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

HOOVER, HERBERT • 107
After an extended period on the sidelines, Hirota reemerged in
June 1945. At Foreign Minister Shigenori Tōgō’s behest, Hirota met
with Soviet ambassador Yakov Malik in an effort to lay the groundwork
for Soviet good offices in ending World War II (the Soviet
Union at this time had not entered the war against Japan). It was an
act of diplomatic futility.
HOOVER, HERBERT (1874–1964). Herbert Hoover was president of
the United States from 1929 to 1933. A graduate of Stanford University,
he earned his fortune as an engineer who had a knack for scouting
out mining opportunities. During World War I, he revealed his administrative
prowess first as director of Belgian relief, then as Food
Administrator in the administration of President Woodrow Wilson.
He subsequently spearheaded postwar relief activities in Europe. He
was appointed secretary of commerce in the administration of President
Warren Harding, enhancing his reputation as both a humanitarian
and as an administrator.
Hoover secured the Republican presidential nomination in 1928.
Popular with the nation at large, his candidacy was also boosted by
the booming prosperity his Republican predecessors had presided
over throughout the 1920s. Although his presidency will be most remembered
for its inability to respond effectively to the Great Depression,
his presidency also coincided with Japan’s 1931 invasion of
Manchuria. Unsurprisingly, he played an important role in devising
the American response.
In responding to Japanese aggression in Manchuria, Hoover was
largely out of step with his secretary of state, Henry L. Stimson.
Whereas Stimson advocated firmness, Hoover preferred a go-soft approach.
He nonetheless agreed with Stimson that some form of response
was necessary. Thus was born the Stimson notes, which were
issued to Japan and China in January 1932. In these notes, the American
government refused to recognize any changes in China brought
about by force and in violation of the Open Door policy. The Hoover
administration’s Far Eastern policy, although it largely accorded with
the antiwar sentiment of the American people, does not deserve high
marks. For although it thought and talked in terms of high moral principles,
it refused to act in terms of power, which was the only language
to which the frankly expansionist Japanese army was responsive.