By John Choate

You know your literary stature is with the immortals when a number of the most significant leaders in the 20th century are credited with your Bon Mot.  The clever, witty, or sharp remark begs the question of just how many people are credited with saying ‘America would divide the Pacific ocean by taking the top half and leaving Japan with the bottom half?  ‘If you want to fact check this, do a spoiler alert now and ask your Ai or mobile phone who said that?

         Most recently, August 2026,  the Secretary of War paraphrased the World War Two Chief of Naval Operations and commander in Chief United States Fleet, Admiral Ernest J. King. [80c Ernest King Marshall Islands] ‘’To borrow a page from Admiral Ernest King in World War Two, we’ve decided to share the ocean with Iran. We’ve given them the bottom half.”  

Otto William Hubka,  sailor, credited the Naval Training School in Chicago in a published letter of 1942 Jan 22 in DuBois Nebraska. “I suppose by now all of Pawnee county knows of the treaty the U. S. made with Japan. We’re to divide the Pacific ocean in half, we’ll take the top half and give Japan the bottom. It won’t take long to prove that to the whole world. We navy boys take a lot of pride in the fact we are members of the ‘Mightiest Fighting Force in the World.’

[9c Winchell] Walter Winchell, a nationally syndicated columnist and broadcast journalist, credited the quote to  Secretary of State Cordell Hull by 1942 January 30 as reported in the Manti Messenger. “While negotiations were going between Japan and the U. S.-during the Kurusu-fiction-Kurusu Presented this plan: Why could not the two nations peacefully divide the Pacific? -Secretary Hull smiled agreeably. Encouraged, the Japanazi (sic) continued “Which part would you want- the north or south?”  Mr. Hull is supposed to have  replied: “As long as we are divide the Pacific, we’ll take the top; and you take the bottom.” [5c Hull]

Jimmie Jefferies was credited in the Ft Worth Texas State Telegram by a listener hearing the quote as of Nov 2, 1941, a month before Pearl Harbor. Jefferies was a radio announcer for Dallas station WFAA, Clear Channel radio station’s ‘Early Birds’.  “Here’s a Japanese policy that is a policy. Jimmie Jefferies says we should divide the Pacific Ocean with Japan – we’ll take the top half and they can have the bottom half. Mae O. Weir in the Winnsboro Weekly News.”

Major Squirm in the Alexander City outlook, Alabama News Magazine said the plan is to divide the Pacific between the United States and the Japs, giving the Japs the bottom half , as of December 25, 1941,  two and a half weeks after Pearl Harbor. Major Squirm was the pen name for Hubert Baughn, journalist, editor, publisher of the Alabama Magazine and South The News Magazine of Dixie.

  Two years before Pearl Harbor, The Los Angeles Times on September  21, 1939 ·Page 27  ran a column by Grace Kingsley, who wrote “Japan wants us to share the Pacific Ocean with them. All right, we will, we’ll take the top and Japan can have the bottom.” Kingsley was the LA Times first film editor and columnist, and chronicler of early Hollywood. 

Greenville South Carolina News Dec 21 1941 , p 17  printed the line as gag, or comic relief in the aftermath of the shock of Pearl Harbor.  “Latest Gag. A “gag” that sprang up last week goes as follows: A person asks another if he has heard the terms of peace being talked to end the war between Jap and the United States. The questioned one says no, he hasn’t heard and what are the peace terms? The answer is this: “They’re going to divide the Pacific ocean, give the Americans the top and the Japs the bottom.”

[6c Gen MacArthur 1971] The remark has been attributed to General Douglas MacArthur, Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers. 

[80c Halsey ] Likewise, the US Naval Institute’s Post  is cited as Admiral William “Bull” Halsey answered a reporter who allegedly asked the aggressive Admiral if the United States should consider negotiating a compromise to share the Pacific Ocean with Japan, with Halsey reportedly fireing back with his trademark dark wit, expressing his willingness to divide the ocean—so long as the U.S. took the top and Japan took the bottom implying the Japanese fleet would be sunk.

Ultimately 2 decades earlier, The Miami Herald, Wednesday Feb 01, 1922 ·,Page 20, Galley column wrote,  “Don’t understand why Japan makes such a fuss about the Pacific ocean. We’re perfectly willing to share it with her – we’ll take the top and she can have the bottom.”  The daughter of the Herald’s publisher was columnist, and author Marjory Stoneman Douglas. She was humorously mocking the geometric division of geopolitical spheres of influence during the Washington Naval Conference  (1921–1922). 

