711.942/587: Telegram
The Ambassador in Japan (Grew) to the Secretary of State
Tokyo, March 13, 1940—4
p.m.
[Received March 13—7:40 a.m.]
[Received March 13—7:40 a.m.]
172. My 165, March 11, 6 p.m.
- 1.
- In endeavoring to evaluate Suma’s tirade against the United States, I incline to the opinion that his anti-American utterances represent his own independent views and that they were not inspired by Arita whose desire, I have been directly informed, is to keep Japanese-American relations “quiet” at present. As in the case of former “spokesmen” of the Foreign Office, Suma exercises an independence of higher authority which is incomprehensible to those unfamiliar with the Japanese system, and while the world assumes that he is speaking for the Foreign Minister it is well known here that this is not true. Another case in point was Suma’s public denunciation of the explanatory statement of the British Ambassador at the time of the incident of the Asama Maru26 and more recently [Page 635] Suma’s statement concerning Japan’s support of Italy. Experienced and substantial press correspondents here believe that Suma, like several of his predecessors, is purposely playing up to the army but they also regard him as intensely anti-American and they attribute his bias to some incident or situation which may have occurred during his tenure of office in Washington.27
- 2.
- There will be found in our 173, March 13, 5 p.m.,28 Arita’s statements yesterday in the Diet on certain phases of American-Japanese relations. In our opinion the Foreign Minister’s replies were in part purposely phrased to offset the effect of the recent remarks of the spokesman, at any rate the contrast in the tones respectively of Arita’s replies and of Suma’s irresponsibility is suggestive. In view of this I do not believe that there would be any advantage in formally protesting Suma’s remarks. However, as already stated in a previous telegram, I shall take occasion freely to express in informal conversations my opinion of the harm caused to American-Japanese relations by such utterances.
Grew