Chapter 10 09. Shigemitsu Aoi's Difficult Mission

On this day, Mamoru Shigemitsu, Japanese Minister to China, presented his credentials to Chiang Kai-shek, Chairman of the Nationalist Government.The presentation of credentials is a very solemn diplomatic etiquette, although it may lack substantive connotations.In the era when Sino-Japanese relations were tense, the mission of Minister Shigemitsu Aoi was difficult. In the early years, Shigemitsu Aoi graduated from the law department of Tokyo Imperial University, the cradle of modern Japanese politicians, and passed the examination to enter the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan and became a professional diplomat.At that time, Japan was moving towards extreme militarism step by step.Later, Shigemitsu Aoi served as the envoy to China, the Soviet Union, and the United Kingdom under the background of Japan’s enmity with many countries. He was like a firefighter. When Japan’s relationship with any country became tense, he was sent as an envoy to that country. , he has always tried his best to ease tensions with the country, but with little success.After the establishment of the Wang puppet regime in China, he served as the "ambassador to China" for the second time, and resigned because he opposed the strategy of the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere proposed by the highest Japanese authorities.

As a professional diplomat, Shigemitsu Aoi advocates that Japan should not use force to interfere in the internal affairs of other countries. What he pursues is the so-called "coinbara diplomacy". Its initiator is one of the most important diplomats in modern Japanese history. Kijuro Coinhara.Coinhara successively served as foreign minister during the first Waka cabinet, Hamaguchi Yuyuki cabinet and the second Waka cabinet. In 1925, Coinbara explained the basis and rationality of his foreign policy in this way: The trend of people in the world today is to generally reject narrow and exclusive self-interested policies, oppose the abuse of force, deny aggression, and advocate that all international issues should be resolved through understanding and cooperation among countries. ...

As a natural consequence of the above trends, the number of international conferences has increased significantly in recent years.Last year, our country participated in more than forty international conferences.Few of the topics of the council were of no immediate importance and interest to the Empire itself.Our country can no longer be isolated in a corner of the Far East, closed its doors, and confined to the scope of its own independent existence. ... The world can no longer revolve around one country.Generally speaking, no matter how powerful its national power is and how rich its financial resources are, if a country relies on it to be domineering among other countries, it will eventually fail miserably. This has been proved by history.The real and long-term interests of the country can be ensured through the coordination of the positions of various countries.We look forward to adjusting our diplomatic relations with other countries based on this belief.

Kiyoshi Inoue, a famous Japanese historian, summed up Hajihara diplomacy as: Based on the coordination with Britain and the United States, in terms of the most important China policy for Japan, avoid giving any party as much as possible the competition among the various warlords in China. Rough methods such as military support or military intervention mainly seek to expand economic rights and interests. At that time, Moshihara diplomacy could be regarded as a new way of thinking in Japan. Its direct background and ideological resources came from the Washington Conference held across the year from 1921 to 1922.

The Washington Conference was an important meeting for world powers to readjust the international order after World War I.It was initiated by the United States, and the theme was to discuss the Far East and disarmament issues. The Chinese issue was also an important topic, and nine countries including the United States, the United Kingdom, Japan, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium, Portugal, and China participated.The international conference lasted for nearly three months and produced three important results: the first is the "Nine-Power Convention", which claims to respect China's sovereignty and independence, as well as territorial and administrative integrity, and establishes that all countries implement the "Nine Nations Convention" in China. The principle of "open door" and "equal opportunity"; the second is the "Quadruple Pact" signed by the four world powers of the United States, Britain, Japan, and France. If there is a dispute on any issue, all the signatories should hold a joint meeting to negotiate and resolve it; the third is the "Naval Arms Limitation Treaty", from which the United States has benefited a lot, and has no direct relationship with China.In short, the convening of the Washington Conference marked the end of the era when Japan monopolized China's interests.Previously, there were two important foundations for Japan to obtain exclusive benefits in China. One was the traditional alliance with the United Kingdom, and the other was the temporary lack of time for the European powers during World War I.Now, both of these foundations are gone, and an open-door policy in China, which is more in line with the interests of the United States, has been asserted.

Since we can no longer monopolize interests in China, we have to adjust our China policy according to the new situation of international relations. The essence of diplomacy. The golden age of currency diplomacy was the 1920s. After Wakareijiro formed a cabinet for the second time in April 1931, Moshihara took up the post of foreign minister again. Shigemitsu Aoi, who served as the minister to China, was an active promoter of Momohara's diplomacy.But the heyday of currency diplomacy has passed, and the moderate line in the government is at a clear disadvantage in wrestling with the hard line in the military.

After the Nine-Power Conference in Washington in 1921, Japan began a massive disarmament. In 1921, Japan's military expenditure was 730 million yen, but in 1930 it was reduced to less than 500 million yen, a reduction of 40%.However, large-scale disarmament has aroused strong dissatisfaction among the soldiers.Since the Meiji Restoration, Japan has always pursued the principle of military priority and has trained a large number of professional soldiers.For professional soldiers, they have no specialties other than military affairs, and disarmament is tantamount to destroying their jobs.In addition, before disarmament, professional soldiers were the most respected people in Japanese society, and being a soldier was the most honorable profession.But after the disarmament began, many professional soldiers suddenly became superfluous people in society. The best students no longer applied for military academies. Some restaurants even refused entry to those who wore military uniforms. Even few people gave up their seats to soldiers on buses. up.One can imagine the sense of loss and anxiety that disarmament has brought to professional soldiers.Without fighting, the former glory and splendor of the imperial army would never return, and Japanese officers knew this very well.Therefore, the currency original diplomacy, which advocates not to start wars at will, is incompatible with the request of the imperial soldiers to rise again.

Japanese soldiers were clamoring for war, and public opinion in Japan at that time was also very fanatical.After the September 18th Incident broke out, Japanese students launched a large-scale "patriotic movement".They organized donations, charity performances and other activities to reward the "patriotic soldiers" on the front lines in Manchuria.Japanese public opinion circles also turned to the Kwantung Army, praising the "patriotic behavior" of the Kwantung Army and accusing the Japanese government of "weak" policy.Originally, Japan was not without voices of anti-aggression. In the mid-1920s, some Japanese scholars proposed to abandon foreign colonies such as Taiwan and North Korea and concentrate on economic construction. Japanese imperialism.But these anti-aggression voices were all drowned in the public opinion of "loyalty to the emperor and patriotism" in the end.

At the end of 1931, due to the inability to resolve a series of political consequences caused by the war launched by the Japanese army in Northeast China, if the cabinet collapsed, the Inuyang Takeshin Cabinet was established.Inukai Takeshi is a well-known Japanese politician. He is very concerned about relations with China. He once took care of Sun Yat-sen and others in exile in Japan. He has good personal relationships with many upper-level figures of the National Government. Crossing Dongying is also related to his support.Inukai Takeshi planned to resolve the Manchurian crisis at that time through peaceful means, and he secretly sent a special envoy to Nanjing to meet with high-level Chinese government officials.But revelations of the prime minister's secret peace talks angered radicals within the military. On March 1, 1932, under the planning of the Kwantung Army, the "Manchukuo" was proclaimed, but the Inuyang Cabinet decided not to recognize it, which angered the radical soldiers even more. On May 15, 1932, a group of fanatical soldiers broke into the Prime Minister's residence with open fire and killed Prime Minister Inuyang.In the Japanese public opinion at that time, there were also many people who sympathized with the murderer. They believed that the mutiny of the fanatical soldiers was due to "noble patriotism and dedication" and "patriotic innocence", and launched a nationwide signature campaign for the murderers. Excuse and reduce sentence.Even some girls wrote letters to marry those murderers.

Later, when the Japanese reflected on why Japan took the road of militarism of foreign aggression, they believed that the public opinion circles at that time should bear considerable responsibility. In June 1928, Colonel Daisaku Kawamoto, a senior staff officer of the Kwantung Army, rashly caused an explosion in Huanggutun without reporting to his superiors, killing Zhang Zuolin.The Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Tanaka at the time was very annoyed by the audacity of the young officers of the Kwantung Army, and he made up his mind to make an example.One day, Tanaka reported to the Emperor: "The murder of Zhang Zuolin unfortunately involved the participation of imperial soldiers. It is now under investigation, and the perpetrators must be severely punished according to law." The Emperor said: "Please strictly maintain the military discipline of the national army. "But when Tanaka was about to punish Hemoto, there was strong opposition in the army, claiming that "family ugliness cannot be publicized", and public punishment of Hemoto would damage the image of the imperial army in the world.Under strong pressure from the army, Prime Minister Tanaka was unable to realize his promise to the emperor to severely punish the perpetrators, so he had to report to the emperor: "After investigation, this matter has nothing to do with the imperial soldiers." It was completely different last time? You don’t need to explain any more, and I don’t want to listen to it anymore.” Tanaka was frightened into a cold sweat after being reprimanded by the Emperor.The next day Tanaka begged to see the Emperor again, but the Emperor disappeared, and Tanaka announced his resignation in despair.Tanaka is the only prime minister in Japanese history who resigned due to dissatisfaction with the emperor.It can be seen that the Japanese military forces have already gained a clear advantage in the battle with the cabinet.

With fanatical national sentiment and fanatical clamor for war, the warlord group has become in fact the biggest force influencing Japan's foreign policy.Under such circumstances, the mission of a professional diplomat like Shigemitsu Aoi is destined to be very difficult. Of course, the currency diplomacy pursued by Shigemitsu Aoi is definitely not about practicing "good-neighborliness and friendship" with China.Coinbara himself said: "The foundation of the imperial foreign policy is to maintain and promote the legitimate rights and interests of our country." The so-called "legitimate rights and interests" refer to the rights and interests based on a series of unequal treaties between China and Japan, including those The infamous twenty-one.He also advocated that when these rights and interests are "infringed" by China, they should "use all legitimate means to protect them." The "legitimate means" mentioned by Yuyuan certainly does not exclude force. But after all, for the national government, the policy toward China shown by the Japanese government through its diplomatic channels has more "affinity" and room for maneuver. The national government has also "logically" kept the Japanese foreign ministry , as the main channel for handling the relationship between China and Japan.However, the Japanese foreign affairs department and even the Japanese cabinet simply don't know and can't control the actual actions of the Japanese military in China.