UNFULFILLED MISSION TO MOSCOW

...But I thought the leaders in Tokyo must have taken all these matters into consideration before they cabled me, and had therefore acted in the knowledge that Japan's intent would eventually be made known to the United States and Great Britain...

...It stated that the Emperor was very anxious to restore peace, that he could no longer bear the continued sacrifice "A CCORD1NG to my way °* tJrfng, this is the most unprofitable war for Japan...

...I was greatly embarrassed as to what to d...

...Of course, the Russians were in .10 need of concessions from us, and we were turned down every time we approached them...

...In line with our general This article does not necessang a variety of opinion, we present Mr...

...To approach the Soviet leaders with such a suggestion on the eve of thendeparture for Potsdam meant nothing but letting them know that our strength had weakened to such an extent that we were desperate...

...I also advised them that if there appeared to be even a slight chance that the Soviets would declare war against Japan, we must give up all our claims and put ourselves in their hands—that is, offer unconditional surrender to the Allied nations through the Soviet government...

...But for a long time Tokyo made no response to my proposal...

...Especially after the war in the Pacific turned people have criticized my attiUu , . , i i i 1 ~ J er outspoken, became increasingly intense in military circles and among against us, these attacks, though jy were made by people who had no realization of the situation in certain groups of intellectuals...

...For the next four years I led a rather tempestuous life, spending th» first eighteen months in Kuibyshev, on the banks of the Volga, and the years following in Moscow...

...These conferences between Malik and Hirota had taken place without my knowledge at all...

...Dolicv of Diiblishine matter expr of lives...

...Molotov if I might cable my government the contents of the ultimatum, and to this he not only agreed but also permitted me to send the cable in code...

...Sato's story as a public service...

...They bad secretly discussed the possibility of a better understanding between the two countries...

...that he desired to send Prince Konoye to Moscow as a special envoy with full power to negotiate a peace, and that I could at once present the proposal to the Soviet government and, if possible, arrange for Konoye to be sent before Soviet leaders left Moscow for the PotsdanVConference...

...So, as I had had various connections with Russia, it did not seem strange to me to be going back there after an interval of seventeen years...

...Molotov had returned from Berlin, I immediately requested an interview with the latter...

...and he went ™ to some of his ideas...

...at six p. in., I saw Mr...

...Several times, therefore, I advised Tokyo accordingly, repeatedly' stating bow meaningless it was to try to continue the war...

...If 1 remember correctly, it was on June 23, 1945, that I received a long cable...

...The main points of the conferences had concerned problems relating to Manchuria and the southern section of Sakhalin, and Japan's final proposals had been handed to the Soviets, but no reply followed...

...Sato continues: "For three ye' from lhe day of my arrival in Russia tiU the day 1 was interned by „ . A „ , • ,i ¦ ¦ , without the slightest deviation a policy of trying to maintain neuthe Soviet Government, I tollov . . A . iA...

...reflect the viewpoint of The New Leader...

...Moscow, nor of the fact that it w A ace to the story which The New Leader publishes here, a story which These words form a tragic F5Sj0n to Moscow," and a story which, we believe, is the first of its kind might well be called, ''Unfulfilled >ader who played a strategic role in the fateful years of World War II...

...Legally speaking, after receiving such notification there should have been one full year before the "•treaty lapsed...

...My only regret is that, as 1 have already written, we wasted in the Malik-IIirota discussions the whole month of June, 1945, the most critical period before our surrender...

...At first I declined, saying there was no reason to drag out a man of my age when there were many young and competent persons in the field...

...Lozovsky's reply arrive...

...We Japanese are in no position to criticize the policies or attitudes of the Allied nations...

...Early in June, 1945, I decided to urge my government to make a decisive niovo and offer unconditional surrender or, if not that, to end the fatal war with something very close to it...

...That is what Naotake Sato told Premier-General Hideli'ojo on the eve of Sato's departure for his new post as wartime Ambassador to Russia...

...So I asked Foreign Commissar Molotov for an interview...

...1 asked Mr...

...JUNE WAS HALF GONE, and the war situation seemed hopeless...

...Tokyo was in a great hurry, so, very unwillingly, I called on Foreign Commissar Molotov early in July and urged him to make a reply...

...8HIGENORI TOGO, then Foreign Minister in the Tojo cabinet, asked me to go to Soviet Russia as Ambassador...

...The enemy still had various means of attack"' he exPlained...

...We were interned safely, though life was dull and monotonous...

...from Foreign Minister Togo, according to which former Prime Minister Hirota had had several conferences with Soviet Ambassador Malik in Tokyo, ;tt the special request of Togo...

...I tried very hard to hold the Soviets to their contract, but failed to have any success...

...Former U.S...

...Thus, during this critical period...

...Moreover, the secret was so well kept among lhi> Allied powers that we were not able to find out anything there...

...It was useless raising objections to Russia's motives in dedaring war against us...

...Lo/ovsky and requested him to transmit it to Berlin as best he could...

...Lozovsky, Deputy Commissi 1 for Foreign Affairs...

...to corffe from the pen of a Japancs...

...From 1943 to 1944, I was often instructed by Foreign Ministers Shigemitsu and Togo to confer with the Soviet government regarding the dispatch of a special envoy from the Japanese government to Moscow...

...It took the foua^aj#*th'e abandonment by <jU£salx0t^SLWfor of the Soviet Union of our coal and oil concessions in the northern half of Sakhalin Island...

...If only my home government had followed my suggestion, our unconditional surrender would have occurred much earlier, and as a result we could have lessened the sacrifices the people had to suffer...

...Everything was so closely guarded that any attempt of the kind was inconceivable...

