LONDON, Aug. 16,2004 Kyodo

U.S. intelligence officials were so concerned about Japan's ''infiltration'' of Muslim countries during World War II, they proposed urgent countermeasures, formerly secret government documents show.

The Office of Strategic Services (forerunner to the Central Intelligence Agency) claimed that Japan had successfully implemented a policy of courting Muslim nations since the turn of the century in order to serve its own strategic ends.

In a paper, ''Japanese Infiltration Among the Muslims Throughout the World,'' dated May 1943, the OSS details the methods Tokyo employed to befriend such countries -- even spreading word to Muslim nations that Emperor Hirohito might convert to Islam and that it could become Japan's state religion.

The document summarized, ''She (Japan) has expended on it (Muslim policy) many years of patient labor and has assigned to it some of her ablest political and military leaders. Her cunning and opportunism, her flexible approach and unscrupulous manipulation of the facts have borne fruit in many lands.''

Japan used a combination of anti-Western and anticommunist views, together with economic power, to appeal to Muslim countries. Tokyo also emphasized the flexible nature of its religion, Shinto, in order to suggest many Japanese could convert to Islam, according to the report.

''She (Japan) can appeal ... to Muslim missionary zeal by hinting the opportunity of large-scale conversions among the Japanese,'' the report states.

''Instead of posing as the magnanimous protector of Islam, Japan can make a plausible showing as an eager seeker after the truth. Under these circumstances, rumors judiciously planted here and there that the Emperor might consider turning Muslim, are bound to take root and spread. Millions of sanguine believers have fallen for the promise that Islam is about to become the world's greatest power with the Mikado as

Caliph,'' the OSS's research and analysis branch wrote.

According to the report, Japan started to befriend Muslim countries from the 1880s. After the Russo-Japanese War in 1904-1905, Japan courted the Muslims more openly and as early as 1906 rumors started to circulate that the emperor was preparing to make Islam Japan's state religion, says the document.

After World War I the report said, ''Once again word spreads abroad that thousands of Japanese have gone over to Islam, that Japan as a whole is ripe for conversion, and that the Mikado himself is on the verge of embracing the vigorous faith of Muhammad.''

The paper, which was recently opened up to public view at the National Archives in London, says Tokyo's Muslim policy was spearheaded by members of the Black Dragon Society (Kokuryukai), a group of Japanese ultranationalists.

The U.S. paper claims the policy was formalized by the Muslim Pact in 1900 or 1909 at which an oath was signed to the effect that the participants were to promote faith in Islam. Signatories included Ryohei Uchida, the society's president, Mitsuru Toyama who, the report claims, was the ''inspiration behind secret societies,'' and Tsuyoshi Inukai, who would later become prime minister, as well as pan-Islamic writer Abdurrashid Ibrahim.

According to the documents, the society was directing the activities of a Japanese, named Sakuma, who set up in 1923 a Muslim evangelical center in Shanghai called ''The Society of Light'' in order to promote Islam in China.

The documents also point to a number of Muslim publications, groups and mosques which were set up in Japan around this time. It notes that for years Tokyo has been successful at attracting Muslim students to visit Japan for study tours.

In what appears to be a reference to more recent times, the report claims Japan has been conducting ''persistent undercover activity'' in neighboring countries. ''As a result, the Muslim territories of Russia and China have felt the impact of subversive operations enjoying the blessing of Japan.''

The paper noted that Japan was portraying its expansion into Southeast Asia as a means of liberating these countries from an ''Anglo-American tyranny.''

It names Gen. Sadao Araki, former war minister, and ''now a power behind Premier Tojo,'' as one of the current exponents of the ''Muslim Policy.'' Gen. Hideki Tojo served as prime minister from 1941 to 1944 and was hanged as a Class-A war criminal after World War II. 

''In short it (the Muslim policy) is backed by the most dynamic elements in Japan, on the ascendant since the turn of the century,'' the paper says.

The author believes that Japan judges its policy has been a success and predicts that it may try out a ''Catholic Policy'' on Latin America.

The OSS proposes its own propaganda campaign in Muslim countries to expose Japan's ''barefaced duplicity.'' This includes showing to Muslim nations, according to the document, that Japan has been forcing emperor-worship on Muslims in its occupied territories and that it has been making similar claims of potential mass conversions to other faiths.

The response from British officials to the paper was mixed. While recognizing that the policy existed, one official noted that Washington was giving too much importance to it. Another described the document as ''hysterical.''

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