Sources for newspapers. (https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-manti-messenger-1942-manti-utah-mess/203423653/ : accessed August 8, 2026), clip page for 1942 Manti Utah Messenger Jan 30, page 6 Hull Kurusu divide Pacific top bottom  by user tumbledrylowd

Consider the difficulty to imagine anything completely unique, so I have not discovered  an earlier Japan bottom and American top sharing of the ocean.  But there are similar  folktales. Consider these:.

[6francs Rabelais 1953]  From France by Francois Rabelais (d. 1553), wherein the devil agreed to stop a pestilence if a farmer planted a crop. The devil took the below ground roots, and  the farmer the above ground leaves. The farmer agreed, planted a bumper crop or corn,  and left the devil with unedible roots, and decomposed seeds. The outsmarted devil, changed the terms wherein the devil would take the above ground, and the farmer the roots. So, the farmer planted an abundant crop turnips, the devil getting leaves, which were once again less edible.  Turnip greens are edible, if cooked long and slow, but not as filling as the turnip.

Denmark’s folktale is a farmer plowing up the roof of a troll’s underground home. The farmer and troll agree to divide the crop, above ground and below ground.  After two years, the farmer had sown carrots, and the next corn. The troll received carrot tops, and corn roots.

Norway’s folktale has a fox receiving bottom turnips, with a bear as partner, receiving top turnip green, and then switching the next year. By changing crops to gran, wherein  the bear received roots, and the fox harvested the top grain.

         Scotland’s folktale has the fox and the wolf planting oats and potatoes on the shares.  The wolf  was maneuvered to take the bottom oats roots, and the top potato leaves.  The fox received the top oats grain, and the bottom potato fruit. Outsmarting the wolf.

         England’s Jack O’Kent was with the Devil, both viewing the field of wheat, just springing up. Not seeing much top, the Devil chose the butts or straw. By harvest time, Jack had the wheat, and the Devil the straw. The next year, the field, sown with turnips, the Devil took the top, and Jack the hidden turnips. Jack again outwitted the Devil.

         Ireland’s folktale had Paddy sowing the field with oats one year, and turnips the next. And the devil taking to bottom roots of oats, one year, and the top leaves of turnips.  Both to the Devil’s disadvantage.

         North Carolina’s folktale has the Devil taking what grows out of de (sic) ground. The Prospect took what grows in de (sic) ground. The crop was potatoes, so the Devil was fooled.

         Germany’s folktale has the Devil taking everything beneath the ground, sharing above the ground with the peasant. The crop was wheat. Next the Devil switches the share,  taking everything above the ground,  and the peasant beneath. The crop was turnips. 

         Italy and Austria had the Devil and Saint John sharing a field of crops. The Devil  took  half off the top. But being a turnip crop, Saint John got the best of sharing that field. In the next farm, the Devil took the bottom which was wheat roots, and Saint John the top, which was wheat ears.  Fooled once again, the Devil stopped new wagers with Saint John.

[6Kopec CCCP ] Russia’s folktale has a Bear and a Peasant, and both agreed to sow a field together.  The crop was turnips, the Bear took the top turnip greens, and the peasant the roots, or turnips. The next season the crop was wheat,  the Bear took the roots, and the Peasant the top, wheat ears. Afterwards, the Bear left the sharing agreement, having been disappointed each turn.

[4c Project Mercury] Mercury, the God of Travelers, agreed to protect a  hiker if they would share half  of anything the hiker obtained. Soon, the hiker found a lost food bag containing dates and almonds. The hungry hiker  unable to wait and share, ate the outside half of the dates, leaving the pits, and cracked the almond shells, eating the inside almond.   Hiker performed his vow by presenting to  Mercury’s altar the pits and shells to fulfill the moiety, with the outsides of one, and insides of the other.

         Two halves can be simultaneous opposites, consider the Aesop fable of the Satyr and the Peasant.  The Satyr observed a Peasant in cold winter time  blowing on his fingers.  Upon the Satyr’s inquiry, the Peasant explained the blowing warmed his fingers.  But later at dinner, the Peasant blew on his soup to cool it.  The same breath produced hot and cold. 

         Aesop’s fables of the 7th century BC, were retold until collected about the 2nd century, before Caesar.  Over centuries, the fables were translated and spread throughout the world.

         Based on present research, it is probable that Marjory Stoneman Douglas was first to have thought up the sharing the ocean top and bottom quote. It is a clever mind to extrapolate a common sense meme, into a political or philosophical observation.  Memes are two sides of the same coin, tall  requires a short, fast needs a slow, and bottom is necessary to have a top.  Perspective determines the result. 

Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School is a Parkland, Broward County Florida school named for the writer, later an environmentalist for the Everglades. The school opened in 1990 on her centennial, while she was still living, until 1998.