...But the Japanese militarists were then frantic, almost desperate, and perhaps the Malik-Hirola conferences were a necessary stage...

...If this had been asked a few years before, public opinion in Japan would not have tolerated it, but by 1943 the Japanese had come to realize how important it was to keep the Soviets neutral and that they had to accept Ibis serious blow...

...I started my diplomatic career in 1906 in St...

...THE MILITARY SITUATION grew worse...

...I do not know anything about the counter-intelligence services of countries other than Russia, but 111 Russia, at least, Japan could not possibly have established such a network...

...she may fight, she cannoUtuaHy vanquish the enemy and Japan must remain forever on the defensive...

...Therefore in the middle of the war, when the International situation was so critical, I thought to myself that if I could remain two years I could congratulate myself on having done my duty rather successfully...

...In this brief article I have recorded in outline, honestly and simply, what happened during the four years I spent in Soviet Russia beginning in 1942, and the attitudes I adopted there...

...At once I communicated Tokyo's objective to Mr...

...on July 18...

...No matter how hard /"T...

...4 AN IMPORTANT CABLE unexpectedly arrived for me on July 13...

...Large units of the Red Army were being incessantly moved from west to east Siberia...

...Molotov in his office in the Kremlin, lie delivered to me n»i ultimatum from lite Sonet government declaring war on Japan...

...After obtaining the agreement of the Soviet government, in the latter part of March, 1942, I reached Kuibyshev— to which city the Russian government had been evacuated—as the new Ambassador to the U.S.S.R...

...THE FIRST YEAR WENT BY uneventfully, but in the second we were forced to pay for a great sacrifice...

...OUT OF A CLEAR SKY MR...

...9 4 I RECEIVED ANOTHER CABLE from Tokyo on July 25, which stated that the reason for sending Konoye in Moscow was to ask the Soviet government to use its good offices for the restoration of peace...

...During the third year, however, the progress of the war in the south was such that the Russians, under the influence of the distinctly unfavorable military situation for Japan, found it opportune to make clear that the neutrality pact between ourselves and them would not remain in force after the specified five-year-term was concluded...

...Japan wasted more than a month with the Malik Hirota conferences...

...a ; J. , _ it' was, in fact, in no position to do otherwise...

...Sure enough, he was not at all interested, and simply said he would think the problem over...

...Togo, however, strongly urged me to accept on the grounds that there was no other suitable person and that, at this critical period, I was the person best qualified...

...Unfortunately, the day I made the request the Soviet delegates were leaving for Berlin, and I hail In see Mr...

...Secretary of State Byrnes writes in his widely known book, Frunkly Speaking, that the fact that the Japanese were not able to get wind of the secret agreement at Yalta proved how poor their intelligence network was, and he certainly hit the nail on the head...

...The cable requested that I, therefore, obtain an answer from the Soviet government as quickly as possible...

...mpossible for us to take any attitude other than that which 1 adopted...

...The war was to start at midnight...

...On August ft...

...and to me it seemed a great mistake to try to settle the Manchurian problem at this critical moment, when I knew the Soviets would never move to meet our proposal...

...I had expected that my tour of duty in Russia would not exceed two y*urs at most, for each of my three prede...

...If that was the case, why hadn't they said so in the beginning'' I felt slightly put out, but from the fact they had not been able to come out so openly, I guessed they were having their troubles...

...The reason was that General Tatekawa, Ambassador to Moscow at that time, had requested permission to return home on account of illness...

...On the other Id, the United States can strangle us to death...

...After nine months of internment we were sent home, reaching Tokyo on May 31, 1946...

...Petersburg, and had lived in that capital for eight years under the Tsarist regime...

...The Premier replied," says ,°» "tna* m n*s opinion such was not necessarily the case...

...Learning on August (i that both Ceneralissinio Stalin and Mr...

...It was obvious that, because the war was gradually turning against us, Tokyo wished to improve relations with the Soviets and win something a little more substantial than the neutrality agreement...

...cessors had been either ^transferred or recalled within a year and a half...

...Later I learned that not all of my telegrams were shown to the military high command, because the government was afraid that the militarists might make some desperate move...

...I communicated Tokyo's message to him and asked for an immediate reply...

...In my own country some trality between Russia and Japai J . as being too negative...

...Despite my efforts, however, 1 was unable to obtain a reply from the Soviet government...

...To be honest, I did not know anything about the secret understanding reached at Yalta between Russia and the Allied powers respecting Russia's participation in the war against Japan...

...What happened after is not wortn recording in detail...

...Unfulfilled Mission to Moscow Japan's Wartime Ambassador to Russia Tells the Exclsive Story of a Cold Peace By NAOTAKE SATO Wartime Japanese Ambassador to the U. S. S. R. and former Japanese Foreign Minister EARLY IN FEBRUARY, 1342...

...Later I had been stationed in Harbin as Consul General for five years, and in 1925, when we resumed diplomatic relations with Russia after the revolution, I was sent to Moscow as the first Japanese representative in the capacity of charge d'affaires...

...And even that pact, as I have said, was about to be terminated...

...As I had thought from the very beginning, there was nothing m the relationship of the two countries which could be relied upon other than the neutrality pact...

...Nevertheless...

...It said that the message from the Emperor of Japan was of a general character containing no concrete proposals, while the purpose of Konoye's visit to Moscow was not quite clear to the Soviet government, and that consequently the latter could not see its way clear to giving the Japanese government any definite answer...

...Later, after I returned to Japan, I found that all these telegrams, as well as those I had sent during my internment, hud never reached Tokyo...

...What I had expected all along had come to pass...

...I felt I should not waste valuable time on such matters, and decided I had better use the remaining few hours before we entered into an actual state of war as best 1 could...