Historical Dictionary of United States-Japan ... - Bakumatsu Films

CHIANG KAI-SHEK • 63
Castle argued that Japan’s control on Manchuria was to be preferred
over that of China. During the ensuing months, Castle successfully
opposed economic sanctions against Japan, and exercised a vital influence
over the so-called Stimson Doctrine of nonrecognition of
conquests of aggression, restricting it to nonrecognition of “treaties
affecting American rights which might be secured through military
pressure of Japan on China.”
In late 1931, after Cameron Forbes resigned as ambassador to
Japan, Castle worked behind the scenes to have Joseph C. Grew, the
ambassador to Turkey, appointed to Tokyo. He took personal charge
of preparing Grew for his new assignment, which included introducing
him to the State Department’s premier Japan expert in Eugene H.
Dooman. Republican to the core, Castle left the State Department
soon after Franklin D. Roosevelt was elected president in 1933.
Castle emerged in the early postwar period as an influential member
of the American Council on Japan, a pressure group that wielded
some influence in the remaking of postwar Japan.
CHARTER OATH. Issued on 6 April 1868 by the new Meiji government,
the oath included five articles, the last stating that, “Knowledge
shall be sought throughout the world so as to strengthen the foundations
of imperial rule.”
CHIANG KAI-SHEK (1887–1975). Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek
led China throughout its long war against Japan. Irascible, arrogant,
and stubborn, he confounded foreign observers—including American
and Japanese—with his all-consuming commitment to the eradication
of Chinese communism, and his simultaneous pursuit of anti-
Japanese resistance.
By the late 1920s, Chiang had risen to a position of leadership in
China. He faced serious domestic opposition from the Chinese Communists,
various warlords, and a rival faction of his own Kuomintang.
He chose not to respond with force to the Japanese invasion of
Manchuria in 1931, preferring instead to concentrate on consolidating
his control over the rest of China. This changed after the outbreak of
the Sino–Japanese War in July 1937. Although Japanese troops met
with considerable battlefield successes, Chiang retreated to China’s interior
and from there directed the fight against the Japanese. Prime