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FOREIGN OFFICE FILES FOR JAPAN AND THE FAR EAST
Series One: Embassy & Consular Archives - Japan (1905-1940)
(Public Record Office Class FO 262)

Part 5: Detailed Correspondence for 1930-1933 (PRO Class FO 262/1742-1860, 1989-2003 & 2035)

 

PUBLISHER’S NOTE

Part 5 concentrates on the period 1930-1933 with particularly strong files on subjects such as:

  • The Growth of the Military
  • The World Financial Crisis
  • The Invasion of Manchuria
  • Developments in Manchuria
  • The Situation in Shanghai
  • The Lytton Commission Report
  • Naval Disarmament
  • The South Manchuria Railway
  • Japan: Finance & Economy
  • China: General Situation
  • Formosa: General Situation
  • Korea
  • Peking-Mukden Railway
  • Japan and America
  • Communism
  • Education: Japan
  • Japan: Labour
  • Netherlands East Indies: Japanese Activities
  • Japan and China: Japanese Aggression

This microfilm edition provides scholars with all the FO 262 files for these years. They comprise Detailed Correspondence and Background Papers with a wealth of analysis, discussion and policy recommendations. This was a period of momentous events and the observations and opinions of the people on the ground at the embassies, legations and consular outposts are of great value to historians. London did not always heed the advice or warnings given. Some reports and observations reveal a concern about opinion in London and the difficulty of presenting information so that it was, on the one hand not too alarmist, but on the other, did not shirk the need to fully underscore the serious nature of some developments, especially where British interests in China were concerned.

In September 1931 the Japanese Army in Guangdong, claiming that an explosion on the Japanese owned South Manchuria Railway had been caused by Chinese saboteurs, seized control of the arsenals at Mukden and at several other cities nearby. Chinese troops were forced to withdraw from the area. Entirely without official sanction by the Japanese Government, and often exceeding the wishes of its own field commanders, the Guangdong Army operations were extended into all Manchuria. After about five months the Japanese forces were in possession of the entire region. The officers involved were informed by the expansionist ideals of secret societies such as the Black Dragon Society. These men were keen to promote the national interests of Japan by conquest regardless of the orders of party politicians or higher command. The result was that Manchuria was established as the puppet state of Manchukuo. All pretence of party government in Japan began to evaporate as a result of the occupation of Manchuria. A number of politicians were terrorized and assassinated. The international repercussions of the Manchurian incident led to an enquiry by a League of Nations Commission - which eventually produced the Lytton Commission Report - under the auspices of the Kellogg-Briand Pact. In 1933 the League of Nations Assembly requested that Japan cease all hostilities in China. Japan refused. Japan withdrew from the League of Nations and went on to consolidate its gains in China by landing troops at Shanghai to quell the Chinese boycott of Japanese goods. The Japanese Manchurian Army also went on to occupy and annex the province of Jehol (Chengde) in the north and threaten major cities including Peking. The Chinese were unable to resist superior Japanese forces and therefore, in May 1933, China recognized the Japanese conquest by signing a truce.

These momentous events are well covered in the FO 262 files. Britain considered that she had a strong sphere of interest in China. The files for 1930 and 1931 provide interesting backgound detail in the months before the crisis. There is much detail on China from 1930 to 1933 in this part of this microfilm series.

A Report by Miles Lampson (see FO 262/1746) describing his Journey from Tientsin (left on 3 January 1930) to Peking (arrived 23 February 1930) provides good detail in its 58 folios. Lampson, Head of the British Legation in Peking, was accompanied on his trip by Mr Teichman (Chinese Counsellor), Mr Sterndale Bennett (Second Secretary), Mr Clarke (Private Secretary), Captain Harding (Cypher Officer) and Mr Marshall (Stenographer). On folio 57 Lampson concludes:

"I feel however that the time has come to make a gradual change. Our interests in Shanghai are so important that it will, in any case, be desirable for my representative to continue to spend a part, and perhaps a considerable part, of his time there. But in view of the growing number of questions which are taken up with the Central Government, Nanking may well become more and more the official base of my representative, though as all the principal members of the Government, and especially the Minister for Foreign Affairs, inevitably spend from Friday to Monday in Shanghai, even this is by no means certain. It is possible therefore that before this despatch reaches you I may have already made by telegraph proposals for increasing available accommodation at Nanking.... so as to place the organisation of diplomatic work at Nanking, both during my visits and in the intervals between, on a more settled, satisfactory and efficient basis.

