New Foreign Minister Shighémitsu
By Shin-ichiro Kudoh
In order to meet the exigencies of the times with added vigour, Premier General Hidéki Tohjo recently carried out a reorganization of his Cabinet. His selection of Mr. Mamoru Shighémitsu as Foreign Minister in place of Mr. Masayuki Tani, concurrently President of the Board of Information, envisages a significant reinforcement in the prosecution of Japan s wartime diplomacy. Mr. Eiji Amau, who has been appointed President of the Board of Information, was director of the erstwhile Information Bureau of the Foreign Office when Mr. Shighémitsu was Vice-Minister of Foreign Affairs. Mr. Amau is better known in diplomatic quarters for the statement he made in connection with the China issue arising out of the Manchurian incident, declaring that all Sino-Japanese questions should be settled by direct negotiations between the two parties concerned without the intervention of third Powers. Mr. Tani has been shifted to Nanking as Japanese Ambassador. The return of Mr. Shighémitsu to the Foreign Office as its chief indicates that a reorientation would take place in Japan's diplomacy to invigorate further its relations with the Axis Poewrs, Nanking and the southern countries.
Before his appointment as Foreign Minister, Mr. Shighémitsu served as Japanese Ambassador to Nanking. He was greatly instrumental in shaping the new China policy of Japan and facilitating Japan's retrocession of concessions and extraterritorial rights to the Nanking Government. On account of his diplomatic spadework, the Tokyo-Nanking relations have become smooth and harmonious. It is generally expected that
as Foreign Minister he will endeavour his best to solve diverse diplomatic questions with sympathetic understanding and realistic judgment. His new assignment has not only been received popularly in the country, but also in Berlin and Rome. Even the British Broadcasting Corporation made a special comment on his appointment as the new chief of the Foreign Office. As so much attention has been paid to Mr. Shighémitsu's appointment as Foreign Minister, it is obvious that international diplomatic circles are fully aware of his ability as a high-ranking career diplomat.
Mr. Shighémitsu received the "baptism of diplomacy" in Berlin at the outset of the first World War. During the critical period of the war, he managed to come over to London, from where he observed the movements of wartime international diplomacy under the guidance and direction of Mr. Kumataro Honda, then councillor at the Japanese Embassy in London. The lessons imparted to him by Mr. Honda helped him to acquire a diplomatic "pluck," though he was still a novice in the school of diplomacy. It is certainly owing to Mr. Honda's guidance that young Shighémitsu became conversant with the art of diplomacy at an early age. Then when the Peace Conference opened at Versaillies, young Shighémitsu, who was at that time Japanese consul at Portland, like other youthful diplomats hurried to that epochal centre of international pourparlers to gain valuable experiences. His attendance at the Versailles Peace Conference gave him a precious education in "conference diplomacy."
After serving as first secretary of the Japanese Legation in Peking and as councillor of the Japahese Embassy in Berlin, Mr. Shighémitsu became Consul-General in Shanghai in 1929. While he was Chargé d'Affaires in China, the Manchurian incident broke out, and this marked a turning-point in his meteoric rise as an astute diplomat. In spite of difficult and delicate circumstances, he successfully carried on negotiations with Wang Cheng-yen, then Foreign Minister of China, to prevent any untoward aggravation of the impasse. Thereafter, when
the Shanghai armistice conference got under way, he proved his ability to tackle "conference diplomacy," at times boldly dissenting from the viewpoints of the third Power delegates. In fact, during the Shanghai deliberations, he exerted the full force of his education in "conference diplomacy" acquired earlier at Versailles. Just previous to the signing of the armistice agreement on the Japanese Empire Day in 1932, a hot-blooded miscreant threw a bomb which after explosion seriously injured him in the leg. Mr. Shighémitsu was immediately removed to hospital where his injured leg was amputated. Immediately after the amputation, he from his sickbed signed the agreement. This bomb incident made Mr. Shighémitsu thoroughly determined to advocate his policy of settling all Sino-Japanese issues without alien interference. He regarded the loss of his leg as a sign that he has become a capable diplomat.
