FICTION EXPLODED

Greymouth Evening Star, 5 August 1946, Page 5

FICTION EXPLODED

DISCLOSURES AT WAR TRIAL JAPANESE POLICY (Rec. 12.45 p.m.) TOKIO, Aug. 5. Documents from Japan’s Foreign Office submitted at the International Tribunal trying Inajor war crimes suspects explode the carefully preserved fiction that the Foreign Office was innocently ignorant of the- militarists’ imperialistic plans. . One document recounts “the basic principles of the national policy decided on August 7, 1936, by the defendant, Kohi Hurota, the then Premier, and four of his Ministers, including the defendant Navy Minister, Osemi Naoano. The document bluntly outlines the creation of a bulwark against Russia, increased “national defence,” and intention “to advance and develop the empire towards the South Seas.” It also calls for a tight Japanese hegemony on the Asiatic continent, and “at the same time, prepare against America and Britain.” . Hirota, when Foreign Minister in January, 1936, sent Japanese diplomats to China with detailed Army plans for consolidating the five northern Chinese provinces under Japanese control, and instructed military officials to keep close contact with Foreign Office officials and Navy officers stationed in China. Jopanese diplomats for years publicly professed peaceful intentions and blamed Army hotheads for independent actions which forced a reluctant Government to follow on after the event. '