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Traditional Diplomats and New Actors

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Japan, Italy and the Road to the Tripartite Alliance

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Abstract

This chapter pays attention to both the traditional diplomats and new political actors with respect to the aggressive foreign policies of Japan and Italy. Although many diplomats often pleaded that they only adopted a realistic stance on the issues, most of them did not raise clear objections to the plans of their governments. Starting large-scale military interventions in China and Spain, respectively, Prime Minister Fumimaro Konoe and “Vice Duce” Galeazzo Ciano, who repeated violent slogans against the West, also adopted ambiguous attitudes similar to those of Hirota and Mussolini. However, unlike Hirota and Mussolini, Konoe and Ciano faced a dearth of capable diplomats at home who could assist them or even restrain the extreme choices they made that antagonized all the other powers.

The original version of this chapter was revised: Belated corrections have been incorporated. The correction to this chapter is available at https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-96223-8_9

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Hiroaki Shiozaki, Kokunai Shintaisei wo Motomete (Fukuoka: Kyushu University Press, 1998), pp. 61–108. Ken Ishida, “Mussolini and Diplomats in the Ethiopian War: The Foreign Policy Decision-Making Process in Fascist Italy” (hereafter Ishida, “Mussolini and Diplomats”), Hogaku Zasshi of Osaka City University, Vol. 42, No. 4 (1996), 994–1004.

  2. 2.

    For example, see the following books. John F. Coverdale, Italian Intervention in the Spanish Civil War (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1975). Tetsuo Furuya, Nicchu Senso (Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten, 1985).

  3. 3.

    The National Archives, Kew (hereafter TNA), FO371/18097, F2378/107/10 (26/4/1934); FO371/18098, F3252/107/10 (21/5/1934); FO371/18169, F3590/57/23 (7/6/1934).　Japanese Foreign Ministry Archives, Tokyo, A. 1. 1. 0. 10, Vol. 8, Shokaiseki Seiken no Doko by Yakichiro Suma (25/2/1936).

  4. 4.

    Yakichiro Suma, Gaiko Hiroku (Tokyo: Shoko Zaimu Kenkyukai, 1951), pp. 7–9, 27–30. Shigeharu Matsumoto, Shanhai Jidai, Vol. 1 (Tokyo: Chuo Koronsha, 1974), pp. 247–249. Liu Jie, “‘Chugoku-tsu’ Gaikokan to Gaimusho no Chugoku Seisaku: 1935–1937,” in Nicchu Senso no Shoso, ed. Gunjishi Gakkai (Tokyo: Kinseisha, 1997), p. 104. Shigeaki Uno, “Hirota Koki no Tai-Ka Seisaku to Sho Kai-seki,” Kokusai Seiji, 56 (1976), 38–39.

  5. 5.

    Suma, op. cit., pp. 76–77.

  6. 6.

    TNA, FO 371/20242, F2218/96/10 (20/4/1936).

  7. 7.

    Suma, op. cit., pp. 181–189. Galeazzo Ciano, Diario 1937–1943 (hereafter Ciano, Diario), a cura di Renzo De Felice (Milano: Rizzoli, 1980), pp. 54, 71, 224.

  8. 8.

    TNA, FO371/11385, C12479/77/22 (26/11/1926).

  9. 9.

    Esmonde M. Robertson, Mussolini as Empire-Builder: Europe and Africa, 1932–1936 (London: Macmillan, 1977), p. 14. Documents on British Foreign Policy, 1919–1939, 2-XIV (London: HMSO, 1976), No. 225. Raffaele Guariglia, Ricordi, 1922–1946 (Napoli: Edizioni Scientifiche Italiane, 1949), pp. 226–227, 259–261. Id., Ambasciata in Spagna e primi passi in diplomazia (hereafter Guariglia, Ambasciata in Spagna), a cura di Ruggero Moscati (Napoli: Edizioni Scientifiche Italiane, 1972), p. XII. George W. Baer, The Coming of the Italian-Ethiopian War (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1967), pp. 21–22.

  10. 10.

    Renzo De Felice, Mussolini il Duce, Vol. 2: Lo Stato totalitario 1936–1940 (Torino: Einaudi, 1981), p. 361. Claudio G. Segrè, Italo Balbo: A Fascist Life (Barkley: University of California Press, 1987), p. 343. The National Archives, Washington, DC, Personal Papers of Benito Mussolini, 1922–44, Microcopy T-586, Reel 468, 035602–3. Guariglia, Ricordi, pp. 193–199. Id., Ambasciata in Spagna, pp. 265–266, 291–292, 302.

  11. 11.

