A Reluctant Declaration
Here at Adam Matthew HQ we spend our days jumping from one patch of history to another. This week I travelled to Tokyo, 1941, via the Foreign Office Files for Japan, 1919-1952 collection. It was the 8th December 1941 and like a ghostly time traveller I found myself in the offices of the British ambassador to Japan. Sir R.L. Craigie was reading a note he’d just received from the Japanese Minister for Foreign Affairs, Shigenori Togo:
“Your Excellency, I have the honour to inform Your Excellency that, as from today, a state of war exists between Great Britain and Japan. I avail myself of this opportunity to renew to Your Excellency the assurance of my highest consideration.”
Image © The National Archives, UK. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
We’re all familiar with the rousing speech of President Franklin D. Roosevelt given to Congress. The attack on Pearl Harbor on 7th December 1941 really has lived in infamy. Yet here was the British ambassador, holding a formal declaration of war. A seemingly useless post script after the death of thousands. And yet! What makes this document so remarkable is the cordiality and genuine sincerity conveyed in Shigenori Togo’s words:
“I avail myself of this opportunity to renew to Your Excellency the assurance of my highest consideration.”
Image © The National Archives, UK. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
What at first seems like a twist of the knife, is actually the sentiment of someone who’s spent his career striving for peace. Having successfully concluded the Soviet–Japanese Neutrality Pact in April 1941, he was firmly against military conflict with the Allied Forces and sought to prevent a war with the United States. Despite this, following the surrender of Japan in 1945, Shigenori Togo was tried for war crimes at the International Military Tribunal for the Far East (IMTFE) and given a 20-year prison sentence. He died in prison at the age of 67 and was enshrined at the Imperial Shrine of Yasukuni in Tokyo. The note marked a break in British consular representation in Japan that was not re-established until after the war. Sir R.L. Craigie left Japan for Britain on 30th July 1942 and went on to serve as the Chairman of the United Nations War Crimes Commission in 1945.
Published in three sections: Section I: Japanese Imperialism and the War in the Pacific, 1931-1945; Section II: Occupation of Japan, 1946-1952; Section III: Japan and Great Power Status, 1919-1930.
Foreign Office Files for Japan, 1919-1952 is available in July 2017. For more information, including free trial access and price enquiries, please email us at info@amdigital.co.uk
Full access restricted to authenticated academic institutions which have purchased a licence.
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