711.94/834
The Ambassador in Japan (Grew) to the Secretary of State
[Received September 1.]
Sir: Periodically the Japanese press unearths evidence of American machinations in China, usually in the form of military assistance directed presumably against Japan. The Embassy has reported* the appearance of accounts in the Japanese press during January 1933 of widespread plots and schemes on the part of America in China. On January 13, Tokyo newspapers published telegrams from Nanking stating that the United States had arranged to loan the Nanking Government 20 million yuan for war supplies. On January 16, Mr. Shiratori, the Foreign Office spokesman, asserted that the Foreign Office had learned on reliable authority that some forty American officers had been sent to China to take part in hostilities against Japan. On the same day the Japanese War Office issued a statement to the press that the United States was supplying automobiles and airplanes to China through merchants at Shanghai.
On March 28, the Osaka Mainichi reported that the United States was helping Canton to build up a formidable air force and that a 10 million loan had been concluded. Under the guidance of the American Navy bases are being established “which can be made to function as American bases in the event of emergency”. The Osaka Asahi declared on March 21, that America has so implanted her influence in Canton that the local government is virtually under American control; that an American Vice-Consul dominates the Canton Government; that a $30,000,000 loan had been concluded on condition that part of the funds be used for armed resistance to Japan; that four American Naval vessels despatched from Manila were ready to hoist the Canton flag when the occasion demands.
In the past few weeks there has been a recrudescence of these sensational stories.
On July 16 the Osaka Asahi stated that Mr. Li Ching Chuan, a member of the Railway Fund Committee of the Nanking Government, left for Manila on the mission of raising an American loan for the construction of the Chingchow-Lungyen Railway in Fukien. It also stated that the 19th Route Army is planning to lay out a big aerodrome with foreign capital. The Asahi stated that inasmuch as the “21 demands” treaty9 prohibited China from making concessions in this province these schemes are being duly watched by the Japanese Government.
[Page 389]On July 28th respectable papers such as the Asahi, Jiji and others published various reports of American activities in China inimical to Japanese interests. These reports, some of them ascribed to official sources, stated that on June 6, a 750,000 yuan loan contract was signed between the 19th Route Army and the United States for a supply of arms; that the American gunboat Fulton had landed a large quantity of munitions near Amoy; that on May 18 the 5th destroyer flotilla entered Amoy and landed arms for the 19th Route Army and that through American aid this army was undertaking extensive air defence enterprises at Amoy and Fuchow. In return for this aid a site for a naval base was to be granted the United States Navy at Tungshan Bay near Amoy. These schemes were reported to be giving serious concern to the Japanese military authorities.
On August 4, the Tokyo Asahi carried a sensational story, which also appeared in other papers, of official American aid to Chinese aviation.† An elaborate contract alleged to have been signed between Minister Sze and the Department of State, consisting of three chapters and seventeen articles, was quoted in detail. A translation of this astonishing document, as appearing in the Asahi, is hereto appended.10 In view of the Department’s express denial of the existence of any such agreement, one can but marvel at the fertility of Japanese imagination.
A few days after publishing this exciting story, the Asahi on August 7, dug up a three months old news item for revamping as further evidence of American machinations. This story recounted the conclusion of a contract between the Mackay Wireless Company of America and the Communications Department of the Nanking Government for direct wireless communication between China and the United States. It was reported that the Japanese military authorities regarded this agreement with much concern as it might be used to Japan’s disadvantage in case of war.
As the latest evidence of the American menace, the Kohumin and other papers carried a story, on August 11, from a “reliable source”, of the establishment of an American naval base, not in China this time, but Magdalena bay in Lower California. History seems to have completed a cycle since President Wilson’s time. Also, on August 12, the Osaka Mainichi carried, as its leading story, a despatch from its Shanghai correspondent stating that the United States was secretly building up the fortifications in Manila bay, in violation of treaty obligations.