 

Earlier on folio 54 Miles Lampson had recorded: “... But there is in addition a psychological factor which I mention with some hesitation as liable to be misconstrued when read in the normality of London, but which I think ought to be recorded in order to convey a true picture. It is the curious atmosphere of uneasy gloom which seems to hang over Nanking.

There is much in Lampson’s report about feelings of uncertainty and apprehension “in the minds of British subjects and more particularly of British merchants ....”; there is full discussion of the Chinese mandate of December 26th declaring foreign nationals to be subject to Chinese laws and regulations as from January 1st 1930; detail on negotiations about extraterritoriality and the status, position and privileges of British subjects in China.

FO 262/1747 includes the Treaty Agreement relating to the Chinese Courts in the International Settlement at Shanghai, Nanking, February 17, 1930. Throughout there is a great deal of information on China.

The following extract from the ”Political Report” section of the Report of the Commander-in-Chief, China Station - 15th August to 21st October 1929 - and Political Report, by Vice-Admiral A K Waistell on board HMS Kent at Woosung, 21st October 1929, comes from File 164 in FO 262/1758:

"The political situation in China proper during the period under review has remained generally static and quiet, with the exception of the anti-Government rising of General Chang Fa Kuei in the middle Yangtse valley area. Central Government forces have been operating against these rebels for some weeks, .... the Central Government has been seriously pre-occupied with the situation in Manchuria caused by the Sino-Russian dispute over the Chinese Eastern Railway, which has tended to overshadow internal politico-military affairs. The enemies of President Chiang K’ai-Shek have continued to indulge in extensive intrigue and propaganda, and the long expected anti-Nationalist move by the Kuominchun, Kuanghsi and various other political parties and military leaders is now openly taking shape. It is reliably reported that the Chinese anticipate that the Kuanghsi party will open the campaign in the South and that the Northern bloc will then exert pressure. Kwangsi troops have for some time been concentrating in the neighbourhood of Wuchow. The situation at Canton is reported quiet but critical. The Government express confidence and are taking active measures. Troops and gunboats are concentrated on the West River and at Wuchow under Admiral Chan Chak.

On Manchuria FO 262/1799 provides a good example of the extent of information - there are 16 files for this one piece number. The principal focus of attention is the general feeling in the country towards the Manchukuo Administration and the Japanese. This file is for 1932. There is much discussion and analysis concerning the Kwantung Government; lots of material written by the British Ambassador in Tokyo (Lindley) with interesting annotations. There are translations of the Proceedings of various Government Committees with comments thereon. The following extract is from FO 262/1799, from a translation re: an Interpolation on Manchuria in the Budget Committee meeting, August 30th 1932:

"Mr. Ashida (Seiyukai)

"...The whole country firmly believes in the justice of Japan’s stand on the question of Manchuria ... but in how far have the Government been able to convince the Powers of the justice of their contentions ? In my opinion it is by no means as easy as Count Uchida would have us believe to convince other people of Japan’s special rights as regards Manchuria. Why ? Because Japan in her China policy has hitherto proclaimed the principles of the Open Door, Equal Opportunity, and the territorial integrity of China .... As Count Uchida is in a position to know, whereas Great Britain in signing the anti-war Treaty made reservations with regard to certain special spheres, Japan made no such reservations; she has never emphasised her claim to special privileges in Manchuria. Her shop sign always bore the legend “open door” etc. and so, after the occurrence of the Manchuria incident, when she took the stand that her special rights in Manchuria must be proclaimed it was unavoidable that the Powers should receive the impression that Japan was re-painting her shop sign...."

 

Count Uchida, Minister for Foreign Affairs

"... As Mr Ashida has stated, Japan is meeting, in connection with this question, such opposition from the world as she has never before experienced. I find it difficult to answer Mr Ashida’s question as to how many countries have shown agreement with Japan’s contentions, but speaking off-hand, I believe that the number of countries which have thoroughly understood our position and have expressed their sympathy with it is exceedingly small. But when we make a careful study of the progress of world opinion on this question since the outbreak of the incident, I think that our attitude is being gradually understood’....

For the Lytton Commission Report please see the two files for 1932 in FO 262/1802.

