ARAKI RESIGNS—HAYASHI TAKES OVER Io^

by Miss Fumicko Ikeda. There are seven children, each of whom
plays a different instrument, forming a family orchestra. I have
often heard them practising when passing their big house near the
Nevilles' in Karuizawa. For a mother of seven children Mrs. Azabuki's
youth and beauty are amazing.

ARAKI RESIGNS—HAYASHI TAKES OVER

January 21, 1934

General Araki resigned as War Minister to-day, and I had to draft
a long telegram to the Department which went out on the 23rd,
trying to interpret it after talking with a great many people. One
can get interpretations all the way from A to Z and from white to
black. Of course, his present illness is the main reason ; the War
Ministry needs a representative in the coming debates in the Diet
and there is no telling how long Araki's convalescence will take.
But I think the opportunity was gladly seized by those who wanted

to get him out. As-----said to me, " Araki talked too much." He

certainly both talked and wrote too much and he was a symbol
before the world of military aggressiveness. I hear on fairly good
authority that Wakatsuki of the Minseito and Suzuki of the Seiyukai
had threatened to make a scandal and seriously to embarrass the
Army by interpellations in the Diet, and agreed to refrain only if
Araki resigned.

In the Army itself, Araki is not over-popular with the younger
officers. Strangely enough, they consider him too moderate and not
sufficiently forceful to suit their views; he is a kind-hearted man and
has hesitated to retire the old generals to make way for younger
men, and they believe he has compromised too much in the cabinet.
As a matter of fact, Araki stands about halfway between the liberal
Ugaki and the young hot-headed chauvinists. General Hayashi, his
successor, is a leader of troops rather than a staff officer. He has
the reputation of being a silent man, but cold and hard, self-willed
and impetuous, and capable of taking rapid decisions, as when he
moved the troops from Korea to Manchuria on his own responsibility
in 1931, in spite of Shidehara's opposition. It is said that he considers
that the Army should keep out of politics, mind its own business
and not make speeches, particularly inflammatory ones. The
majority of observers therefore feel that his appointment presages an
improvement in Japan's foreign relations. There are others, how-
ever, who see in his appointment a definite step in preparation for
possible war, because he is a leader of troops, is not conciliatory
and is less likely to compromise than Araki. I discussed these various
factors with opinions in my telegram to the Department and said
that I at present believed Hayashi's appointment would have a
favourable effect on the political situation and on Japan's foreign
relations rather than the reverse, but that the coming debates in the
Diet might give enlightenment.