    Ibid., pp. 302–324. Id., Ricordi, pp. 189–190, 193–196, 202–206. Coverdale, op. cit., pp. 41–42, 45, 48, 51–60. Archivio Storico del Ministero degli Affari Esteri, Roma (hereafter ASMAE), Fondo Gabinetto, Carte Lancelotti, Ufficio di Coordinamento, B9, F37–45, G44, F1, Verbale della Riunione tenuta a Palazzo Venezia, 31/3/1934. NA, T586/1295, 112744-5.

  12. 12.

    Guariglia, Ricordi, pp. 193–199, 202–206, 617. Id., Ambasciata in Spagna, pp. 265–266, 291–292, 302–324, 321–323. Coverdale, op. cit., pp. 45, 48, 53. Ishida, “Mussolini and Diplomats”, 994. Ken Ishida, Chichukai Shin-Roma Teikoku eno Michi: Fashisuto Itaria no Taigaiseisaku 1935–39 (Tokyo: Tokyo Daigaku Shuppankai, 1994), p. 35.

  13. 13.

    Akira Fujiwara, Showa no Rekishi, Vol. 5: Nicchu Zemmen Senso (Tokyo: Shogakkan Bunko, 1988), p. 31. Barbara J. Brooks, Japan’s Imperial Diplomacy: Consuls, Treaty Ports, and War in China 1895–1938 (Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 2000), pp. 175–176. Ken Kurihara, “Sato Naotake no Gikai Enzetsu to Shusen Iken Dempo”, in Sato Naotake no Memboku, ed., Ken Kurihara (Tokyo: Hara Shobo, 1981), p. 3. Ken Ishida, Nichidokui Sangoku Domei no Kigen (hereafter Ishida, Nichidokui) (Tokyo: Kodansha, 2013), pp. 164–165. TNA, FO 371/20414, R3491/241/22 (12/6/1936).

  14. 14.

    Naotake Sato, Kaiko Hachiju Nen (Tokyo: Jiji Tsushinsha, 1963), pp. 348–349, 358–359, 364–368. Kurihara, op. cit., pp. 7–11, 13. TNA, FO371/21039, F3763/233/23 (4/6/1937); FO371/21040, F1819/414/23 (22/3/1937). Since Hayashi himself was so unprogressive that he intervened in the general election, his selection of Sato was not politically strategic but purely accidental through personal connections.

  15. 15.

    Morito Morishima, Imbo, Ansatsu, Gunto: Ichi-Gaikokan no Kaiso (Tokyo: Iwanami Shinsho, 1950), pp. 121–124. Ishida, Nichidokui, pp. 43, 55–56, 60–61. Akten zur Deutschen Auswärtigen Politik (hereafter ADAP), C-VI (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1981), Nrn. 294, 401, 413. Kurihara, op. cit., p. 14.

  16. 16.

    Ishii Itaro Nikki (hereafter Ishii Nikki), ed. Takashi Ito and Liu Jie (Tokyo: Chuo Koronsha, 1993), pp. 129, 143, 145, 148, 154. Kurihara, op. cit., pp. 14–15.

  17. 17.

    TNA, FO371/12196, C2895/80/22 (23/3/1927). Giuseppe Bastianini , Uomini, cose, fatti: Memorie di un ambasciatore (Milano: Vitagliano, 1959), p. 232. Archivio Centrale dello Stato, Roma, Segretaria Particolare del Duce, Carteggio Riservato, B37, F Bastianini, 5/9/1936; Appunto per il Duce (28/8/1937). Roy MacGregor-Hastie, The Day of the Lion: The Life and Death of Fascist Italy 1922–1945 (London: Macdonald, 1963), p. 236. Archives du Ministère des Affaires Étrangères, Paris, Europe 1930–40, Italie 270, p. 157 (N. 342: 19/11/1936).

  18. 18.

    TNA, FO371/22621, W2308/29/41 (2/15/1938). TNA, FO954/13A, It/37/41 (15/12/1937). Bastianini, op. cit., pp. 237–238, 247.

  19. 19.

    ASMAE, Carte Dino Grandi, B66, F158, SF2, Vol. 2, pp. 98, 104, 166. TNA, FO371/23829, R8943/7588/22 (17/10/1939). Bastianini, op. cit., pp. 240–245, 259.

  20. 20.

    Fumimaro Konoe, “Eibei Hon’i no Heiwashugi wo Haisu,” in Seidanroku, ed. Takeshi Ito (Tokyo: Chikura Shobo, 1936), pp. 231–241. Yoshitake Oka, Konoe Fumimaro: Ummei no Seijika (Tokyo: Iwanami Shinsho, 1972), pp. 1, 10–11, 20. Giordano Bruno Guerri, Galezzo Ciano (Milano: Bompiani, 1985), pp. 39–46. Ray Moseley, Mussolini’s Shadow: The Double Life of Count Galeazzo Ciano (New Heaven: Yale University Press, 1999), pp. 6–9.

