Cocktails in Tokyo

During his recent visit to Tokyo, Secretary of the Army Kenneth Royall asked some of the newspaper boys to drop by at the U.S. embassy for a drink. Twelve U.S. newsmen came. Burly, bumbling Royall talked, on & off, for an hour. He left the reporters free to use his remarks if they did not attribute them to him. What he had said during that cocktail hour set off a cyclone of alarm and confusion.

A few days later, a Tokyo paper quoted a "high American authority" as saying that the U.S. might not attempt to hold Japan in case of war with Russia. Almost everyone knew that the "high authority" was the Secretary of the Army; no high authority in Douglas MacArthur's command could possibly have said such a thing. Asia was swept by rumors that the U.S. was about to quit Japan. All the way Down Under, an Australian newspaper cried in a mournful headline: "ALONE IN THE PACIFIC!"

"What Has the Guy Got?" In Washington last week, red-faced Kenneth Royall denied that he had said anything about quitting Japan. His cocktail guests in Tokyo insisted that he had. U.P.'s Robert Kalischer quoted him flatly as saying:

"I have grave doubts Japan has any value in a war with Russia. I think it might be better to pull out before the war started ... I am not so certain we could hold Japan, nor am I certain it would be worthwhile as long as we have Okinawa and the Philippines . . ."

Other reporters in Tokyo paraphrased Royall's remarks. The gist:

It is far more important for the U.S. to keep a foothold in Western Europe than in Japan. Japan is not a very good place from which to do strategic bombing of possible Russian targets. The U.S. does not owe the Japanese anything. The U.S. had the right, and duty, to disarm them after the war, even though someone else might later cut their throats.

The implication was strong in Royall's talk that Asia was not very important. As one member of his staff put it: "What has the guy got who wins Asia?"

"Reaching for Our Hats." Royall's aide, Major James King, gave his own version of what his boss had said: "We can't leave Japan, but it might not be a bad idea if some of the Japs thought we were reaching for our hats."

Royall's views on the military value of Japan were debatable. But there was no doubt that his careless talk--followed by his official announcement last week that the U.S. would not now increase its forces in Japan--had persuaded many people throughout the Far East that the U.S. could not be relied on to help them make a stand against Russian expansion.

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