Office of the Historian

793.94/7108: Telegram

The Ambassador in Japan (Grew) to the Secretary of State

Tokyo, June 24, 1935—2 p.m.
[Received June 24—8:35 a.m.]

138. Department’s 95, June 22, 3 p.m.

1.
The Embassy is not in accord with Litvinov’s statement as to the unpopularity in Japan of the Japanese military activities in North China. The Japanese public appears to regard them as a routine matter aiming at the gradual expansion of the area of order and for the protection of legitimate Japanese interests. It is true that there has been no great popular enthusiasm over recent developments in North China as there was over the Manchurian incident but the Embassy has received no indication from its numerous sources of information that any considerable section of the nation is actively opposed to the Army’s moves. The vernacular newspapers recently have been giving only lukewarm support to the military and there is some indication [Page 274] that the Japanese people are a little tired and perhaps somewhat apprehensive of the cost of the Army’s demands and aggressiveness at home and abroad but the Embassy is not prepared to go further than this in support of Litvinov’s information.
2.
An important element in the situation is the opposition in certain quarters in Japan to a united China or one under the control of Chiang Kai-shek whom the Japanese Army apparently distrusts. It may be that this accounts for some of the Army’s demands in North China. It seems unlikely, however, that the Army’s activities aiming at the disunification of China will be pushed much further just now and therefore, in the Embassy’s opinion, interposition by the United States or Great Britain at the present juncture would be most inadvisable as it would almost certainly tend to solidify sentiment in favor of the Army’s actions rather than against them.

Repeated to Peiping by mail.

Grew