Japanese-Soviet Petroleum Company Contribution
1932 saw joint negotiations between the Japanese government and the Soviet Union, which was at the time the world’s second-largest oil-producing nation, over rights for Japanese importation of oil from Siberia. A crucial participant in these negotiations was Count Kojiro Matsukata of the Nippon Petroleum Company who then founded the Japanese-Soviet Petroleum Company in 1933. During the negotiations he put in a good word for Kichimatsu Kishi and his endeavors in oil and suggested that Kishi be added to the government representatives as an expert in oil production. Before the beginning of the Pacific War, Kishi received a large silver cup from the Nippon Petroleum company as an award for his “patriotic service through oil.” [2]
References
1. Walls, Thomas K. (1987) The Japanese Texans, San Antonio: University of Texas, Institute of Texan Cultures at San Antonio, 1996.
2. Orii, K. (1983) Kichimatsu Kishi’s Japanese Colony at Terry, Texas, Department of History, University of Pennsylvania.
3. Wingate, G. (1974) “The Kishi Colony,” in The Folklore of Texan Cultures, Abernethy, F. E., ed. The Encino Press, Austin.