793.94/14288: Telegram
The Ambassador in Japan (Grew) to the Secretary of State
[Received November 4—10:12 a.m.]
704. Department’s 375, November 3, 5 p.m., and our 703, November 4, 10 a.m.92
1. The following are significant passages from the Prime Minister’s speech.
[Here follow passages from speech printed in Foreign Relations, Japan, 1931–1941, volume I, page 478.]
2. For the past few weeks much attention has been given in the press and elsewhere to the need for reformulation of Japanese policy in the light of “the changed situation in the Far East” in order that (a) the foreign powers might realize that the future security of their interests in China is to be conditioned upon their recognition of the “changed situation”; (b) China be discouraged from assuming that there is to be any relaxation of Japanese determination to eliminate a government of China hostile to Japan; and (c) the need be emphasized to the Japanese people for making sacrifices which the full development of Japanese policy will entail. In our view the two statements, which might properly be regarded as a single expression [Page 367] of Japanese policy, address in each of these three directions a separate message. The Japanese people are told that the war has only just begun and that they will be expected to make the necessary sacrifices, an injunction which this Government pointed up by a separate warning of the Minister of Finance that taxes are to be increased. The Western Powers are warned that Japan will cooperate with only those powers which “really understand” the position of Japan and shape their policy “in accordance with the new situation in East Asia”, while China is urged to abandon its leaders and associate itself with Japan in the creation of a “new order”.
3. The reference in the statements to future Japanese attitude toward foreign powers must we believe be studied in the light of creditable forecasts in several papers this morning of a further statement which is reportedly to be made shortly by the Minister for Foreign Affairs, when he is to declare that “Japan can no longer acquiesce in economic and political encroachments on China by the Western Powers under the guise of the Open Door and other false principles set out in the Nine Power Treaty, and that as Japan can no longer conform to the Treaty it must be regarded as having lapsed”. (Note: Necessary action by the Privy Council to permit of withdrawal from that Treaty has not as yet been taken or so far as we know requested.) One paper adds that the Japanese Government will state in its reply to our note of October 6 that although “Japan has no objection to the maintenance in the economic field of the principle of the Open Door, it cannot admit demands regarding the principle which in reality cloak political ambitions”. There is in the foregoing press stories and elsewhere sufficient warrant for the belief that the two statements issued yesterday are to be the first of a series of overt moves by the Japanese Government seeking to eliminate the Open Door as even a nominal guiding principle in the regulation of foreign rights and interests in China. Unfortunately the editorials this morning barely touch upon those portions of the statements dealing with relations with third powers, but the brief comment made tends to confirm the probable accuracy of our analysis.
4. Some surprise along with much satisfaction is reflected in editorials that it was preferred in these statements to address China in terms more conciliatory than would have been the case if there had been further emphasis on Japan’s determination not to “deal with” the Chinese Government. Approval is given to the stressing of the “rebirth of the Chinese Government” and of the “creation of a new order”, as contrasted with the underscoring in former statements of the “destruction of the Chinese Government” and “surrender”. The conclusion is drawn by one or two papers that the invitation to the Chinese people to reconstruct the Chinese Government is clear notice [Page 368] that the Japanese declaration of January 16,93 that Japan will no longer “deal with the Nationalist Government of China”, does not exclude further cooperation with the latter government if Chiang Kai Shek along with Communist and other anti-Japanese elements are eliminated therefrom.
Paragraphs 2 to 4 repeated to Peiping for Chungking.
- Latter not printed.↩
- Foreign Relations, Japan, 1931–1941, vol. i, p. 437.↩