Plans and Expectations: The American News Media and Postwar Japan

Abstract

This article examines popular representations of Japan and China before and during the war, assesses the ideas of key figures from the press, and considers the ways in which media and policy interacted through the influence of opinion leaders. These prepared the way for the ‘soft’ peace relying on Japanese cooperation that would become the basis for a new alliance between America and Japan.

Notes

¹ Steven Casey uses the term ‘opinion leaders’ to group ‘journalists, editors, and commentators’; Casey, Cautious Crusade, 16.

² Alter, The Promise, 140.

³ Wartime hatred of Japan has been explored in Dower, War Without Mercy, and Chappell, Before the Bomb.

⁴ ‘Questions on the Far East’, December 1940. PSF (Subject): Opinion Polls. Franklin D. Roosevelt Library.

⁵ Rudolf Janssens relied on reading lists in his analysis of government consumption of published material on Japan. Janssens, What Future for Japan?, 79. However, only a handful of government departments, none of which were central to the process of planning for Japan, created such lists. I have therefore relied on correspondence and other evidence in collections of personal papers.

⁶ For an examination of this phenomenon in the context of British imperialism, see Porter, ‘Religion, Missionary Enthusiasm, and Empire’, 222–46.

⁷ Park, ‘Guiding Public Opinion on the Far Eastern Crisis’, 393.

⁸ Jespersen, American Images of China, 25.

⁹ Park, ‘Guiding Public Opinion on the Far Eastern Crisis’, 395.

¹⁰ Moreira, ‘Hemingway on the China Front’, 146.

¹¹ Tuchman, ‘Stilwell and the American Experience in China’, 251.

¹² Wilkins, ‘The Role of US Business’.

¹³ Imports from the US to Japan were mostly cotton, iron and oil. Import trade figures remained stable in the 1930s. Japan’s exports to the US, however, declined from a high in 1925–1929 of 37% to 14.3% by 1939 as Korea and Manchuria became more important to Japan’s economy. Beasley, Japanese Imperialism, 211.

¹⁴ This is not to say there was no business or missionary link with Japan. State Department member Eugene Dooman, for example, was born in Japan as the child of missionary parents. Haruo Iguchi writes about business links in Unfinished Business. There were also a small number of expatriates resident in Japan before the war. Wilfrid Fleisher, former editor of the Japan Advisor in Tokyo, is an example. His 1945 book on postwar plans was published and reviewed by American news outlets.

¹⁵ Japan took a distinct turn away from democracy in the 1930s when the country formed ‘national unity cabinets’ in response to political violence and instability. These cabinets shifted power from political parties in favor of the military. Nevertheless, the political system in Japan from the late nineteenth century was intentionally based on ‘modern’ Western models.

¹⁶ Kotlowski, ‘Independence or Not?’, 502.

¹⁷ FDR to Harold Ickes, 1 July 1941. PSF (Department): Interior, Ickes. Franklin D. Roosevelt Library.

¹⁸ Alan Barth to Ferdinand Kuhn, 8 August 1941. PSF (Department): Treasury, Editorial Opinion. Franklin D. Roosevelt Library.

¹⁹ Park, ‘Guiding Public Opinion on the Far Eastern Crisis’, 394.

²⁰ Kotlowski, ‘Independence or Not?’, 512.

²¹ Casey, Cautious Crusade, 29.

²² Dower, War Without Mercy, 38.

²³ McCormick, ‘Abroad’ (1942).

²⁴ ‘Post-war Amity with Japan Urged’.

²⁵ Koppes and Black, Hollywood Goes to War, 250.

²⁶ Ibid., vii.

²⁷ Jespersen, American Images of China, 77.

²⁸ Koppes and Black, Hollywood Goes to War, 250.

²⁹ ‘Home Affairs’.

³⁰ Wallace, ‘The Era of the Pacific’.

³¹ Pearl S. Buck at United China Relief ‘Tribute to China’ Rally at Carnegie Hall, quoted in Chinese Envoy Sees Offensive in Asia’.

³² Walter Judd had himself been a missionary in China for ten years. Judd, ‘What Is the Truth About China?’

³³ Peffer, ‘Our Distorted View of China’, quoted in Jespersen, American Images of China, 402.

³⁴ Quoted in Thorne, Allies of a Kind, 422.

³⁵ McCormick, ‘Abroad’ (1945).

³⁶ Chappell, Before the Bomb, 98.

³⁷ Thorne, Allies of a Kind, 492.

