Saturday, July 30 1921 (Taisho 10) OBATA Yukichi, the minister to China who had been in Tokyo since the Eastern Conference (Colonial Conference) in May, left for home. On the previous day, the group had a meeting with Miyoji ITO, Shinpei GOTO, Tomosaburo KATO (Minister of the Navy), Kosai UCHIDA (Foreign Minister), and the director-general of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, who were members of the ad hoc Foreign Relations Research Council.
The Eastern Conference (Colonial Conference) was held on May 16 to 17, 1921, by Prime Minister Hara Takashi. The cabinet ministers, Makoto SAITO, the governor-general of Korea, Isaburo YAMAGATA, the director-general of the Kwantung Agency, and Yukichi OBATA, the minister-counselor in China, attended the meeting. The two sides discussed the withdrawal of troops from Shandong, the issue of withdrawal from Siberia, and limited assistance of Sakurin CHO (decided by the Cabinet on May 17).
The Provisional Foreign Policy Research Council was established in 1917 (Taisho 6) by the cabinet of Masatake Terauchi in response to the First World War under the pretext of unifying national opinion and putting foreign policy near political strife. It was established by Miyoji Ito, a privy councilor, and Shinpei Goto, the Minister of Home Affairs at that time. Party leaders such as Takashi Hara and Tsuyoshi INUKAI were invited, and it also had an effect of opposing the political power of Genro (elder statesman) Aritomo YAMAGATA. On the other hand, the Terauchi cabinet collapsed and replaced the Takashi Hara cabinet, which was a full-fledged party cabinet, and its position relatively declined. While it was only natural for him to be summoned to the Eastern Conference that year, it is clear that he was also informally communicating with the Foreign Minister, the Chinese minister in an important post, and even young people in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. But it was abolished by the cabinet of Tomosaburo Kato about a year later on September 18, 1922.
Leave a Reply