Word: matsuoka
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Home at last from his travels to the capitals of Totalitaria, busy little Foreign Minister Yosuke Matsuoka last week reported to an anxious Japan the things he had done and the friends he had made. On the whole the report went down well. First there was a Cabinet meeting, from which Premier Prince Fumimaro Konoye was absent, as usual, with a cold. The Foreign Minister was subjected to what the Japanese press called "sincere and cautious questions" by Home Minister Baron Kiichiro Hiranuma, Guardian of Imperial Rule, and by Justice Minister Lieut. General Heisuke Yanagawa. They asked about the implications...
Among the thought problems was that of Communism. General Yanagawa observed that Japanese Communists were raising their heads again and felt that this problem was made no easier by the publication of photographs of Mr. Matsuoka and Mr. Stalin arm in arm. What criticism, if any, the Ministers made of the pact was not disclosed, but the newspaper Hochi had some very pertinent things...
Down from a Trans-Siberian Railway carriage at the frontier station of Manchouli stepped Japan's Foreign Minister Yosuke Matsuoka one day last week. His hair was full of cinders and his head was full of plans. It was good to set foot once again on the soil of Manchukuo, since the previous Sunday more securely Japanese than ever. "I had not expected a neutrality pact with Russia at all," grinned Yosuke Matsuoka. "It was negotiated in ten minutes...
Even the little omens of Minister Matsuoka's trip were discouraging. In Rome, Il Duce presented him with a glossy new motor launch. Minister Matsuoka planned a sunny maiden voyage down the rolling Tiber. But that day it rained...
...only times the top-hatted, morning-coated little Foreign Minister seemed to brighten were when he talked to men of peace. In Moscow Peaceful Joe Stalin dropped in on Yosuke Matsuoka's interview with Foreign Commissar Viacheslav Molotov, and Matsuoka glowed. In Rome the Protestant Japanese and the Pope had a long, 65-minute talk. Afterward the Pope told a group of Japanese seminarists that the interview had been "a fine one." Minister Matsuoka called it "the prettiest moment of my life...