793.94/5771
Memorandum by the Chief of the Division of Far Eastern Affairs (Hornbeck)
(Note: At the request of the Japanese Ambassador, I called on the Ambassador at his Embassy yesterday afternoon. The conversation covered a period of nearly two hours. In the course thereof, the Ambassador repeated a number of things which he had said to me on previous occasions since his return and made points which he has made in his conversations with the Secretary of State and the Under Secretary, as recorded in their memoranda of conversations. I shall, therefore, not attempt to make an extensive record of this conversation.)
The outstanding item among the numerous points which the Ambassador brought into the conversation was his insistence that the [Page 22] Shanhaikwan affair was a more or less accidental local “incident”, that Japanese higher authorities had not given orders for or directed the activities of the Japanese armed forces in connection therewith, and that, subsequent to the taking of Shanhaikwan, the Japanese cabinet had met and has issued strict orders that further hostilities in that neighborhood are not to be engaged in upon Japanese initiative.
As the Japanese Ambassador has repeatedly urged that he desires the utmost reciprocal frankness in our conversations and wishes that I assist him as far as I possibly and properly may toward an understanding of American reactions and views, I took occasion in connection with the Ambassador’s statements in relation to the whole Shanhaikwan matter to suggest that we try to envisage the situation as it might appear to two men from Mars. The Ambassador took up with that idea and we discussed the matter from point of view of what might be assumed to be the reaction not only of disinterested observers but of official observers and the man in the street in, first, Japan, second, China, and third, Occidental countries—especially the United States.
At two or three points in the course of the conversation, the Ambassador affirmed that the Japanese cabinet is now in control. He said that the Shanhaikwan incident had occurred without the cabinet’s authorization, but that subsequently the cabinet had issued strict orders and its orders would be obeyed. He said that this was a “test” case and that from what happens in connection with it we would have proof of his affirmation that the cabinet is in control.
The Ambassador gave an account at considerable length of improvements in the economic as well as in the political situation in Japan. He stressed the fact that the munitions factories are working at full blast (he said “twenty-four hours a day”), thus giving employment both at the plants and in the field of household industries where there is production relating indirectly to the fabrication of munitions.
The Ambassador said a good deal about Japanese psychology in connection with the problem of “security”. He spoke of earthquakes and their effect, of need of foodstuffs and its effect, of disorders in China and pressure from Russia.
Finally, the Ambassador said that there was another subject which he wished to take up, in continuation, at a later meeting which he hoped would take place next week: he wished to talk about the subject of the “Manchoukuo” state and Japan’s recognition thereof; he wished to say for the moment that no matter what else happened, Japan could not recede from the position which she had taken on the subject of Manchoukuo.