CAPTAIN MALCOLM KENNEDY & JAPAN, 1917-1945 INTRODUCTION 2 FAMILY BACKGROUND AND EARLY YEARS, 1895-1917 4 ANGLO-JAPANESE RELATIONS, 1902-1917 16 TAISHO JAPAN, 1912-1925 21 ECONOMICS & SOCIETY 21 POLITICS 23 FOREIGN RELATIONS: JAPAN AND RUSSIA 24 INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS: JAPAN AND THE U.S.A. 26 INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS: JAPAN AND CHINA 27 LANGUAGE OFFICER IN JAPAN, 1917-1920 29 ANGLO-JAPANESE RELATIONS, 1919-1921 66 THE WAR OFFICE & THE END OF THE ANGLO-JAPANESE ALLIANCE (1921-1922) 69 RISING SUN PETROLEUM COMPANY, 1922-1924 81 CHINA AND JAPAN, 1921-1931 92 REUTERS' CORRESPONDENT IN JAPAN (1925-1934) 97 THE SOVIET UNION AND JAPAN, 1925-1939 121 JAPAN: BRITISH POLICY AND PERCEPTIONS, 1931-34 127 THE CONROY CASE AND THE BREAK WITH REUTERS, 1933-34 133 CAPTAIN KENNEDY & BRITISH WRITING ON JAPAN, 1924-1939 144 BOOKS 144 LEADING ARTICLES IN THE TIMES 153 KENNEDY & THE SINO-JAPANESE PROPAGANDA WAR, 1934-39. 157 KENNEDY & THE GOVERNMENT CODE AND CIPHER SCHOOL, 1935-44 179 INTRODUCTION Although a large volume of literature exists in the broad field of Anglo-Japanese diplomatic relations in the first half of the twentieth century, there are virtually no substantial biographical works on British citizens deeply involved with Japan during this period. Indeed, the only biographical study of such a figure is a short and uncritical work on the British scholar and diplomat, Sir George Sansom, written and edited by his wife. The major works on Anglo-Japanese relations in general have been written by Ian Nish and Peter Lowe. The former has largely concentrated on the period of the Anglo-Japanese Alliance, in his monographs The Anglo-Japanese Alliance: The Diplomacy of Two Island Empires, 1894-1907 and Alliance in Decline: A Study in Anglo-Japanese Relations, 1908-23. Dr. Lowe has focused on Anglo-Japanese relations from the narrower standpoint of British foreign policy. In Great Britain and Japan, 1911-15: A Study of British Far Eastern Policy he covers a section of the Alliance period and in Great Britain and the Origins of the Pacific War: A Study of British Policy in East Asia, 1937-1941 he deals with the years immediately preceding the outbreak of the Pacific War. Dr. Lowe has also written a general history of Britain's role in the Far East, Britain in the Far East: A Survey from 1819 to the Present; and Professor Nish has written a history of Japanese foreign policy Japanese Foreign Policy, 1869-1942: Kasumigaseki to Miyakezaka. Anglo-Japanese relations between the two world wars are surveyed in Anglo-Japanese Alienation, 1919-52: Papers of the Anglo-Japanese Conference on the History of the Second World War edited by Professor Nish, while the impact of the Admiralty on British Far Eastern Policy in the 1930s is analysed in Paul Haggie's Britannia at Bay: the Defence of the British Empire against Japan, 1931-1941. As its title suggests, Ann Trotter's Britain and East Asia, 1933-1937 is a broad treatment of British policy towards the Far East. All these books, however, are based for the most part on British and Japanese government archives: there is a serious shortage of studies which extend beyond the field of diplomacy. The pattern of Anglo-Japanese relations was not only shaped by diplomats but also by businessmen, journalists, propagandists, foreign government advisers, and intelligence agents. Few such people left records of their activities. Captain Malcolm Kennedy is a very rare exception to this rule - he kept detailed diaries throughout the period 1917 to 1945. Moreover, during his varied career, in which he worked, in turn, as a military language officer in Japan, in Military Intelligence in Britain, as a political adviser to an oil company in Japan, as a journalist in Japan and Britain, and then again in intelligence, he was involved, directly or indirectly, with all these fields of activity. Captain Kennedy was extremely well-informed both on Japanese political and military affairs and also on the broad area of Anglo-Japanese relations. He was one of the few British people who had a working knowledge of both spoken and written Japanese in the interwar years and was regarded as a major authority on Japan at a time when British academic studies of Japan were not yet fully established. Captain Kennedy was perhaps the most prolific British writer on Japan in those years and contributed to British opinion on Japan by his many books and articles. His first works concentrated on the Japanese Army in The Military Side of Japanese Life (1924) and Some Aspects of Japan and her Defence Forces(1928). In The Changing Fabric of Japan (1930) he moved on to deal with new themes of social, economic and political change in Japan. The Problem of Japan (1935) provided a pro-Japanese interpretation of the social, economic, and international background to the Japanese