740.0011 Pacific War/3106
The Ambassador in China ( Gauss ) to the Secretary of State
[Received February 13.]
Sir: I have the honor to enclose for the Department’s information a translation of a special article4 by Mr. Shao Yu-lin, Director of the Information Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, entitled “How to Liquidate Japan”, published in the Ta Kung Pao and Central News Agency despatches. Mr. Shao, a returned student from Japan, is a member of Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek’s Household Secretariat or Adjutant’s Office and is considered to be strongly nationalistic in his views. The views expressed are believed to be generally representative of Chinese official and private opinion with respect to Japan and to China’s war effort.
[Page 843]The article expresses the writer’s opinion that nothing less than the total destruction of the Japanese army will be sufficient to win the war. It refers to the Japanese naval losses suffered at the hands of the American navy, the limitations of Japanese shipbuilding capacities and Japanese aerial weaknesses both in quantity and quality, but warns that even a crushing naval and aerial attack against the Japanese islands would not decide the final outcome of the war. In explanation of this statement, Mr. Shao points out that in anticipation of Allied air attacks Japan has moved important industrial plants from Japan proper to Manchuria and North China and has an army of more than one million troops ready to defend Manchuria, North China and the coastal regions. Therefore, to ensure the defeat of Japan Allied naval and air forces must be assisted by a large and strong Chinese army and that army must be supplied with planes, tanks and heavy artillery. These supplies must not await the reopening of the Burma Road but must be sent immediately—at all costs and at all risks. Mr. Shao goes on to say that the total annihilation of the Japanese army is an essential condition to winning the peace as well as the war. He reviews the political history of Japan, pointing out the ascendancy of the militarist elements in the Japanese Government and stating that without their elimination genuine peace in the Far East would be impossible.
Mr. Shao concludes with a statement of Chinese postwar aims which include the restoration of Formosa, the Ryu Kyu Islands and the Four Northeastern Provinces. With respect to Korea he states that the restoration of Korean independence is a foregone conclusion, a logical consequence of the present Sino-Japanese War and one of the war aims of the United Nations.
Respectfully yours,
- Not printed.↩