For material on Japan and America there are a number of good files eg: FO 262/1821 covering 1932. One topic covered is the Alleged “dumping” of Japanese Goods in the United States. A memorandum drawn up by Mr Sansom, the Commercial Counsellor to the British Embassy in Tokyo, for the attention of the Foreign Office and Ambassador Lindley, notes as follows:

".... Japanese manufacturers are accused of selling their products in the United States at less than the market price in Japan and sometimes even at less than the cost of production. These protests of American manufacturers have provided useful ammunition in the election campaign; and President Hoover himself in more than one of his speeches referred to Japanese competition; warning his audiences that American workmen could not maintain their standard of living unless they were protected by tariffs against the products of cheap labour in Japan.”

Both Britain and the United States appear at this time to have some deep concern over the threat of Communism in Japan. The files reveal that a close watch was kept on the JCP and any pressure groups or individuals with communist sympathies. For example, see FO 262/1848. Colonel E.A.H. James, Military Attaché at the British Embassy at Tokyo, writes on 1st November 1933:

"During the course of a recent conversation with Mr Rink, the Military Attaché of the Soviet Embassy, I had an opportunity of asking him whether he thought that the Japanese authorities were really alarmed at the Communist activities of the younger generation which are so frequently reported in the press. Mr Rink believed they were, and in his opinion justly so, for the present industrial and capitalistic system was strange to large masses of Japanese, whose own traditional family system was very much more akin to communistic ideals than the newly super imposed western civilisation. Even the strongest reactionaries who were loudest in the denunciation of communism denounced the capitalists as loudly. In support of this he referred to the views of the military on the subject of big business in Japan.Germany contained 6 million communists, but, in his opinion, there was no likelihood of Germany turning communist. They were a too highly developed people. A change to communist principles in Japan would not be nearly as difficult, as the traditional social life of the people was much nearer to the ideals of communism. The adaptation of the people in Russia to the new ideals had been comparatively easy because the mass of Russians were yet in a very primitive state of development.”

There are a number of very large files on the Control of Drug Traffic. FO 262/1748: File 11 includes Regulations for the Control of Narcotic Drugs in Formosa; documents on investigations into Cocaine smuggling and an article published in the provincial editions of the Osaka Asahi, February 16 & 18, 1930. The following is an extract from folio 261:

"Shanghai, the world’s pleasure market is also perhaps the Metropolis of narcotics, especially so of opium. Just as the coloured population of the tropics finds a day’s ease and delight away from the coconut plantations to the jazzy rolling melody of the drums, so the Chinese evade their earthly worries and sickness through the power of opium. But the habit of opium smoking is unquestionably an evil to be dreaded and the attention of the world is riveted on the destruction of this enemy of mankind as a social policy.

FO 262/1749 includes documents and minutes of the Thirteenth Session of the League of Nations Advisory Committee on Traffic in Opium and other Dangerous Drugs.

FO 262/1753 contains an interesting letter from Sir John Tilley (British Ambassador in Tokyo) to Arthur Henderson, MP, 20 January 1930. It concerns Japan & Pacifism; Tilley writes:

"I have the honour to transmit herewith a copy of a report by the Military Attaché to the Embassy, commenting on the general attitude in Japan towards the movement for the prevention of war. The report seems to me to give a true picture and I would only add that although, as Colonel Hill says, the Japanese have a certain martial instinct and are very patriotic, they are by nature a peaceful people. The warlike spirit of former days came to an end with the abolition of the “samurai” who were responsible for maintaining the fighting tradition, though even then only among a comparatively small proportion of the population, for the mass of the people were always peaceful by inclination.

On the subject of Feminism and Anti-Feminism in Japan, FO 262/1760 folio 139 has the following paragraph: “It is true, as I have on occasion pointed out, and as was recently well put in an article by Mr Arnold Toynbee, that the “spread of Western civilisation” and “the Europeanisation of Japan” exist largely in the imagination of journalists. Nevertheless one thing which is also true is that the movement for the greater independence of women is strong, especially among the younger generation, who are rapidly being educated, and are determined to assert themselves.

All centres with an emphasis on research on Modern Japan in the inter-war period should have this microfilm set. These files provide far more than just political analysis; there is a great deal on social issues, the economy, agriculture, customs, culture and intellectual life in Japan during this period.

The part structure of this microfilm series has been amended so that it is complete in six parts. Series Three covers the post-1945 material in the FO 262 files (previously listed by us as Parts 9 & 10 of Series One). Please refer to our 1997 Price List if you need clarification.

The combined guide to Parts 1 & 2 of Series One of this microfilm project provides lists of all British Embassy and Consular Staff, 1905-1958 and a full list of all major Japanese Ministers and Officials, 1901-1960.

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