seizure of Manchuria. Sections of A Short History of Communism in Asia (1957) outline the history of the Japan Communist Party. In A History of Japan (1963) he provides an overview of Japanese history from earliest times to the early 1960s. Although The Estrangement of Great Britain and Japan, 1917-35 is partly autobiographical, this book (like his earlier works) requires critical evaluation against the background of its main source, the Kennedy diaries. In addition it is important to re-evaluate Kennedy's work in the light of official documents and later monographs. No previous biography has been written on Captain Kennedy. Although his numerous books and articles cover aspects of his years in Japan (most comprehensively in The Estrangement of Great Britain and Japan, 1917-35) no-one has previously thoroughly studied his extensive collection of diaries and papers which were donated to the Centre for Japanese Studies at Sheffield University in 1984. The diaries were the basis of all his writings since it was in these that he recorded information for future use in his books and articles. Although the books reveal some of Kennedy's views at the time, the diaries provide a wealth of additional detail not only regarding the attitudes of Kennedy and other foreigners in Japan, but also concerning the views of Kennedy's Japanese friends. The diaries are also a valuable source of information on Anglo-Japanese relations because of Kennedy's close connections with the British Embassy in Tokyo. In addition the diaries provide significant insights into Kennedy's work as Reuters correspondent in Tokyo from 1925 to 1934 and the reporting in Britain of news from the Far East. Last, but not least, Kennedy's continuing connection with British intelligence-gathering on the Far East from 1917 to after the Second World War forms a link connecting his various roles in Japan and runs like a leitmotif through the diaries. The diaries and papers, combined with contemporary British official documents, newspaper articles and contemporary and subsequent academic writing form the basis of this dissertation. FAMILY BACKGROUND AND EARLY YEARS, 1895-1917 Malcolm Duncan Kennedy was born in Edinburgh on 5th January 1895. His father, James Young Kennedy, who was an oil merchant, was President of the Municipal Commissioners of George Town (Penang) at the time, and, being a keen volunteer, was also Commandant of the Penang Volunteers. His mother, a McLeod by birth, came from a military family and, as a two-year old, had been with her parents in India during the Mutiny, when her father (later a lieutenant-general) had been a captain in the 74th Highlanders. Both her grandfather and great-grandfather had fought under Wellington in the Peninsula War1. Malcolm was the youngest of four brothers and three sisters (one sister died in childhood). His mother brought him to Penang not long after he was born. In the 1890s large numbers of Chinese immigrants were arriving in Penang, chiefly to work in the Malayan tin mining industry. This gave rise to fears among the small British community about the possible deterioration of law and order2. Matters came to a head in October 1897 when Whitehall decided that the British garrison in Penang should be replaced by Sikh police. J.Y. Kennedy was one of the leaders of the (unavailing) local opposition to the change. His appreciation of the insecure position of the European community, which was heavily outnumbered by the Chinese, and his belief in "firm" colonial rule were to be absorbed by his son Malcolm. At this time the elder Kennedy stated: "..... the way to prevent riots and disturbances is to be prepared for them, to be in a position to crush them at once should they break out. The proposal of the Government, if carried out, would, in my opinion, render our position here most insecure. Such a course would seem to me to be putting a premium on crime, and, with a population such as we have here, to invite disturbance and riot".3 1 Note on Diarist's Background Kennedy Collection, Sheffield University, 10.3/6. n.d. 2 According to the 1891 Census the total population of Penang was 235,618: Europeans and Americans only numbered 1,201. Straits Settlements Blue Book, 1897 page 63. Information kindly provided by the Library of the Institute for Commonwealth Studies, University of London. 3 Pinang Gazette and Straits Chronicle 12 October 1897. The comments of J.Y. Kennedy at a "large and influential" public meeting in Penang Town Hall on the afternoon of 11 October 1897 held in protest against the replacement of the British Army detachment by Sikh police. It was attended by "all the more or less leading non-official residents....., both European and Asiatic". In all there were at least 300 people present, including the heads and assistants of all the firms and banks as well as owners of shops, godowns and stores.