63
794.00/91
Memorandum
[24] by
the First Secretary of the United States Embassy In Japan (Dickover)
[TOKYO,] December 23, 1935.
In the course of an extended conversation
last evening, Mr. Kurusu [25] said that foreign countries were criticizing the
Japanese people for the part Japan was playing in China, but that foreign
peoples did not understand what it was all about. . . .
[24] Enclosure in despatch
1607 of December 27, 1935 from the Embassy in Japan.
[25] Mr. Saburo Kurusu,
Chief of the Bureau of Commercial Affairs, Japanese Foreign Office.
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DOCUMENTS
. . . He said that Japan was destined to be
the leader of the Oriental civilization and would in course of time be the
"boss" of a group comprising China, India, the Netherlands East
Indies, etc. (Mr. Kurusu did not say that Japan would conquer and rule these
countries, but that Japan would be the "boss". When speaking
informally with friends, he uses very colloquial English.) He proceeded to say
that the United States will lead the Americas, both North and South. Great
Britain is leading the European countries, but Great Britain is degenerating,
while the rest of Europe is decadent. Therefore it will end by the United
States leading the Occidental civilization, while Japan leads the Oriental
civilization.
I asked where Soviet Russia came into the
picture. Mr. Kurusu said that the Russians were dreamers and never would
"amount to anything". Japan will in the future have its sphere in the
Orient, the United States in the Americas, and Great Britain in Europe Africa
and Australia, but the two big nations, the real leaders, will be Japan in the Orient
and the United States in the Occident.
I asked Mr. Kurusu how he reconciled this
theory with the treaties for collective security which Japan had signed. Mr.
Kurusu said that he had always been opposed to Japan's hypocritical attitude
toward such things. He said that he had just recently made a speech before a
society for the study of international affairs, criticizing his own country for
signing agreements which could not be carried out if Japan wanted to progress
in this world.
Mr. Kurusu then went on to say that while
Japan might lead the Orient and the United States the Occident, they must not
fight, as that would be suicidal. They must find some means of getting
together. I asked him if he thought that the League of Nations might not be the
seed of some sort of future conciliatory medium. He said that it might be, but
that the League was too narrow, as it looked to maintaining the status quo, whereas nations are not
static—they are born, grow up and gradually die. I quoted from Wells’
"Outline of History" (first paragraph of Chapter 34) to show that
Wells had the same idea. Mr. Kurusu agreed with Wells entirely, and said that
he thought that the United States and Japan could work out the solution
themselves in time, as both countries were much alike—active, progressive and
sensible.
E. R. D [ICKOVER]
303