SHIGHÉNORI TOGO, THE MAN AND HIS CAREER
By TOHMIN SUZUKI
SOON after the installation of the Tohjo Cabinet, I had the opportunity to talk personally with the new Foreign Minister, Shighénori Togo. In his usual quiet and subdued manner, but with firmness evident in his tone of voice, he said at the time:
As I said in my statement when I was installed as Foreign Minister, in diplomacy circumstances should be faced squarely and questions between nations should be solved according to actualities. That is my firm conviction. However, it should be noted that my idea of keeping pace with actualities has no relation whatever to what is generally known as opportunism.
During our conversation, Mr. Togo made no further reference to this statement, nor did he attempt to amplify it. I also saw no need to inquire further, for I felt that I understood perfectly what he meant.
The rapidity of world changes during the last few years has been indeed amazing. In such turbulent times we should take particular care never to reach simple, dogmatic decisions on social and political problems, lest we be exposed later to the most serious and critical dangers. Social and political problems should be discussed and considered from a scientific viewpoint. Statesmen of today should discard their exaggerated concepts and false principles and do away with the influence of persistent conventionalities. They should analyse world events with the calm detachment of a scientist, and on the knowledge gained thereby determine and guide the policy of the nation.
"To face circumstances squarely" means to make a careful
and detailed analysis of the development of various issues, and to solve them "according to actualities" is to employ the knowledge gained from such an analysis. Clearly the policy of the new Foreign Minister is on an entirely different plane from "opportunistic" diplomacy.
Mr. Togo is a thoroughbred official of the Foreign Ministry, having spent thirty years in that work. However, he is quite unlike many of his colleagues who have followed the conventional paths and view matters only in the narrow perspective of diplomatic officialdom. He is too much of a scholar to be merely a government official.
Mr. Togo's scholarly inclination is inherent, but it was encouraged during his younger years when he was absorbed in the study of the history of civilization in the literature course at Tokyo Imperial University. He also was an ardent student of philosophy. Besides reading volumes on Occidental and Oriental philosophy, he even confined himself in a Zen Buddhist monastery for a period of meditation such as is practiced only in the Orient. Accordingly his scholarly and scientific qualities were given a deeper significance through his philosophical training.
During his official career, Mr. Togo has been connected in one way or another with every important international problem Japan has had to face. He is extremely fortunate in having had such an eventful career. There is no person as well suited to be Foreign Minister from the standpoint of fundamental knowledge and experience in the differences and the similarities of the East and the West. International issues today are merely magnified repetitions of past events.
In 1915, when the Japanese Government replied to the defiant attitude of the Chinese Government, then headed by Chancellor Yuan Shih-kai, by sending the famous "twenty-one demands," Mr. Togo was a young official at the Japanese Consulate-General at Mukden. In the spring of 1916, he was assigned as secretary to a Japanese consulate in Europe, then in a turmoil of bloodshed. He went first to Petrograd via the
Trans-Siberian Railway and then to Bergen, Norway, to reach his post in Switzerland. The trip was so rigorous that he was taken ill and had to be removed to a hospital in London. Later he said to me:
I spent two and a half years, until the armistice was signed, observing the war from my post in Switzerland. I learned much of great value from my observations and investigations of the war during that time.
Indeed, nothing could have satisfied the spirit of study and inquiry in a young diplomat than this experience. Twenty years later another war has broken out in Europe, and Mr. Togo undoubtedly will recall his old experiences and apply them to the present.
After the Great War, Mr. Togo visited war-torn and exhausted Germany and made a careful study of the post-war situation there. On his return to Japan soon thereafter to a post at the European-American Affairs Bureau of the Foreign Office, he surprised his colleagues by declaring, "Within twenty years defeated Germany will have established the necessary conditions to arise and rebuild the great nation it was before the war." No one took him seriously at that time, but the fact has proved the truth of the prophecy. It should be remembered that he is very prudent and deliberate by nature. He dislikes prophecies, but when he does express an opinion it is always based on careful investigation.
