When the Alien Land Law prohibiting land ownership by aliens not eligible for citizenship (mainly Asians) was passed in the California Assembly in May 1913, Japanese officials and immigrants alike realized the merit of swaying US public opinion. To quell the rising anti-Japanese movement, the Japanese Foreign Ministry set up in 1914 two publicity bureaus-the Pacific Press Bureau (PPB) in San Francisco and the East and West News Bureau (EWNB) in New York City-disguising both as private "press agencies". Kiyoshi Kawakami, who had been invited to San Francisco by the Japanese Association as manager of the Campaign of Education, was appointed chief of PPB, a low cost operation designed to placate the local California press and contribute news items to influential papers throughout the country. The Japanese consul-general, who held the ultimate responsibility for PPB, was pleased with Kawakami's capability as a propagandist. At the onset, PPB activities were hindered due to poor cablegram communications with Tokyo; however, on the occasion of the declaration of war on Germany, the Japanese Foreign Minister took a more positive attitude and imposed upon PPB the role of an agency for war propaganda. Therefore, Kawakami came to play a dual role as a promoter of Japanese military policy in the Far East and debunker of prevalent anti-Japanese public opinion, especially the rumors of a pending US-Japanese war being spread by propagandists for the German and Chinese governments. Kawakami was also involved in intelligence work, obtaining confidential State Assembly documents for the Japanese Consulate and lobbying against anti-Japanese bills introduced during the Assembly's 42nd Session. After the war, PPB was forced to tone down its blatant propaganda due to public antipathy towards such activity on the part of Japanese and pro-Japanese Americans, conflict within the Bureau between Japanese and American staff members, and a threat that Kawakami's secret arrangements with the Japanese government would be become public. From 1917 one, Kawakami was frequently absent from his San Francisco headquarters, travelling to the Far East, New York and Washington DC courtesy of the Japanese Foreign Ministry. Kawakami was expected of wide-ranging activities as a Ministry intelligence agent, not merely a kind of propagandist in San Francisco. Both PPB and EWNB were shut down because of the establishment in August 1921 of the Foreign Ministry's Intelligence Office which changed the tone of its information policy from "active" and "wartime" to "moderate" and "peaceful". Kawakami left San Francisco for Washington DC in January 1923, where he continued to maintain secret connections to the Japanese Embassy.

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