ABSTRACT
By the time the Diet opened in January 1931, Baron Shidehara was feeling keenly the pressure of the forward movement, but he continued steadily on his way. Reaffirming that his policy towards China was a friendly one, he assured his critics that this did not mean the giving away of Japan’s rights and privileges. He pointed out that though the situation in May and June 1930 in Shantung had been disquieting, no Japanese lives had been lost. He generously refrained from contrasting this with the preposterous military expeditions sent by Baron Tanaka in 1927 and 1928 which did cause a loss of Japanese lives which would otherwise have been safe. He extolled the constructive work done by General Chiang Kai-shek, President and Commander-in-Chief in China, who had (for the time being, at least) suppressed the Communistbandits, and was creating a new China, following the same path that Japan had taken years before when she, in a similar way, emerged from an inferior status to take her place among the Great Powers.