At just about the time of Mr. Togo's return from Germany, Count Shimpei Goto, one of Japan's ablest statesmen of his day, started efforts toward readjusting relations between Japan and the Soviet Union. This was in the nature of a reply to the offensive Far Eastern policy of the United States as manifested at the Washington Conference. Various difficulties beset the Soviet-Japanese negotiations due to the vast contrast between the two countries—one a Red Socialist Republic and the other with a unique Constitution centred on the Imperial Family. But in 1924 the Yoshizawa-Karahan talks were carried out in Peking. Four years after Count Goto took up the
endeavour, the Soviet-Japan basic agreement and its attached protocol were signed. During this entire period of negotiations, Mr. Togo laid the plans and directed their execution, for he was director of the first section of the European-American Bureau of the Foreign Office, and he felt keenly the necessity for adjusting Soviet-Japanese affairs. Mr. Koki Hirota, director of the European-American Bureau at that time (and later Foreign Minister and still later Premier) is said to have expressed sincere admiration for the thorough, far-sighted manner in which Mr. Togo carried out his duties.
Mr. Togo was appointed first secretary to the Japanese Embassy in Washington in 1925, when world attention was shifting gradually toward the Pacific. Dark clouds of divergent opinions among Japan, Great Britain and the United States were piling up on the horizon. Mr. Togo studied this situation thoroughly for three and half years, until he was promoted to Embassy counselor and once again sent to Berlin in 1920.
That was an epochal year for Germany. The economic depression that affected the whole world came as a terrible blow to enfeebled Germany. It was at this time that Herr Hitler's National-Socialist movement began to gain in power, ending in complete defeat for the German labour and Communist movements and complete victory for the National-Socialists. Here again Mr. Togo took every opportunity to study and analyse a period of chaos and upheaval until just before Herr Hitler assumed full power.
At about the same time, the disarmament conference was going on at Geneva, and Mr. Togo played an active part as chief secretary of the Japanese delegation thereto. The Manchurian incident also came up for discussion about this time at the League of Nations, which afforded him ample opportunity for observing all the ins and outs of international politics at a close range. Here he learned the futility of mere ideals in politics. He saw nothing but greed and ambition and treacherous intrigue among nations while the League of Nations was on the verge of final collapse. His observations strengthened
the conviction that "circumstances should be faced squarely and issues between nations should be solved according to actualities."
Returning from Germany in 1933, Mr. Togo was made director of the European-American Bureau in the Foreign Office. Later this was divided into the American Affairs Bureau and the European and Western Asiatic Affairs Bureau, with Mr. Togo as the first chief of the latter. In the fall of 1937, he was appointed Ambassador to Berlin and in 1939 he became Ambassador to Moscow, which post he held until relieved by the present Ambassador, General Tatékawa, at the end of 1940.
Foreign Minister Togo is very subdued in manner. He dislikes any form of exaggeration and never proclaims his own merits or accomplishments. It is perhaps for this reason that his activities have not been so widely recognized as they might have been, although he has been connected in some way with every major international development involving Japan since the World War. However, he was given general credit for his work in 1935 in negotiating the transfer of the North China Railway, which but for his far-sighted perseverance might not have been completely successful. Another of his major diplomatic feats was the settlement of the Nomonhan incident while he was Ambassador to Moscow. Of even greater importance was his part in bringing about a complete readjustment of Russo-Japanese relations after the incident.
On April 22 last Foreign Minister Yosuké Matsuoka returned to Japan from a tour of Europe amid a storm of applause. The nation rejoiced over the Neutrality Agreement that he had signed for Japan with the Soviet Union. But behind Mr. Matsuoka's worthy achievement were the tireless efforts to overcome countless difficulties by Mr. Togo, which were in more than one way instrumental in bringing about the final result. As a matter of fact the basic principles and a major part of the ways and means had been agreed upon between him and M. Molotov in 1940. So the conclusion of the Neutrality Agreement was no mere accident befalling Mr. Matsuoka. The
way had been paved by Mr. Togo, although he returned to Japan before his efforts bore fruit.
With the appointment of Mr. Togo as Foreign Minister, the nation reposes great hopes in his future endeavours, considering the matured judgement and well-balanced character he has shown in his past career. In his initial statement on assuming his present office, Mr. Togo said:
It is very seldom that nations, in the past as well as in the present, have not been confronted with extreme difficulties when going through a period of rapid progress. If we are able to overcome the trials of national difficulties confronting us today, I feel sure that the future of our nation will be bright and prosperous.