  21. 21.

    Katsumi Usui, Nicchu Gaiko-shi Kenkyu (Tokyo: Yoshikawa Kobunkan, 1999), p. 230. Ryoichi Tobe, Gaimusho Kakushin-ha: Sekai Shin-Chitsujo no Gen’ei (Tokyo: Chuko-Shinsho, 2010), op. cit., pp. 138–139.

  22. 22.

    Sadaharu Yabe, Konoe Fumimaro, Vol. I (Tokyo: Kobundo, 1952), p. 461. Akira Kazami, Konoe Naikaku (Tokyo: Nihon Shuppan Kyodo, 1951), p. 121.

  23. 23.

    Furuya, op. cit., pp. 129–156. Makiko Takada, “Torautoman Kosaku to Sambohombu Wahei-ha,” Seijikeizai Shigaku, No. 246 (1986), 46–47, 56–57.

  24. 24.

    ASMAE, Serie Affari Politici 1931–1945 (hereafter AP), Giappone, B13, F1, N. 496/212 (2/7/1936). ASMAE, AP, Giappone, B17, F1, N. 1044/281 (22/11/1937).

  25. 25.

    Ciano, Diario, p. 71. Planning a total settlement of the Sino-Japanese dispute, Seigo Nakano traveled to Europe to persuade Germany and Italy of the Japanese position and to fly an observation balloon. Since Nakano deluded himself into thinking that he was “the representative of Japanese spirit in the true meaning,” Nakano told Mussolini that Japan would rebuild the world order with the Axis powers. Yasuo Nakano, Seijika Nakano Seigo, Vol. 2 (Tokyo: Shinkokaku Shoten, 1971), pp. 278, 282–283, 285.

  26. 26.

    Yabe, op. cit., Vol. I, pp. 469–470. Kazami, op. cit., pp. 106–107. Furuya, op. cit., p. 164.

  27. 27.

    The spelling of the name of Amau (instead of Amo) is used in the mode of the Western documents during the 1930s. TNA, FO371/21039, F4001/233/23 (17/6/1937); F5864/233/23 (5/8/1937). Even though Konoe’s “brain trust” advised that the Japanese new order in East Asia was compatible with “globalism,” Konoe did not take the initiative in carrying out cooperative policies. Harootunian, Overcome by Modernity: History, Culture, and Community in Interwar Japan (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2000), p. 295.

  28. 28.

    ASMAE, AP, Italia, B44, F5, Dichiarazioni dei tre firmati (6/11/1937).

  29. 29.

    Ciano, Diario, p. 53. The quotation is from the following English translation. Ciano’s Diary 1937–1938 (hereafter Ciano’s Diary), trans. and notes Andreas Mayor (London: Methuen, 1952), pp. 28–29.

  30. 30.

    Ciano, Diario, pp. 54, 56. Gaetano Salvemini, Prelude to World War II (London: Gollancz, 1953), pp. 29–31. The most exaggerated expression of the classic interpretation of fascist Italy can be seen in the following book. A.J.P. Taylor, The Origins of the Second World War (Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1964), p. 85.

  31. 31.

    I documenti diplomatici italiani, 8-VII (Roma: Istituto Poligrafico dello Stato, 1998), D. 462.

  32. 32.

    Ciano’s Diary, p. 23. Ciano, Diario, p. 47.

  33. 33.

    Ibid., p. 48.

  34. 34.

    Ciano’s Diary, p. 27. Ciano, Diario, p. 52.

  35. 35.

    Ciano, Diario, pp. 54, 58, 60, 74.

  36. 36.

    In this chapter a “diplomatic revolution” is characterized by its ideological orientation toward aggressive expansion. It is often considered to be different from the diplomatic bargaining of conventional foreign policy. In fact, in the decision-making process of each Axis power, leading actors tended to take a tougher line than traditionalists in their foreign ministry. Nonetheless, despite their provocative language, the content of the diplomatic revolution basically adhered to that of the old “realist” diplomacy but was accompanied by more opportunistic tendencies. Dissimilar to this chapter’s definition, the definition offered in the following study regards a “diplomatic revolution” as a change of German position in Europe. Gerhard L. Weinberg, The Foreign Policy of Hitler’s Germany: Diplomatic Revolution in Europe, 1933–1936 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1970).

  37. 37.

    Ishida, “Mussolini and Diplomats”, 994.

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    Ken Ishida

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Ishida, K. (2018). Traditional Diplomats and New Actors. In: Japan, Italy and the Road to the Tripartite Alliance. Security, Conflict and Cooperation in the Contemporary World. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-96223-8_6

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