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He was already showing the adaptability that makes opponents claim he strives to be all things to all men. Though a right-wing nationalist, he was also a friend of many left-wingers who later became the leaders of Japan's Socialist Party, and the friendships have endured. Graduating in the cherry blossom season of 1920, the newly married Kishi became a civil servant in the Ministry of Commerce and for the next 16 years was indistinguishable from thousands of other bureaucrats. Clutching his newspaper and a black umbrella, he commuted between his modest home in suburban Shinjuku and a governmental beehive in Tokyo's busy Kasumigaseki district. Though he looked and acted like all the others, his quick wit and swift grasp of facts and situations won him a new nickname: "The Razor."
Kishi got two tours of duty abroad, visiting the U.S. and Europe to inspect iron and steel plants. He learned to play golf in Philadelphia in 1926 and on his return home became a popular member of foursomes with big zaibatsu business men who were painstakingly learning the Western game. He also had difficulties with his superiors. In 1936 a new Commerce Minister, resentful of Kishi's golf and restaurant dates with such influential businessmen as Sugar Magnate Aiichiro Fujiyama and Steelmaker Yoshisuke Aikawa, complained: "Kishi behaves as if he were the Minister instead of me!" Relations got so bad that Kishi quit and went to Manchuria as industrial adviser to the Japanese puppet government.
While Kishi had been climbing the bureaucratic ladder, Japan was convulsed by a struggle between parliamentarians and militarists. Two Prime Ministers were assassinated by nationalist gunmen, and other top officials killed and wounded. The government struck back by executing 13 army officers for conspiracy, and sending Kishi's discarded hero, Kita Ikki, to a firing squad. But victory went to the militarists. Ignoring orders from Tokyo, the Kwantung army occupied all of Manchuria. By 1937, when full-scale hostilities with China broke out, the Prime Minister and the Cabinet could only be appointed with the approval of the army.
Pearl Harbor Days. In Manchuria, Kishi found himself among friends and relatives. His uncle ran the Manchurian railways; Kishi brought over Steelmaker Aikawa to take charge of factory construction, and became closely connected with General Hideki Tojo, commander of the Kwantung army. Returning to Japan in 1939, Kishi could say complacently: "Manchurian industry is my development. I have an infinite affection for this industrial world I have created." Today, Kishi's lost "creation" provides arms and economic muscle for Red China.