Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

The Shaping of German far Eastern Policy 1934–1935

  • Chapter
Germany and Japan

Part of the book series: International Scholars Forum ((ISFO))

  • 79 Accesses

Abstract

“I have no conscience. My conscience is Adolf Hitler.”1 With these ominous words did Hermann Göring justify his part in the burning of the German Reichstag. Could any twentieth Century man have made a more complete surrender to the arbitrary will of another? The question is of vital concern for the consideration of German foreign policy during the Nazi regime, since it must to some extent assess the Status of Hitler in relation to that policy. Because “a dead man teils no tales,” international prosecution after the war has only tended to obscure the issue. Witness and defendant at Nuremberg invariably admitted a surrender of personal responsibility: one had taken orders. The position of Hitler was thus, for the sake of self-protection, exaggerated to unheard-of proportions. Still, this cannot detract from the undoubted personal magnetism which the Führer exercised over his collaborators. Göring’s words, uttered in 1933, are an indication of this dynamic influence. Ribbentrop appeared yet captivated by this force when on trial at Nuremberg. If we may believe Rauschning, even a fairly detached personality like Schacht could not escape the demagogue’s attraction.2

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 39.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

References

  1. Hermann Rauschning, The Voice of Destruction (New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1940), p. 78.

    Google Scholar 

  2. Ibid., p. 180.

    Google Scholar 

  3. Ibid., p. 275.

    Google Scholar 

  4. Herbert von Dirksen, Moscow, Tokyo, London (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1952), p. 170.

    Google Scholar 

  5. Felix Gilbert, Nuremberg Diary, pp. 75–76, as quoted in Gordon Craig, The Diplomats, 1919–1939 (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1953), p. 423, n. 66.

    Google Scholar 

  6. International Military Tribunal, Trial of the Major War Criminals (Nuremberg: The Secretariat of the Tribunal, 1948), XII, p. 639.

    Google Scholar 

  7. Erich Kordt, Nicht aus den Akten (Stuttgart: Union Deutsche Verlagsgesellschaft, 1950), pp. 122–123.

    Google Scholar 

  8. See, for example, the testimony of the military attache diiring Ribbentrop’s stay as Ambassador in London. Geyr von Schweppenburg, The Crüical Years (London: Allan Wingate, 1952), pp. 92, 106, writes: “Ribbentrop’s mind was obstinate, sluggish, and confused ... He was par excellence a man who was guided by intuition and preconceived ideas.”

    Google Scholar 

  9. Kordt, op. cit., pp. 63, 67, 74.

    Google Scholar 

  10. Ibid., p. 88.

    Google Scholar 

  11. Loc. cit.

    Google Scholar 

  12. Paul Schwartz, Ribbentrop (New York: Julian Messner, Inc., 1943), pp. 88–92. The many unsubstantiated facts in this work necessitate that it be used with great caution.

    Google Scholar 

  13. Dirksen, op. cit., pp. 144–145; see also De Witt C. Poole, “Light on Nazi Foreign Policy,” Foreign Affairs, XXV (October 1946), pp. 130–154. For further information about Heye, see Documents on German Foreign Policy. 1918–1945, Series C (1933–1937) (Washington: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1957), I, pp. 104–106.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  14. Dirksen, op. cit., p. 145.

    Google Scholar 

  15. Foreign Relations of the United States, 1934, Vol. III The Far East (Washington: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1950), p. 8.

    Google Scholar 

  16. Ibid., pp. 22–23.

    Google Scholar 

  17. Dirksen, op. cit., p. 145.

    Google Scholar 

  18. “Deutschland und Ostasien,” Ostasiatische Rundschau, XV (February 1, 1934), pp. 45–46.

    Google Scholar 

  19. Foreign Relations, 1934, III, pp. 43–44.

    Google Scholar 

  20. The item was reported in The Times on January 26, 1934, and cited in Survey of International Affairs, 1934 (London: Oxford University Press, 1935), p. 667.

    Google Scholar 

  21. Loc. cit.

    Google Scholar 

  22. G. Rühle, Das Dritte Reich—Dokumentarische Darstellung, Das Zweite Jahr, 1934 (Berlin: Hummelverlag, 1935), p. 200; “Japan-Duitsland,” Marineblad, XLIX (1934), p. 679.

