811.5294/91: Telegram
The Chargé in Japan (Bell) to the Secretary of State
[Received September 12—9:55 a.m.]
474. The Japanese language papers have been printing for several days numerous items regarding California conditions. I have gained the impression from some of these that they were written under the inspiration of the Department for Foreign Affairs. Their general purport is that by strengthening the present understanding regarding the regulation of immigration of Japanese the Governments of Japan and the United States hope to be able to prevent a vote in California or to bring about the defeat of the measure submitted. These newspaper reports generally take a friendly attitude toward the situation in which the United States is placed and show approbation of the endeavors of the national administration to find a satisfying answer to the problem. Intimations have been made that the Government of the United States, in case the measure [Page 16] carries in the popular vote, might challenge its legality or protect the interests of citizens of Japan already in the State by a special American-Japanese treaty.
The chauvinistic and opposition papers, on the contrary, tend to assume an unfriendly tone toward the Japanese Government’s favoring conciliation and stress the claim that by simply making it possible for Orientals to become American citizens the Government of the United States could solve the whole problem. …
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