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

228 • SHIGEMITSU–DULLES MEETING
returned to Tokyo to assume the post of vice foreign minister. He remained
in that post through the cabinets of Shigenobu Ōkuma,
Masatake Terauchi, and Takashi Hara. Ambassador to the United
States from 1919 to 1922, he served as a member of Japan’s delegation
to the Washington Conference of 1921–1922. A perceptive observer
of the United States, he alerted Tokyo throughout the Washington
Conference of America’s determination to bring an end to the
diplomacy of imperialism.
As foreign minister from 1924 to 1927 and again from 1929 to
1931, Shidehara showed himself to be a consummate realist, always
seeking to integrate his foreign policy objectives with the available
means. Historians are generally agreed that the main characteristics
of Shidehara’s foreign policy were non-intervention in the internal affairs
of China international (or great power) cooperation and economic
rationalism.
The arrival of the Great Depression spelled the end for Shidehara’s
diplomacy. Powerful voices—most notably from within the army—
charged that his policy of peaceful, economic expansion into China
had failed. They advocated the adoption of more proactive measures,
regardless of what these measures signified for the future of great
power cooperation. His support for the naval limitation proposals put
forth at the London Naval Conference of 1930, furthermore, caused
powerful elements within the Navy to turn against him. The final nail
in the coffin of his diplomacy came with the Manchurian Incident
of 1931. Washington initially had faith in Shidehara’s ability to localize
the fighting and bring a prompt end to the affair, but it soon became
obvious to all concerned that he was powerless in the face of
the Kwantung Army’s intransigence.
SHIGEMITSU–DULLES MEETING. In 1955, Japanese Deputy
Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Mamoru Shigemitsu and U.S.
Secretary of State John Foster Dulles held a three-day meeting from
31 August to 2 September to discuss contemporary political events
pertaining to East Asia and other regions of the world. Regarding
East Asia, the two officials shared the same opinion: destabilizing
factors remaining from World War II meant that the free world, or
mainly Western countries, would have to continue to closely cooperate
to maintain peace in the region. Shigemitsu indicated that Japan