    Google Scholar 

  23. Peace and War — United States Foreign Policy, 1931–1941 (Washington: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1943), pp. 222–223; Frank W. Ikle, German-Japanese Relations, 1936–1940 (Berkeley: Ph. D. dissertation, 1953), p. 13, cites another U.S. Embassy wire for the same month.

    Google Scholar 

  24. The following account is largely based on the more detailed review in Craig, op. cit., pp. 408 ff.

    Google Scholar 

  25. Joseph C. Grew, Ten Years in Japan (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1944), p. 155.

    Google Scholar 

  26. See e. g. L. K. Rosinger, “Germany’s Far Eastern Policy under Hitler,” Pacific Affairs, XI (December, 1938), pp. 421–432, and

    Article  Google Scholar 

  27. Malcolm Muggeridge, “Germany, Russia, and Japan,” Nineteenth Century, CXV (March, 1934), pp. 281–290.

    Google Scholar 

  28. Leon Archimbaud, “Le Facisme Japonais,” La Revue du Pacifique, XIII (May, 1934), pp. 257–264.

    Google Scholar 

  29. As cited in Ikle, op. cit., p. 14.

    Google Scholar 

  30. Ambassador Dodd’s Diary, 1933–1938, edited by M. and W. Dodd (New York, Harcourt, Brace & Co., 1941), p. 164.

    Google Scholar 

  31. Daily Telegraph, November 17, 1934, and cited in Survey, 1934, op. cit., p. 667.

    Google Scholar 

  32. Dirksen, op. cit., p. 149.

    Google Scholar 

  33. Johann von Leers, “Japanische Neuformung,” Die Tat, XXVI (September, 1934), pp. 411–423.

    Google Scholar 

  34. Ibid., p. 419. See also J. von Leers, “Krieg im Osten?,” Wille und Macht, (April 15, 1934), pp. 11–16, which expressed the view that as long as Germany was denied equality in armaments and an Austrian settlement, she would have to seek support among non-European states for power political reasons. Carl Caspar, “Der Japanische Kapitalismus,” Volk im Werden, III (1935), pp. 161–168, went even further by stating that a European decline would aid Germany in revising the Status quo. And Europe’s decline was partly helped along by Japanese expansion — thus she supported German aims and was her ally.

    Google Scholar 

  35. Heinz Corazza, Japan — Wunder des Schwertes (Berlin: Klinkhardt, Biermann, 1935), p. 151.

    Google Scholar 

  36. Richard Hennig, “Die Wirren im fernen Osten,” Zeitschrift für Politik, XXIV (April, 1934), pp. 180–199.

    Google Scholar 

  37. Otto Veit, “Verliert Europa den Weltmarkt?,” Die Neue Rundschau, XLVI (January, 1935), pp. 97–112.

    Google Scholar 

  38. A. W. Just, “Asien und die Sowjetunion,” Volk und Reich, X (February, 1934), pp. 102–111.

    Google Scholar 

  39. M. Claur, “Japan und Abessinien,” Deutsche Rundschau, (February, 1934), pp. 83–88.

    Google Scholar 

  40. International Military Tribunal for the Far East, Documents presented in Evidence, (hereafter referred to as IMTFE), Exhibit 3579. The main substance of the last two paragraphs is, however, based on General Ott’s interrogation after the war. This is a source of more than two hundred typed pages which is available at the Harvard Law Library. See IMTFE, “Interrogation of Japanese Prisoners.” Unfortunately, this collection of nine bundles of papers has no specific means of reference besides the heading: “Interrogation of General Eugen Ott.” The bundles are not even numbered; see also Schwarz, op. cit., p. 169.

    Google Scholar 

  41. Oshima became a Major General in March, 1935, and a Lieutenant General in March, 1938. IMTFE, Exhibit 121.

    Google Scholar 

  42. IMTFE, Exhibit 121; Kordt, op. cit., pp. 123–124; Ernst von Weizsäcker, Memoirs (London: Victor Gollancz Ltd., 1951), p. 201.