While Mr. Shighémitsu served as Vice-Minister under Foreign Ministers Koki Hirota and Hachiro Arita, he consolidated his position in the Foreign Office and firmly pressed the department for the acceptance of his suggestions to renovate Japan's external policy. Because he took up such an attitude, he was not always popular among the experts of the Foreign Office. But with the outbreak of the China affair, he not only came into prominence, but transacted a series of controversial diplomatic business with keen foresight and resolution. His long experience as a diplomat in China automatically gave him the privilege to submit his considered opinions in respect of continental matters for the approval of the Foreign Office. Earlier, it was he who directed the formulation of the China policy of Foreign Minister Hirota, besides securing the elevation of the Japanese Legation in China to the status of embassy and dissolution of the Asia Bureau in favour of the creation of the now defunct East Asia Bureau. In other words, it was he who for the first time succeeded in framing Japan's external policy on the basis of its China policy, or, as Mr. Shighémitsu said at that time, on the basis of Japan's East Asiatic policy. Consequently, he insisted that Britain and the United States must recognize the position
of Japan as the stabilizing Power in East Asia and must co-operate with it to maintain East Asiatic peace and tranquillity. In the light of this insistence of Mr. Shighémitsu, Mr. Amau made his famous declaration on non-acceptance of third Power intervention in Sino-Japanese affairs. That is why, when Sir Fredereick Leith-Ross visited this country to seek the agreement of the Foreign Office in his planned reorganization of Chinese currency, Mr. Shighémitsu, standing firm on his East Asiatic policy, explained to him that Japan could not acquiesce in any proposal tending to invite third Power interference in the affairs of East Asia.
Mr. Shighémitsu relinquished the post of Foreign Vice-Minister in 1936 to become Japanese Ambassador to Moscow. He was particularly sent to the Kremlin to improve Japanese-Soviet relations which were at that time not at all satisfactory. The conclusion of the Anti-Comintern Pact among Japan, Germany and Italy strained the relations between Tokyo and Moscow, and the Fishery Agreement, which was due to be concluded between the two countries, came to a standstill. To make matters worse, the Chienchatzutao and Changkufeng incidents broke out in quick succession, and it appeared as though both nations were going to resort to arms. Confronted with such difficult situations, Mr. Shighémitsu made strenuous efforts to improve the mutual relations, and the success he achieved in settling the two incidents established his position as one of the front-rank diplomats of Japan. Again with the start of the China affair, the Japanese-Soviet relations became somewhat exacerbated in view of the Kremlin's policy of extending aids to General Chiang Kai-shek. Mr. Shighémitsu, patiently and perseveringly, entered into negotiations with M. Litvinov, then Foreign Commissar, and evolved conditions for the maintenance of Japanese-Soviet peace and tranquillity, irrespective of the China affair.
No sooner Mr. Shighémitsu had created a turn for the better in the Japanese-Soviet relations, than he was transferred to London as Japanese Ambassador to break the deadlock in the Anglo-
Japanese relations arising out of the China affair. On the day he arrived in London, Japanese warplanes were bombing Canton, and the British public was in no mood to relish any news pertaining to an Anglo-Japanese understanding. It is, indeed, unfortunate that Mr. Shighémitsu presented his credentials to the Court of St. James at a time when the British Government had definitely decided to oppose each and every move of Japan in China and extend all possible assistance to General Chiang Kai-shek to carry on with his so-called "war of resistance. Naturally, Mr. Shighémitsu's fundamental task in London was to make repeated attempts with the object of impressing upon the British Government the desirability of taking note of Japan's good intention in China. But the British Government in alignment with the American Government declined to take either objective or impartial notice of the Japanese version of the case concerning the restoration of endurable Sino-Japanese harmony for conjoined benefit.