³⁸ ‘Japanese Atrocities to Prisoners of War’, 31 January 1944. Doc-No: H.doc.393m Serial-Volume: 10878 Congress-Session: 78-2 (1944) Sessional-Volume: 14, LexisNexis Congressional Hearings Digital Collection.

³⁹ ‘World Battlefronts: The Nature of the Enemy’.

⁴⁰ 5-C-8, SC-138, 23 June 1945. Iokibe, Occupation of Japan [Microform]: US Planning Documents, 1942–1945.

⁴¹ FDR to Adolf Berle, 26 June 1941. Box 22. PSF (Department): State. Franklin D. Roosevelt Library.

⁴² For example, reporting on the Cairo declaration, a New York Times journalist explained plans for Japan’s disarmament and loss of territory, and the rise of China as a world power. ‘Tokyo’s co-prosperity sphere,’ he wrote, ‘will be entirely scrapped’. And ‘from the ashes’ of Japan’s empire a ‘new and greater China’ would rise. Sulzberger, ‘Conferences Fixed Shape of World to Come’.

⁴³ ‘Opposes Making Japan an Outcast’.

⁴⁴ ‘Would Readmit Japan’, ‘Grouping of Nations For Peace Proposed’, and Porter, ‘Church Program for Peace Voted’.

⁴⁵ Chamberlin, ‘When the Orient is Set Free’, and Chamberlain, ‘Books of the Times’ (1943).

⁴⁶ Quoted in Chamberlain, ‘Books of the Times’ (1944).

⁴⁷ Casey, Cautious Crusade, 21.

⁴⁸ The future president enjoyed a taste of journalism as president of Harvard’s student publication, Crimson. Lippmann, though already interested in writing and current affairs, was not invited to join, perhaps because his Jewish background kept him outside some elite social circles. Steele, Walter Lippmann, 28.

⁴⁹ Reminiscences of Walter Lippmann, 5. Columbia University Oral History Collection.

⁵⁰ Steele, Walter Lippmann, 128–40.

⁵¹ In fact, his 1944 book, US War Aims, is reminiscent of Luce in its call for an ‘American destiny’ to become the global leader as the inheritor of Western civilization. See Lippmann, US War Aims, 209.

⁵² See, for example, Walter Lippmann to Senator Borah, 24 February 1939. Box 57, Folder 258, Reel 48. Walter Lippmann Papers, Yale University; Senator Vandenberg to Walter Lippmann, 14 December 1944. Box 132, Folder 2589, Reel 93. Walter Lippmann Papers, Yale University.

⁵³ Stettinius to Lippmann, 30 May 1940. Box 103, Folder 2001, Reel 92. Walter Lippmann Papers, Yale University.

⁵⁴ James Byrnes to Lippmann, 30 April 1945. Box 59, Folder 355, Reel 50. Walter Lippmann Papers, Yale University.

⁵⁵ Henry L Stimson to Lippmann, 1 June 1943. Box 104, Folder 2007, Reel 93. Walter Lippmann Papers, Yale University.

⁵⁶ Walter Lippmann, as cited in McPherson, ‘Review of Walter Lippmann and the American Century’.

⁵⁷ Hamilton Fish Armstrong to Lippmann, 31 March 1937. Box 52, Folder 105 Reel 42. Walter Lippmann Papers, Yale University.

⁵⁸ Lippmann, US Foreign Policy: Shield of the Republic, 24.

⁵⁹ 11 May 1943, 31. Reel 8. Henry Lewis Stimson Diaries, Yale University Library.

⁶⁰ Lippmann, US War Aims, 101.

⁶¹ Ibid., 105–106.

⁶² Surprisingly, Great Britain did not play a major role in postwar East Asia in Lippmann’s analysis. However, he does note its value to America as an ally, especially because of its available bases around the world. Walter Lippmann, US War Aims, 104.

⁶³ Lippmann cites Lattimore in his discussions of China in both books. Lattimore, a Sinophile blinded to the weakness of Chiang’s government, was a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and a government adviser during the war.

⁶⁴ Lippmann, US Foreign Policy, 154–56.

⁶⁵ An indicator of this conviction, and its connection to traditional missionary activity, is Luce’s role in founding United China Relief in 1939.

⁶⁶ Hunt, ‘East Asia in Henry Luce’s “American Century”’, 321.

⁶⁷ Luce kept these response letters, both negative and positive. They make up several folders within his personal papers.

⁶⁸ Speech of Martin J Kennedy of New York House of Representatives, 6 March 1941. Box 31. Henry Luce Folder. America First Committee Papers, Hoover Institution, Stanford University.

⁶⁹ Henry A. Wallace, as cited in White, ‘The “American Century” in World History’, 115.

