761.94/911
The Ambassador in China (Johnson) to the Secretary of State
[Received June 29.]
Sir: I have the honor to enclose a copy11 in English translation of a Chinese translation of an article, entitled “Return from North China”, written in Japanese by Lieutenant General Kenji Doihara, which appeared in The Asia People’s Voice of May 12, 1936 (a pro-Japanese newspaper published in Chinese at Peiping) with regard to the Russo-Japanese problem. In view of General Doihara’s connection with autonomous movements in North China, it is believed that the Department will be interested in the views which he expresses.
After pointing out the tenseness in Russo-Japanese relations, which has been brought about by Russia’s strengthening of armaments along the “Manchukuo” border, he catalogues the numerous border incidents which have occurred in the past and which he appears to believe will occur with increasing frequency in the future as Soviet-inspired attempts to administer the Orient, or, as he calls them, “vanguard struggles”.
Lieutenant General Doihara next touches on the employment by Russia of Chinese communists (an important section of whom is now concentrated in Shensi) to further Russian ambitions, while from various points in Outer Mongolia Russia endeavors to extend its influence south and east. With some justice, it is believed, Lieutenant General Doihara points out that these two facts should make Hopei “an extraordinarily important place”. He believes that the Russo-Japanese situation is now an inflammable one, and he contends that he could not possibly predict that war will not be the result.
[Page 188]Lieutenant General Doihara then touches on the Great Asia doctrine and, in language restrained and conciliatory and less chauvinistic than that of the so-called “Continental School” of Japanese imperialists (see Embassy at Tokyo’s despatch No. 1798 of April 30, 1936), points out that China will be in favor of an Asia for the Asiatics (the Great Asia doctrine) if Japan does not take China for its actual property.
The policy of an Asia for the Asiatics, “the kingly way of Japan”, as Lieutenant General Doihara calls it, is in his opinion the only safeguard for permanent peace in the Orient. He states that the rejection of interference by the United States, Great Britain and Soviet Russia in order to achieve an Oriental land of freedom is the desire of the Chinese.
In conclusion, Lieutenant General Doihara disavows Japanese intention of aggression in China and suggests that as fifty Chinese students were shortly to visit Japan, this opportunity be availed of to instill in them the “real Japanese idea”, a policy, which, as he points out, is contrary to the interests of the United States and Great Britain in the Far East. It would appear that Lieutenant General Doihara is deeply concerned with the progress of the Soviet Union, and he gives the impression of now attempting to placate China in order to save her territories for Japan.
Respectfully yours,
- Not printed.↩