Ralph Townsend (November 27, 1900 – January 25, 1976) was an American writer, consul and political activist noted for his opposition to the entry of the United States into World War II.

Shortly after returning to the United States he came to prominence through his book Ways That Are Dark: The Truth About China, a harsh critique of Chinese culture which became a widely controversial bestseller.

[23][24] The Robesonian, a newspaper of Townsend's native county, reported in February 1934 that he had "aroused more glowing praise and bitter abuse for his lectures and written comments on China than any other recent speaker and writer on Far East affairs.

[32] He attributes anti-Japanese sentiment in the United States to pro-communist "liberals", above all the sensationalist newspaper editors and journalists who, he believes, despise Japan due to its status as the leading capitalist nation in Asia.

[33] He condemns liberals for having already wrecked the US economy,[34] warns of a possible communist takeover of the United States,[35] and ends by advocating that America resist anti-Japanese warmongering and adopt a foreign policy of neutrality towards Asia.

[36] Townsend predicted that Asia Answers might have a frosty reception from reviewers because of what he alleged to be the pro-Soviet biases of the media,[37] and indeed, the book received negative coverage in The China Weekly Review,[38] The Times Literary Supplement,[39] The Times of India,[40] and The Living Age, the last of which deemed Asia Answers a work "suspiciously similar to press releases by the Tokyo Foreign Office" which would appeal to "none except avowed Fascists".

"[42] On the other hand, the book was received more positively in Japan and in Manchukuo, where Sadatomo Koyama, a leader in the Manchuria Youth League, declared that "[Townsend's] understanding of China is impeccable" and strongly promoted the work.

[43] After returning from Japan, Townsend, who described himself as a "conservative",[44] was highly active in writing articles, delivering lectures, and making radio broadcasts in support of the movement to keep the United States out of the conflicts in Asia and Europe.

[44][45][46] In explaining the reason for his participation in the pro-neutrality movement, Townsend stated that while serving as a consul abroad he had "learned enough of the rottenness of international politics ... to wish to do my part of peace for this country.

[64] In a widely publicized[65] testimony, Townsend condemned the legislation as tantamount to "a war bill" that would "assign dictatorial powers to the President" and would "make America the unmistakable aggressor against nations which have not sought objectively to molest us.

Townsend's first run-in with the law occurred on November 25 ,1941, when federal prosecutors investigating German-funded propaganda in the United States sought him to answer questions before a grand jury about Scribner's Commentator.

[73] When he could not be found at his home in Lake Geneva a nationwide manhunt was launched, but three weeks later Townsend came forward willingly, claiming he had simply been on vacation in the southern United States and hadn't known he was wanted by the government.

[76] In January 1944, Douglas MacCollum Stewart, the former co-publisher of the publication, was sentenced to 90 days in jail for contempt of court for refusing to fully explain to a grand jury where he had obtained the $36,000 he used to purchase The Herald.

A former German secretary, Baron Heribert von Strempel, identified Stewart as the man in whose New York hotel room he'd left $10,000 to $15,000 to help finance a Nazi propaganda magazine before the attack on Pearl Harbor.

[12][82] Though Townsend denied being a paid Japanese agent and claimed to be a victim of political persecution,[83] he did admit to having accepting money from the committee, stating that it was merely a payment in exchange for the bulk sale of his pamphlets.

[91][92] The indictment cited the following statement of Townsend's, which he had written in 1941 prior to US entry into the war, as proof that he had committed sedition: With a fifth of the earth's people kept under their rule by force, [the British] bleat of fighting to liberate subject populations.

In 1967 he appeared before the House Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs as a member of Defenders of Wildlife and between 1972 and 1976 served on that organization's board of directors where he was known for "his insistence on sound financial management.

After his death, his widow Janet turned over his papers to Larry Humphreys, an Oklahoma multimillionaire and supporter of right-wing militia and Christian Identity groups, who referred to Townsend as a man who "knew Roosevelt was trying to entice Japan into attacking the United States, and FDR had him jailed.

[101] In 1997, Barnes Review re-published Ways That Are Dark: The Truth About China for the first time since World War II with a new foreword written by Carto, who praised Townsend as "a profound, genuinely courageous and painfully honest writer".

Limin Chu, who analyzed his articles on China for the Overland Monthly and Out West Magazine, considered some of the claims as "either incredibly gullible or deliberately vicious,"[123] and the historian Justus Doenecke described his pamphlets as "crudely written.