Office of the Historian

793.94/6922: Telegram

The Ambassador in Japan (Grew) to the Secretary of State

Tokyo, March 22, 1935—6 p.m.
[Received 11:55 p.m.]

60. Department’s 43, March 19, 7 p.m.73

1.
In estimating the present Sino-Japanese situation the primary consideration to bear in mind is that the Japanese Government does not think or act as a unit. The cleavage between the liberal school of thought on the one hand and the chauvinistic or military school of thought on the other hand is marked and at present is not susceptible of adjustment. The Chauvinists are definitely opposed to international assistance to China. Hirota may be classed with the Liberals, [Page 89] Shigemitsu and Amau with the Chauvinists, which explains the discrepancies in their respective pronouncements. I question whether Hirota has even been consulted with regard to the recent activities of Doihara and Suzuki.
2.
Kadono, Managing Director of Okura and Company and one of the most influential businessmen in Japan told the British Ambassador74 yesterday quite definitely that Hirota had not approved and is not in sympathy with the policy toward China enunciated by Amau last April.75 Hirota has told Clive that he not only welcomed the British initiative in endeavoring to find a way to help China out of her financial difficulties but he also welcomed the cooperation of the other interested powers. Kadono said to Clive that Hirota is absolutely honest in expressing these opinions. I believe this to be true and that he is faced with genuine difficulties in reconciling his own policy with that of the die-hards.
3.
While Hirota told Clive that he would talk with him again after discussing with Takahashi76 the question of a loan to China, Clive believes that Hirota sent Kadono in order to avoid an official expression of opinion. Kadono said that the businessmen of Japan, and he believed the banks also, were unalterably opposed to a loan to China owing to the absence of reliable security. He said that such a loan could not be floated in Japan under present conditions.
4.
Factual evidence bearing on the situation is too meager at present to justify either analysis or prediction from this angle. We have no indication other than press comment of the trend of Cadogan’s77 conversations in Nanking and no indication of any Japanese plans other than Hirota’s expressed desire to improve the general atmosphere of Sino-Japanese relations slowly and progressively.78

Repeated to Peiping.

Grew
  1. See footnote 64, p. 79.↩
  2. Sir Robert H. Clive.↩
  3. See statement of April 17, 1934, Foreign Relations, Japan, 1931–1941, vol. i, p. 224.↩
  4. Korekiyo Takahashi, Japanese Minister of Finance.↩
  5. Sir Alexander M. F. Cadogan, British Minister in China.↩
  6. The Department in its telegram No. 46, March 23, 2 p.m., described this despatch as “very helpful” and “just the type of information and comment desired.”↩