INTRODUCTION

IN October 1950 a group of individuals in Britain sent a letter to the American Parole Board in Japan calling for the early release of the former Japanese ambassador to Britain, Shigemitsu Mamoru, who had recently been sentenced to seven years imprisonment by the Tokyo War Crimes Tribunal. Among the signatories of this letter were those who might be termed the ‘usual suspects’ among British Japanophiles, such as Lord Sempill, Sir Robert Craigie and Major-General F.S.G. Piggott, in other words the various pillars of the post-war Japan Society. However, the man most responsible for organizing the letter, Lord Hankey, and another of the signatories, R.A. Butler, might seem more surprising names to conjure with, for both were prominent political figures who had been members of Churchill's wartime Cabinet. Why should they have risked their reputations in arguing the case for a man who had been found guilty of failing to do all he could to control the excesses of the Imperial Japanese Army? The answer lies in the period between 1939 and 1941 when Hankey and Butler were two of the most senior figures in the government arguing for a policy of reconciliation with Japan and were in regular contact with Shigemitsu, who they believed to be a sincere partner for peace.

R.A. BUTLER AT THE FOREIGN OFFICE

The more important of the two in shaping policy in these years was Richard Austen Butler, who in February 1938 was appointed the parliamentary under-secretary for foreign affairs. This was a consider able achievement for the still young politician, because as the foreign secretary was Lord Halifax, Butler had the responsibility for handling foreign affairs in the House of Commons. Butler stayed in this post for the next three and a half years until in July 1941 Churchill made him the secretary of state for education. In retrospect, these were controversial years in his political life for, under the premiership of Neville Chamberlain, Butler was an ardent supporter of the appeasement of Germany and later in the summer of 1940, after Churchill's accession, was involved in a damaging dalliance with defeatism. It is in the context of his interest in appeasing Britain's enemies that one has to analyse Butler's efforts to tilt the Foreign Office towards a more accommodating policy regarding Japan.