⁷⁰ For an overview of Luce’s ideas on East–West relations, see White, ‘The “American Century” in World History’, 114.

⁷¹ Herzstein, Henry R. Luce, Time, and the American Crusade, 50.

⁷² ‘Generalissimo and Madame Chiang Kai-Shek’.

⁷³ Life editorial policy made China more familiar to Americans by drawing comparisons with the United States in its articles, referring to key cities with American equivalents, for example, ‘China’s Chicago’. Jespersen, American Images of China, 39‒43.

⁷⁴ As cited in Herzstein, Henry R. Luce, Time, and the American Crusade, 60. For an orthodox description of Luce’s pro-China editorial policy, see Hunt, ‘East Asia in Henry Luce’s “American Century”,’ 326.

⁷⁵ Pearl S. Buck to Henry Luce, 2 November 1942. Box 1. Henry Luce Papers, Library of Congress.

⁷⁶ Brinkley, The Publisher, 294.

⁷⁷ During the three-day trip, Luce met with Hull, Welles and Wallace, in addition to Britain’s Ambassador to the United States, Lord Halifax. Jessup, The Ideas of Henry Luce, 348‒51.

⁷⁸ Herzstein, Henry R. Luce: a Political Portrait of the Man Who Created the American Century, 268.

⁷⁹ Brinkley, The Publisher, 309.

⁸⁰ Schulzinger, The Wise Men of Foreign Affairs, 251.

⁸¹ Stanley Hornbeck to Walter Lippmann, 21 February 1942. Box 78, Folder 1078, Reel 68. Walter Lippmann Papers, Yale University.

⁸² Walter Lippmann to Joseph Grew, 2 May 1944. Box 74, Folder 928, Reel 64; Walter Lippmann to Edward Stettinius, 2 November 1943. Box 103, Folder 2001, Reel 92. Walter Lippmann Papers, Yale University.

⁸³ John Foster Dulles to Edward C. Carter, 14 January 1941. Box 48. Institute of Pacific Relations Papers, Columbia University.

⁸⁴ Planner response to the Rosinger article is also discussed in Janssen, What Future for Japan, 143. Rosinger, like many wartime China experts, was later questioned by the Senate Internal Security subcommittee about possible communist sympathies. ‘Obituary, L. K. Rosinger, 78, An Expert on China’.

⁸⁵ Joseph Grew to James Forrestal, 20 September 1943. Box 58. James V. Forrestal Papers, Princeton University.

⁸⁶ Cordell Hull to Henry Luce, 5 September 1941. Box 2. Henry Luce Papers, Library of Congress.

⁸⁷ Dean Acheson to Lippmann, 31 May 1939. Box 50, Folder 4. Walter Lippmann Papers, Yale University; 6 February 1943. Reel 8. Henry Lewis Stimson Diaries, Yale University.

⁸⁸ Lippmann to William Donovan, 7 April 1939. Box 67, Folder 629. Walter Lippmann Papers, Yale University.

⁸⁹ Senator Arthur H. Vandenberg to Henry Luce, 20 December 1943. Box 3. Henry Luce Papers, Library of Congress.

⁹⁰ Henry L. Stimson to Lippmann, 25 Nov 1940. Box 104, Folder 2007; James Forrestal to Lippmann, 19 Feb 1942. Box 71, Folder 794. Walter Lippmann Papers, Yale University.

⁹¹ Memorandum of Conversation, Walter Lippmann and Joseph Grew, 17 May 1944. MS Am 1687.3, Mem cons Vol. 6 (1944). Joseph Grew Papers, Harvard University.

⁹² 11 May 1943, 31. Reel 8. Henry Lewis Stimson Diaries, Manuscripts and Archives, Yale University Library.

⁹³ The OSS would in turn become the Central Intelligence Agency after the war.

⁹⁴ Archibald MacLeish to Henry Luce, 27 August and 9 September 1941, Box 2. Henry Luce Papers, Library of Congress.

⁹⁵ Archibald MacLeish to Henry Luce, 11 January 1943. Box 2. Henry Luce Papers, Library of Congress.

⁹⁶ Walter Lippmann to James Byrnes, 23 August 1945. Box 59, Folder 355, Reel 50. Walter Lippmann Papers, Yale University.

⁹⁷ Jespersen, American Images of China, xix.

⁹⁸ Memorandum to Lowell Mellett, 21 July 1941. PSF (Subject): Mellett, Franklin D. Roosevelt Library.

⁹⁹ White, ‘The “American Century” in World History’, 116.