Kong in the early 1980s, however, he had become too salty and too old, out of phase with the times. In the aftermath of the Vietnam war and China's Cultural Revolution, who cared to remember the Japanese peace treaty or the Bandung conferences? His contacts had become the retired generation of Asian leaders. He had an affection for Taiwan and South Korea that was out of fashion in the 1980s. His occasional articles were by that time short on first-hand reporting and long on reflection, and his reflection often seemed passé.

It happened, though, we shared a common awe of the excesses of North Korean propaganda. Richard Hughes was perhaps the only man outside the Marine Corps who could, when sufficiently provoked, match the North Korean vitriol, returning their colorful insults in kind. His capacity for colorful language had been honed, I learned, during a misspent youth in Australia. But I came to realize that his outrage at the North's propaganda stemmed from a loathing for what Goebbels had done to Germany and what the military propagandists of prewar Japan had done in that country -- stimulate latent emotions of xenophobia and race hatred, overcome the gentle and humane impulses of those cultures, and set in motion terrible conflicts.

From Richard Hughes I heard many stories and learned many lessons. His lively reporter's classic, "Foreign Devil," told more.

The book's 32 sketches and essays are not so much about the great events that he covered as a correspondent. They portray rather the distinctiveness of news work in the intercultural setting of Asia. In this book he placed many of his "good stories" that had not been the subject of news reports or columns, but illustrated events, moods, and trends almost as clearly.

-- A half a dozen recollections of reporting in Japan in 1940 and 1941 include speculations on the Richard Sorge spy ring, and how the Japanese police sought to control foreign press coverage. Another six chapters portray reporting during the occupation of Japan.

-- Hughes' role in persuading the Soviet government to bare the defection of the British turncoats Guy Burgess and Donald Maclean, giving Hughes the scoop, is told in two chapters. Every young diplomat should read Hughes' memorandum to Molotov, and take notes.

-- Another dozen chapters relate encounters -- with Japanese fans of Sherlock Holmes, with the "blind bonze of Luang Prabang," with the Japanese detective who solved the notorious Teikoku bank murders, and with Ian Fleming as he travelled through Japan. Hughes' "Fanfare of Chopsticks" is a graceful and merry essay on Chinese food.

-- Two of the book's chapters come from the pens of guest authors. USIA officer Robert Lasher contributed an adventure in northeast Thailand. And sixteen western reporters -- John Gunther, Robert Shaplen, Jacques Marcuse, Carl Mydans, Dennis Bloodworth, and Stanley Karnow among them -- told their favorite personal anecdotes.

-- Finally, six chapters deal with China, impressions garnered during the Cultural Revolution. An introductory essay describes the dilemma of foreign reporters covering China -- to report from Beijing or from Hong Kong? In two chapters that relate interviews with Chinese, Hughes allows the implausibility of their actual words, made in controlled Potemkin interviews, speak for the Cultural Revolution. "'Brute force' and 'Brute reason'" gives texture to the nature of Chairman Mao's "reforms." Another chapter features material gleaned from FBIS reports that lets Chairman Mao speak for himself.

Published many years ago, what does this book still offer?

First, it is a marvelous good read in a punchy style. Second, it gives life and spirit to events and personalities now in danger of becoming dry history. Third, the book captures the state of intercultural understanding of one important journalist over 30 years.

In my case, the book helped me understand Richard Hughes the legend and elderly friend. His reporting rested on an enormous attraction and affinity for Asian culture. He could find common ground and make friendships with anyone. The great tragedies of modern times, in his eyes, were the events and forces that prevented Asians and Westerners from coming to know one another.

-30-

Richard Hughes spent a career in Asia. I can identify with 20+ years living and working there. His quote near the end of the book captures the essence, "Asia is the university from which no one ever graduates." Just when you think you have it figured out, something happens to alter your perspective. From the spiritualism of Thailand to the business ethic of Japan and the politics of China, Hughes has some poignant observations that will alternately make laugh or cry. Highly recommended!

Hughes was an Australian journalist working in Asia from the late 30's until the mid 60's. This is a collection of some of his stories and recollections.

Hughes was probably a British spy, during the last days of the empire. He may have been a bit of the inspiration for James Bond, and he reportedly was the inspiration for one of John LeCarre's characters. He knew and worked with Ian Fleming, and probably knew LeCarre though he doesn't explicitly mention him. He is a bit on the chatty side, but breathtaking in his ability to paint a picture of ordinary life as a working journalist during WW II and the Cold War in Asia and the Pacific. Excellent eye and ability to describe detail. He never exalts himself or dramatizes his role in the coverage of events. He reminds me a bit of John Steinbeck's WW II coverage from Africa and Europe. If you are a Yank, I would take the time to read this book. It gives a very different picture of Asia than you would have gotten from U.S. correspondents.