These stories and others of similar type published during the past half year or more are practically all due to military propaganda, or [Page 390] directly to military inspiration, I believe. It will be noted that after the first series of sensational stories early in the year, there has been a comparative hiatus until recently. The incidence of these series upon occasions of importance to the Japanese military lends credence to the suspicion of military inspiration. Early in the year the military were faced by the necessity of justifying their huge budgetary demands. Since the passage of the budget bill in March there has been little need for an American bogey, until recently, when the new budget estimates are being framed. The more recent stories of American activities in China have coincided with an elaborate program of air defence manoeuvres, and a recrudescence of “spy-scares”, all aimed at stirring up a war psychology and patriotic ardor. In such an atmosphere the new budgetary demands of the army have assurance of success. While there are plenty of sane minded Japanese who dismiss these rumors as absurd, the general public is excited, and a dangerous xenophobia is created. The newspaper stories, irresponsible as they are, are usually attributed to some official or “reliable” source. It is obvious that they have considerable effect on public opinion, published as they are by the most reputable newspapers in Japan like the Asahi.
I have pointed out in previous despatches that the Japanese military are fully aware that there is far greater risk of an eventual clash with Soviet Russia than with the United States, but that nevertheless it has suited the purpose of the military to stir up popular feeling by periodic aspersions against the United States. Why the United States has been made the villain at this time is not clear. Possibly the new American program of naval construction has some bearing, and certainly the Soong loans have annoyed the Japanese.
At the same time I am inclined to speculate as to why most of these sinister American designs are located in Fukien province, and as to whether these persistent alarms do not herald some Japanese move in that region. Japan of course has long shown a particular interest in Fukien. There is said to be an agreement, signed in 1898 that the Chinese Government will neither lease nor cede any part of Fukien to any foreign country.11 Of course the 21 demands demonstrated that the Japanese have a definite interest in that province.
However disagreeable it may be to have this baiting concentrated upon the United States, it is at least some consolation to find that the animus is not exclusive. France has recently aroused some suspicion in Japan by raising the French flag over an obscure group of islands in the South China sea. England has been denounced in recent months because of trade restraints with India. Russia is of [Page 391] course a chronic enemy, and Chinese hostility is reciprocated in Japan. Although America finds herself the most popular bête noir, she may take comfort in the realization that the anti-foreign animus is shared in lesser degrees by all other countries with which Japan has important contact.
I may add that it has not seemed to me wise to enter official protests against the publication of these unfounded rumors and aspersions against the United States or generally to dignify them with denials. Such action, in my opinion, would only have served to focus greater attention upon them and to magnify their importance. The Foreign Office, in any case, is powerless to control the press, and attempts on its part to do so would probably result in renewed bursts of xenophobia. Only in the cases of the National City Bank and the Singer Sewing Machine Company incidents, where American lives and property were placed in jeopardy, and in the case of published aspersions against the United States by a member of the Cabinet, the Minister of War, have I felt it desirable to enter official protests, with favorable results. I believe that this policy of reserving ammunition for acute cases has been justified and that when official representations are made, they are listened to far more attentively than if they were made a habit.
It has come to me from important Japanese sources that the Embassy’s policy of patience during the past year has been appreciated in Government circles and has helped to allay some of the anti-American feeling in the country, in spite of the periodical outbursts in the press. The Government itself knows very well that these various inflammatory charges in the press are baseless, and since I am convinced that it, the Government, desires to base its foreign policy upon good relations with the United States—the Prime Minister himself having been quoted to me on more than one occasion as holding this view—it seems well to avoid interference with the shaping of public opinion in Japan, except in so far as constructive work can be accomplished by unofficial contacts and conversations and by occasional public speeches when favorable opportunities occur.
In this connection I am of the opinion that while various factors, as set forth in my telegram No. 114 of June 8, 11 a.m.,12 have contributed, and will continue to do so, to a renewal of good relations between Japan and the United States, no element will have greater force in this respect than the present plans, as announced in the press, to build up the American Navy, an argument which outweighs all others in effectiveness.
Respectfully yours,
- Despatch No. 364 of April 21, 1933. [Footnote in the original.]↩
- For exchange of notes at Peking on May 25, 1915, see Foreign Relations, 1915, pp. 177 and 204.↩
- Reported in telegram No. 130, August 4, 1933. [Footnote in the original; telegram not printed.]↩
- Not printed.↩
- See declaration concerning the non-alienation of the province of Fukien on April 26, 1898, in Chinese Foreign Office note to the Japanese Minister in China, MacMurray, Treaties, etc., vol. i, p. 126.↩
- Post, p. 702.↩