    Google Scholar 

  43. IMTFE, Exhibits 478, 3508.

    Google Scholar 

  44. Frankfurter Zeitung, November 18, 1934, and cited in Survey, 1934, op. cit., p. 667.

    Google Scholar 

  45. Auswärtiges Amt, Vertrags-Verzeichnis seit 1920 (Berlin: mimeographed, 1941), Japanese section; Documents on International Affairs, 1934, edited by J. W. Wheeler-Bennett (London: Oxford University Press, 1935), p. 524.

    Google Scholar 

  46. Ernst O. Hauser, Gefährlicher Osten (Zürich: Max Niehaus Verlag, 1935), pp. 110–111.

    Google Scholar 

  47. Robert A. Scalapino, Demoeracy and the Party Movement in Prewar Japan (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1953), pp. 391–392.

    Google Scholar 

  48. See also Delmer M. Brown, Nationalism in Japan (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1955), chapters 9 and 10, and especially pp. 193–194.

    Google Scholar 

  49. “Richtlinien der Japanischen Aussenpolitik,” Monatshefte für Auswärtige Politik, I (July, 1934), pp. 17–20.

    Google Scholar 

  50. Ibid., pp. 22–24.

    Google Scholar 

  51. Survey, 1934, op. cit., pp. 650–651.

    Google Scholar 

  52. Loc. cit.

    Google Scholar 

  53. As quoted in Jaya Deva, Japan’s Kampf (London: Victor Gollancz, Ltd., 1942), pp. 128–129.

    Google Scholar 

  54. Von Pustau and Okanouye, Japan und Deutschland (Berlin: Deutscher Verlag für Politik und Wirtschaft, 1936), pp. 122, 124–125. The Japanese newspaper Tokyo Asahi also seems to have published a special German issue that year. See Johann von Leers, “Japanische Neuformung,” Die Tat, XXVI (September, 1934), pp. 411–423.

    Google Scholar 

  55. As quoted in H. Chassagne, Le Japon contre le Monde (Paris: Editions Sociales Internationales, 1938), p. 271.

    Google Scholar 

  56. As quoted in Chitoshi Yanaga, Japan since Perry (New York: McGraw-Hill Book Co., 1949), p. 511.

    Google Scholar 

  57. Peace and War, op. cit., pp. 241–242; Grew, op. cit., p. 149.

    Google Scholar 

  58. Dodd, op. cit., pp. 222–223.

    Google Scholar 

  59. IMTFE, Exhibit 3751, chapter 167. (These are the Saionji—Harada Memoirs).

    Google Scholar 

  60. Japan, Official Announcements of the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs (in Japanese and English), Spring, 1935. This collection is at the Hoover Library, Stanford University.

    Google Scholar 

  61. Grew, op. cit., p. 155.

    Google Scholar 

  62. R. Bauer, “Gefahrenpunkte Japans,” Volk und Reich, XI (August, 1935), pp. 612–624.

    Google Scholar 

  63. Colonel Hayner, “Die Spannung zwischen den Vereinigten Staaten von Amerika und Japan,” Wissen und Wehr, XVI (1935), pp. 581–603.

    Google Scholar 

  64. Walter Görlitz, Der deutsche Generalstab (Frankfurt: Verlag der Frankfurter Hefte, 1950), p. 428.

    Google Scholar 

  65. Foreign Relations of the United States, 1935, vol. II The British Commonwealth, Europe (Washington: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1952), p. 311.

    Google Scholar 

  66. Documents on International Affairs, 1935, edited by J. W. Wheeler—Bennett (London: Oxford University Press, 1936), I, pp. 142–144.

    Google Scholar 

  67. Dodd, op. cit., pp. 256–257.

    Google Scholar 

  68. Dirksen, op. cit., p. 153. By contrast, the then German naval attache in Tokyo, Vice—Admiral Paul Wenneker, testified after the war that he had been treated with suspicion and distrust by the Japanese Navy, and that he was never close with Japanese naval officers, IMTFE, Exhibit 2999.

    Google Scholar 

  69. Peace and War, op. cit., p. 255.

    Google Scholar 

  70. Foreign Relations of the United States, 1935, vol. III The Far East (Washington: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1953), pp. 95–96; see also the reference in Ambassador Dodd’s diary for the same month, Dodd, op. cit., p. 226.