And indeed, as he said, Japan today is going through extreme national trials. The outbreak of Soviet-German hostilities not only helped to prolong the European war, but it exerted far-reaching effects on the rest of the world, particularly as the Soviet Union, Britain and America, who have pledged mutual aid in combatting Germany, have their respective interests in East Asia. Besides the conflict between Japan's ideals and Anglo-American interests, largely connected with the China affair, the Soviet Union also occupies a prominent place in Far Eastern affairs.
It is almost needless to mention here America's policy against Japan. Co-operating with Great Britain and helping Chungking and the Dutch East Indies, America is trying to strengthen the encirclement of Japan. American activities along this line have been increased since Japanese troops were stationed in French Indo-China. Frankly recognizing its position as the leader against Japan, the United States is using threats and bluff, even voicing determination to wage a war against Japan if it should be found necessary. But if America should challenge Japan and embroil the Pacific in a major war, what practical benefits would be gained? Would it be a really profitable undertaking? If practical American statesmen would face the situation squarely, they would do their utmost to avert such a catastrophe. It is a recognized fact among military authorities
throughout the world that Japan maintains an overwhelmingly superior position in the Pacific. Although America would have the use of British bases, it is impossible to think that it could defeat Japan on the Pacific.
Meanwhile, America must give every possible aid to the Soviet Union. With Britain unable to regain the offensive on the European continent, the only hope of defeating Germany lies in Soviet resistance. Embroiled in war with Japan in the entire Pacific area, America would be unable to give adequate support to the Soviet Union. It may be imagined that neither the Soviet Union nor Great Britain would welcome a war in the Pacific.
It is up to America to choose war or peace. And Japan has no apprehension of the consequences should the choice fall to the former. At the same time, Japan does not need to wage war to gain its ultimate goal of establishing a sphere of peace and co-prosperity in East Asia. Japan's choice is peaceful competition. There are various conflicting interests between Japan and America. But there are also peaceful means of settling them, and if America follows a peaceful course, Japan is more than willing to co-operate. However, it is most important that America should realize the true position of Japan in the Orient and also that peace in the Far East is essential to America's own interests. It is Japan's duty as well as an expression of friendship to try to make America realize these facts. The sincerity shown by Foreign Minister Togo in sending Ambassador Kurusu to America should be understood fully from a reasonable and practical viewpoint by American statesmen.
Mr. Togo was born of a samurai family in the Satsuma clan. The fame of the Satsuma clan is not confined only to Takamori Saigo, beloved national hero, and Admiral Togo, hero of the Battle of the Japan Sea, but includes many others. The Satsuma clan was most strict in its observance of bushido, which in ancient times held firmly that the long and short swords always worn by samurai were identical with their souls and never to be drawn unnecessarily. With the samurai the
sword is not a tool whereby to kill, but a high symbol of justice. Mr. Togo likewise, throughout the many problems and difficulties he has faced, has always shown patient endurance, never losing hope for a peaceful solution. He is faithful to the ancient creed of the samurai.
One of the historical figures Mr. Togo most admires is his senior clansman, Saigo, who played such a prominent political rôle during the Meiji Restoration. When the Imperial forces under Saigo were closing in on Yedo (now Tokyo), seat of the Tokugawa Shogunate, Saigo himself went into the enemy territory and negotiated a peaceful entry to the capital to spare it from the destruction of warfare. Saigo had faith that "there's nothing that can't be moved by sincerity." Mr. Togo also is a man of deep sincerity. He once said:
Sincerity is the most important factor in diplomatic negotiations. Problems can be solved only when both parties are sincere with each other and endeavour to understand both sides of the question.
Again in his first speech after being made Foreign Minister, Mr. Togo said:
The national crisis can be overcome if we push forward on a firm basis of sincerity, never fearing, never losing patience, but always aiming at justice.
Foreign Minister Togo is trying with the utmost sincerity to solve the problems between Japan and America through his policy of "facing circumstances squarely." And the entire nation, united in firm determination to overcome any obstacle, is supporting him body and soul.