793.94/7231
The Minister in China (Johnson) to the Secretary of State
[Received August 5.]
Sir: In my despatch dated May 1st at Nanking I pointed out that Japan’s policy towards China has been adopted as a means of meeting the problem of her population, and that in carrying out this policy Japan wavers between the more positive plans of the military and the more negative plans of the liberal, organized industrial leaders. I expressed the opinion that, reacting to the disillusionment regarding the benefits to be derived from the newly acquired position in Manchuria, the Japanese military group were then apparently prepared to give the more liberal element in Japan—represented by a part of the Foreign Office—and Japanese industry, an opportunity to win benefits from the Chinese by a more conciliatory policy. I was the more convinced of this willingness of the military to make way for the policy of Japan’s Foreign Office when it was made known in Tokyo early in May that Japan intended to raise the status of its Legation in China to that of an Embassy. Informed persons, Japanese as well as Chinese, accepted this announcement from Tokyo as indicating a triumph for the Foreign Minister, Mr. Hirota. It therefore came as something of a shock to learn from the press that, almost immediately upon this announcement, the military leaders questioned the decision of the Foreign Office and expressed their disapproval.
There are times when it seems as though the Japanese military were afflicted with an inferiority complex, accentuated by their failure in recent years in inducing the various peoples of the East, and particularly the Chinese, voluntarily to unite under Japanese leadership and the banner of Pan-Asianism. In my despatch of May 1st above referred to I mentioned the evidences of incompatibility as between Chinese and Japanese. Sometimes it seems as though the Japanese military, in the face of this incompatibility, harbor a feeling of thwarted effort that leads them to desire to force the Chinese to give them what they cannot obtain voluntarily. I have no doubt that the military leaders of Japan are imbued with high ideals for the welfare and position of the yellow races among whom they aspire to be [Page 304] leaders. But there are times when I feel that they resent deeply the fact that the races they desire to lead have not evidenced their appreciation of that idealism.
The Japanese Foreign Office was just as well informed of the activities of the Chinese Nationalist Party (Kuomintang) and its general attitude of anti-foreignism and anti-Japanism as was the Japanese military. But whereas the Foreign Office and industrial Japan, along with the rest of the world, were apparently prepared to let the Kuomintang work its own way out of the absurdities of its present activities, the military, seeing the Chinese recalcitrant and believing that the Foreign Office by its policy of conciliation was stultifying itself in the eyes of the rest of the world and particularly in the eyes of the “cunning” Chinese, was resolved to deal a drastic and forceful blow at the Chinese institutions which in their minds were guilty of deception and insincerity. Mixed with this, of course, was the desire to make clear to the Chinese and to the Japanese that no one might act in any of these matters without the approval of the military general staff, the real rulers of Japan. By means of threats and the movement of various units of the Army to points of strategic advantage, the military were able to force the Chinese to shift all of their political organizations out of Hopei and Chahar Provinces, and to move away the armed forces of the Central Government. The military succeeded in obtaining the elimination from this area of every official to which they were opposed, so that now the Chinese Government will hardly dare to assign to this area an official to whom the Japanese may for some reason or another object.
Among those officers of the Chinese Government who received their training in Europe or in America there is a belief that as Japanese influence increases there will be a constantly diminishing opportunity for Chinese so trained to hold office. They believe that the Japanese military, after eradicating the Kuomintang, intend to eliminate from positions of responsibility Westernized Chinese, whom they are disposed to blame for China’s employment of advisers of European and American nationality. There is reason to believe that the Japanese military resent the employment by China of European or American advisers as a studied insult to Japanese ability to furnish advisers of equal qualifications and, according to Japanese belief, peculiarly endowed with idealistic interest in the welfare of the yellow peoples and therefore better able to do the work which the yellow people under Japanese leadership will require.
An atmosphere of gloom and fear now permeates Chinese Government offices such as is difficult to appreciate except by those who have contact with those offices and who see and talk with the men who head the various departments. Wang Ching-wei, President of the Executive [Page 305] Yuan and Acting Minister for Foreign Affairs, is and for some time has been a very sick man, but there is no doubt that his recent collapse has been brought about in large measure by the worry and fear which Japanese military, acting independently of the Japanese Foreign Office, have been able to inspire, to the point where the functions of the Government are almost paralyzed. No Chinese official feels secure. At any moment the visiting card of a hitherto unheardof Japanese Major or Colonel may be presented to him and he knows that he is in for an interview with a man whose slightest opinion may become the active policy of the Japanese military, who are always ready to move.
Nothing is too absurd to occupy their attention. Take the instance of the publication in the New Life Magazine at Shanghai of an article containing certain observations on kings and emperors. I have not seen the article in question, but apparently it was a general article commenting upon various monarchs and describing their positions in their several governments. Among these comments which included statements regarding the King of England, there was one which described the Japanese Emperor as the figurehead of the Japanese state. Apparently the article was not noticed until it was reprinted in a daily newspaper in Tientsin where it fell under the eagle eye of the newspaper readers attached to the Kwantung Army Commandant who immediately demanded the punishment of the editor, holding that the article was an insult to the Japanese Emperor. It was then discovered that the article had been originally printed in the New Life Magazine a month before in Shanghai, so they demanded the punishment of the editor of the New Life Magazine. It was then discovered that the publication in question had been passed by the censors, and as the censors are connected with the Kuomintang or Nationalist Party organization, naturally the whole thing connects itself with the Japanese campaign against the Kuomintang. And out of this—to any one else absurd—incident grows a situation in Shanghai which may furnish the necessary excuse for the Japanese Army and Navy to do in the Yangtze Valley what they have already accomplished in North China. It would be laughable if it were not so serious.
The result is that, so real is the fear which the Japanese military have succeeded in breeding in the minds of the Chinese, they can now obtain anything they wish. No Chinese would dare oppose any request that the Japanese may make; and I expect to see Japanese activities, political and economic, increase in China from now on, in fields in which perhaps no one but a Japanese would care to venture; this for the simple reason that the Japanese Army is prepared to police Japanese efforts in this area where otherwise they would not be able to control and exploit China’s resources.
[Page 306]In my despatch of May 1st I expressed myself as pessimistic of the ultimate outcome. I see no reason to change my point of view, but apparently the Japanese military must continue the expenditure of their efforts and of Japanese treasure, whatever their end is to be. The Japanese Army is determined to break China to its will, whatever the consequences may be.
Respectfully yours,