611.93/5–2352: Telegram
No. 566
The Ambassador in Japan (Murphy) to the Department of State
229. For Allison eyes only. Last evening at dinner Prime Minister Yoshida blandly told me that he thought the Japanese could be useful as a “fifth column” in China. He said that Ogata has had three conversations with the Generalissimo in Formosa and he hoped that eventually some understanding could be developed. He [Page 1263] believed that the Chinese “who are much cleverer than we Japanese” under present circumstances are not averse now to the idea of a working arrangement. He thought that a good many Japanese with valuable contacts on the Chinese mainland wld be available for an effort in a number of regions.
Prime Minister added that Japan having made so many past blunders “in China and elsewhere,” having failed as a military power, shld now try the role of “honest broker”. Perhaps as an intermediary, he said, Japan wld enjoy better success. Whatever happened a return to militarism should be avoided at all cost and with his customary chuckle “we must of course remain democratic.”
I am not certain what, if any, value to attach to this voluntary suggestion by Prime Minister, which wld appear however be related previous statements by him, particularly to Rusk1 and Dulles,2 re possible “contribution” by Japan in support United States objectives in China.
- For Rusk’s memorandum of his conversation held Nov. 27, 1951, in Tokyo, with the Prime Minister and Sebald, see Foreign Relations, 1951, vol. vi, Part 1, p. 1416.↩
- See Topad 1279 From Tokyo, Dec. 14, 1951, and the editorial note, ibid., pp. 1438 and 1471, respectively.↩