    Google Scholar 

  71. Grew, op. cit., p. 155.

    Google Scholar 

  72. Foreign Relations, 1935, III, p. 181. Actually, Mr. Doddreceived this Information from the newspaper Journalist Louis Lochner, who himself had talked to “someone” in the German Foreign Office. Dodd, op. cit., p. 248. An approximately similar account is to be found in Claude A. Buss, War and Diplomacy in Eastern Asia (New York: The Macmillan Co., 1941), pp. 108–109.

    Google Scholar 

  73. Foreign Relations, 1935, II, p. 311; Dodd, op. cit., pp. 254, 256–257, 258.

    Google Scholar 

  74. Foreign Relations, 1935, III, pp. 481–482.

    Google Scholar 

  75. “Wechsel in der Japanischen Botschaft in Berlin,” Ostasiatische Rundschau, XV (December 16, 1934), p. 540.

    Google Scholar 

  76. Norman H. Baynes, The Speeches of Adolf Hitler, 1922–1939 (London: Oxford University Press, 1942), II, pp. 1204–1205.

    Google Scholar 

  77. G. Rühle, Das Dritte Reich-Dokumentarische Darstellung, das dritte Jahr, 1935 (Berlin: Hummelverlag, 1936), p. 97.

    Google Scholar 

  78. As quoted in Chassagne, op. cit., pp. 268–269.

    Google Scholar 

  79. As quoted in Von Pustau, op. cit., p. 123.

    Google Scholar 

  80. Foreign Relations, 1935, III, p. 946.

    Google Scholar 

  81. Ibid., p. 374; Dirksen, op. cit., p. 146; Rosinger, op. cit., p. 425; Kurt Bloch, German Interests and Policies in the Fat East (New York: Institute of Pacific Relations, 1940), p. 34.

    Google Scholar 

  82. Dorothy Thompson, “National Socialism: Theory and Practice,” Foreign Affairs, XIII (July, 1935), pp. 557–573.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  83. Charles A. Willoughby, Shanghai Conspiracy — the Sorge Spy Ring (New York: H. P. Dutton & Co., Inc., 1952), p. 201.

    Google Scholar 

  84. Walter G. Krivitsky, In Stalin’s Secret Service (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1939), chapter I, passim.

    Google Scholar 

  85. Report of the Seventh World Congress of the Communist International (London:

    Google Scholar 

  86. Modern Books Ltd., 1936), p. 24.

    Google Scholar 

  87. IMTFE, Exhibit 774A; Grew, op. cit., p. 93.

    Google Scholar 

  88. IMTFE, Exhibit 3751, chapter 193 (Saionji—Harada Memoirs).

    Google Scholar 

  89. This was emphasized by a border clash between Japanese and Russian troops on the frontier of Outer Mongolia in the winter of 1935–’6. See Yanaga, op. cit., p. 576.

    Google Scholar 

  90. Kordt, op. cit., pp. 122–124.

    Google Scholar 

  91. Rühle, op. cit., das dritte Jahr, p. 95.

    Google Scholar 

  92. Kordt, op. cit., pp. 122–124.

    Google Scholar 

  93. IMTFE, Exhibits 477, 3508. For other details about Hack, see Robert J. C. Butow, Japan’s Decision to Surrender (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1954), p. 104.

    Google Scholar 

  94. IMTFE, Exhibits 3481–3491.

    Google Scholar 

  95. Ibid., Exhibits 477, 2762, 3492.

    Google Scholar 

  96. Ibid., Exhibits 477, 3492; Buss, op. cit., pp. 408–409.

    Google Scholar 

  97. IMTFE, Exhibits 477, 3492, 3508.

    Google Scholar 

  98. Ibid., Exhibit 3610; Dirksen, op. cit., p. 153.

    Google Scholar 

  99. These policies had been unmistakably set forth by Toshio Shiratori, see pp. 81–82.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Authors
  1. Ernst L. Presseisen
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 1958 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Presseisen, E.L. (1958). The Shaping of German far Eastern Policy 1934–1935. In: Germany and Japan. International Scholars Forum. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-6590-9_3

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-6590-9_3

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht

  • Print ISBN: 978-94-017-6456-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-94-017-6590-9

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation