JAPAN: Straight from the Mouth

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U. S. Ambassador to Japan Joseph Clark Grew is such a skillful diplomat that every time he criticizes the Japanese, they like him better. He has virtually all the qualities which a foreign emissary to Tokyo needs: seven years' residence in the country, tall body, grey hair, dark mustache, spectacular brows, horn-rimmed glasses, sensitivity, firmness, a gentlemanly capacity for hard work and saki (rice wine), good clothes, a beautiful house filled with Oriental antiques, and one deaf ear, which he knows how to turn at the right moment.

Whenever a U. S. Ambassador arrives in Tokyo, whether for the first time or after home leave, he is tendered a dinner of welcome by the America-Japan Society, a frequent sounding board for the two countries' relationships. Five years ago Ambassador Grew returned to Tokyo after a furlough. The America-Japan Society's welcoming speech was made by suave, old Viscount Kikujiro Ishii, one of Japan's most subtle diplomats, then Privy Councilor. Viscount Ishii amazed everyone by saying that a war between Japan and the U. S. was remote unless "the U. S. ever attempted to dominate the Asiatic continent and prevented Japan from her pacific and natural expansion in this part of the world." Ambassador Grew rose, said he was terribly sorry that because of his deafness he had missed parts of the Viscount's speech, but had taken notes on what he had been able to hear. Consulting them, he gave a pleasant little talk.

Last week Ambassador Grew was again back in Tokyo after four months at home. The America-Japan Society again gave the usual dinner. This time Joseph Grew made a speech which was not only unusual: it was virtually unprecedented in ambassadorial usage. The Ambassador gave his distinguished audience an earful which made many of them wish for deafness. He used an unofficial occasion to express an official, definitely controversial, exceedingly ticklish point of view. His words, he said, "came straight from the horse's mouth . . . and mind you, I know whereof I speak."

He told the dumbfounded notables that Japanese are badly mistaken when they say that U. S. public opinion as to Japan's aims is founded on misunderstanding. "The facts as they exist are accurately known by the American people. I do not suppose any country in the world today is better served by press and radio with accurate foreign information than the United States."

Then the Ambassador spoke shockingly frank words. "Many of you," he said, "are not aware of the increasing extent to which the people of the United States resent methods which Japanese armed forces are employing in China, and what appear to be their objectives.

"The American people regard with growing seriousness the violation and interference with American rights by Japanese armed forces in China in disregard of treaties and agreements.

"When such opinion tends toward unanimity, it is a force which a government cannot possibly overlook and will not fail to reflect in its policies and actions."