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

ARITA, HACHIRO – • 43
Yōsuke Matsuoka as foreign minister, showed more enthusiasm for
a German alliance than for rapprochement with the United States. The
Arita–Grew conversations thus ended without yielding any tangible
results. See also PACIFIC WAR; WORLD WAR II.
ARITA, HACHIRŌ (1884–1965). A graduate of Tokyo Imperial University’s
law school, Arita entered the Foreign Ministry in 1909. After
serving in China, Ottawa, and Honolulu, in 1918, Arita joined the
Japanese delegation to the Paris Peace Conference. In the early
post–World War I period, Arita assumed diplomatic posts in Thailand,
Washington, and Peking, before being appointed head of the
Foreign Ministry’s Asia Bureau in 1927. From this position, Arita led
a powerful group within the ministry known as the Asia Faction. It
included within its ranks such influential officials as Mamoru
Shigemitsu, Masayuki Tani, and Toshio Shiratori. In October 1930,
Arita was appointed minister to Austria and thus was out of the country
when the Manchurian Incident occurred. He returned to Tokyo
in May 1932 as vice foreign minister, only to resign the post 12
months later. He was appointed ambassador to Belgium in November
1933. At this time, he summarized his worldview in a letter to Shiratori:
“We should proceed at once to drive Communist Russia out of
China and then gradually exclude Britain, the United States, and
other nations.” In other words, Arita firmly believed that Japan was
to be the sole arbiter of China’s fate.
He was appointed ambassador to China in February 1936, although
following the February 26 Incident, he assumed the foreign
ministership in the cabinet of Kōki Hirota (April 1936–February
1937). In this position, he strived to strengthen Japan’s political and
economic control over China, with varying degrees of success. He
subsequently served as foreign minister in the first Fumimaro Konoe
cabinet (October 1938–January 1939), the Kiichiro Hiranuma
cabinet (January 1939–August 1939), and the Mitsumasa Yonai cabinet
(January 1940–July 1940). His record as foreign minister is ambiguous.
On the one hand, he firmly opposed strengthening the existing
Anti-Comintern Pact to make of it a full-fledged military
alliance aimed at the United States and Great Britain. On the other
hand, he put Washington on notice that Tokyo would brook no interference
in its efforts to establish political hegemony over China.