793.94/4421: Telegram
The Ambassador in Japan (Forbes) to the Secretary of State
[Received February 26—1:23 a.m.]
78. At this time the Japanese people are now intensely excited, the streets are filled with excited crowds bearing banners shouting and singing and accompanying the recruits that are being called to the colors. The stations are crowded with flag-waving and shouting crowds as the troops or recruits move. School children are turned out and ordered to the station en masse to speed the parting troops.
It is a time when I am impressing upon our staff that calmness in dealing with the situation is especially important.
In going through the Tokyo station on my way to Kobe and Osaka yesterday and return, I had a cordon of 18 policemen and plain-clothes men surrounding me in 2 lines deep.
Both the British and Italian Ambassadors believe a change in the Ministry probable and perhaps imminent, with a military premier; this latter is also in [sic] McIlroy’s opinion. The Government is expected to be a so-called nationalist or coalition government as indicated in my telegram No. 76, February 24, 8 p.m.5
- Not printed.↩