Evening star., 1955-08-03
Doctored Note Led Jopon
To War, Yoshido Reveals

TOKYO, Aug. 3 (R.-Shigeru
Yoshida says in his memoirs that
some of Japan's leaders at the
time of Pearl Harbor tampered
with the text of a final United
States note, thus persuading re-
luctant officials to agree to war
This was a fraud by the mill
tary and amounted to conspir-
acy," declares the 76-year-old
diplomat and politician who
guided Japan as Prime Minister
through six postwar years.
Mr.. Yoshida said the note
from the late Secretary Of State
Cordell Hull Just before the Pearl
Hsrbor attack was marked mot
definitive."
Words in Note Deleted
His memoirs. now appearing
in the big newspaper ASahi, said
the main text was an honest
presentation of the views of both
sides. There was the added COM
ment in the note that this is q
basis for negotiation" and part
of the preamble emphasized
this is tentative plan"
mot only were all these words
deleted," Mr.. Yoshida said, "but
the portion covering the japanese
stand was also deleted when the
document was submitted to the
Privy Council as the Hull note.
I was informed that only the
American position was carried
in a one-sided manner"
1t was on the basis of this
doctored note accepted by ia
pan as q virtual United States
ultimatum-that reluctant jap
anese civilian leaders and some
doubtful military chieftains
finally agreed to war. Mr.. Yo-
shida said.
Mr.. Yoshida himself, with
years of experience abroad as a
diplomat in London, Rome and
Washington, had many misgiv-
ings. He was arrested by the
military later in the war when
he Joined a movement for a
negotiated peace.
Mr.. Yoshida was released
toward the end of the war. He
was in retirement at his seaside
villa at Oiso, so miles southwest
of Tokyo. when he was sum-
moned to Tokyo shortly after the
surrender in 1945.
Macarthur Right, He Says
Mr.. YoShida says Gen. Douglas
Macarthur was right in wanting
to attack Manchuria in the Ko-
rean War and that this would
not have provoked World War III.
"The general was dismissed be-
cause Of his strong insistence on
attacking across the Yalu River
into Manchuria," Mr.. Yoshida
writes in his memoirs now run
ming in Sahi Shimbun. Japan's
largest newspaper.
This idea conflicted with that
Of President Truman-but I do
believe that Macarthur had real
insight.
"If the Americans had crossed
the border then and marched on,
I think relations between Red
China and Russia would have be-
come something different from
what they are today. and the
world situation would be also
much changed.
actually, Gen. Macarthur did
not propose a United States
march into Manchuria. He
wanted to bomb Red Chinese afr
bases there, and proposed that
Nationalist Chinese troops be
used for a diversionary attack
on the Red mainland.)
Il do not believe a march
onward into Manchuria would
have touched of World War
III. In those days the free ma
tions had renewed their
strength, but on the Russian
part the Eastern European sit
uation was unstable and had
not firmed up"
Quarrels With Others
Mr.. Yoshida's memoirs indi-
cate a deep respect for MacAr-
thur and show an abiding graf
itude for the generals generous
policy toward Japan.
On Gen. MacArthur's part
the memoirs show that the gen.
eral always trated the diminu-
tive. spunky Prime Minister
with profound courtesy and, as
the acquaintance grew, with
real friendliness.
1t was another story with
some Of MacArthur's generals.