Although Mr. Shighémitsu, faced with an unbreakable diplomatic bottleneck, failed to score any brilliant result, he nevertheless utilized his position in London to acquaint the British public and statesmen with the real aims and objects of Japan in China. He constantly kept in touch with such leading personages as the late Mr. Neville Chamberlain, Lord Halifax and Mr. Winston Churchill. He even went so far as to form a personal friendship with Mr. Richard Butler who was then Under-Secretary of Foreign Affairs. He also maintained frank contacts with British journalists and wrote newspaper articles and delivered speeches to present the viewpoints of Japan in regard to the China affair in as intelligible a manner as possible. During his stay in London, he had to solve a number of delicate issues, such as the Tientsin question, the Asama Maru affair and the arrest of a number of prominent Japanese residents. Notwithstanding the fact that these issues were decided through diplomatic negotiations in Tokyo, it must be borne in mind that Mr. Shighémitsu by making representations to the British Government paved the ground for their equitable settlement. After
the commencement of the European war, he was chiefly instructed to submit frequent expert reports on the trends of changing European situations to the Foreign Office. He returned home on leave when German bombers were daily pounding London. On his arrival in Tokyo, in a press interview he praised the calmness and presence of mind of the British people in face of terrific aerial attacks.
Mr. Shighémitsu's departure from London meant that Japan had become thoroughly conscious of the impossibility of making Britain appreciate its good intention with regard to promoting Sino-Japanese understnding on a new foundation. Immediately on the outbreak of the Pacific war, Mr. Shighémitsu was appointed Ambassador to Nanking to propel the speedy consummation of Japan's China policy. Thus he returned to his old diplomatic field to hasten the mature fruition of his East Asiatic policy enunciated in earlier days. For one full year he laboured hard and solidified Tokyo's relations with Nanking. Moreover, through his instrumentality fresh Sino-Japanese economic and political arrangements were made, stabilizing the rapid expansion of the influence of the Nanking Government in various areas of pacified China. He also urged the Japanese Government to give effect to its declared policy of rendition of concessional and extra-territorial rights—a policy which came into operation simultaneously with the declaration of war on Britain and the United States by Nanking. In line with Japan's surrender of its concessional and extra-territorial rights, many other friendly Powers have done so, thereby acknowledging the Wang administration as an invariable reality. It is also due to Mr. Shighémitsu's efforts that enemy property and Chinese property under Japanese military custody are being increasingly transferred to the control of the Nanking Government. Mr. Shighémitsu as Ambassador to Nanking has already laid the way for the eventual emergence of lasting Sino-Japanese unity of purpose divorced from any kind of alien interference. Now that he has become the head of the Foreign Office, it is a foregone conclusion that he will concentrate his energy to execute the
new China policy of Japan on the one hand and prosecute Japan's wartime diplomacy resolutely on the other.
Aside from the China policy, indications are that Mr. Shighémitsu will direct his efforts to vitalize all the more Japan's relations with Germany, Italy and other Axis allies, that he will handle the Japanese-Soviet relations with dexterity and judicious care, and that he will implement appropriate steps to counteract the political and diplomatic proclivities of Britain and the United States. His knowledge of Soviet and British affairs will prove of immense value to Japan's diplomacy. Inasmuch as he was at one time councillor at the Japanese Embassy in Berlin, it would not be unreasonable to say that he has some personal knowledge of that country. Since he served as consul in Portland, it may be said that he has gathered some practical ideas about the United States. However, what must be particularly noted is that the new Foreign Minister is an expert on affairs of China, the Soviet Union and Britain—a speciality which makes him quite fit to direct the course of Japan's wartime diplomacy. He is a reliable diplomat of steady judgment. His method is not to win success with precipitation or perturbation, but to make a firm stand and fortify every main point deliberately and minutely. He is neither a stunt-maker nor a time-server. He takes up a piece of work with a long-range view and accomplishes it by applying perseverance and patience. Because of this stable and visionary trait in him, Mr. Shighémitsu is unquestionably a qualified statesman to spur the durable growth of the current reformed diplomacy of Japan.