Japan's Ambassador to the U. S. since 1934 has been 51-year-old Hiroshi Saito, a jovial, waspy little man who has ingratiating ways with Washington correspondents, plays poker with White House Secretary Marvin Mclntyre and prides himself on his U. S. slang. Diplomat Saito approves the establishment of a Japanese-controlled China, but is generally believed to dislike the smashing tactics the army is using to achieve it. His unpalatable task since the China war started has been to square aggressive Japan with a U. S. sympathetic to China. Dashing about making polite apologies and good-will appearances has so worn down the Ambassador that his weight dropped to 92 lbs., and four months ago he was forced to take a prolonged rest cure at Hot Springs, Va. Back in Washington last week, Ambassador Saito, whose wife likens him to a tireless, leaping carp, was reported to have received an urgent Tokyo cable. Premier Konoye, stuck to find a Foreign Minister when General Kazushige Ugaki suddenly quit fortnight ago, requested Hiroshi Saito to take the post. General Ugaki. long on the outs with an army clique determined to add all China to Japan's control, re-signed when complete charge of the China policy was taken from his office, put in the hands of an army-sponsored China Control Board. Ambassador Saito, regarded as too liberal by the army, declined on the grounds of ill health. Piqued, Premier Konoye took him at his word, told him that if he was too ill for the Foreign Ministry he was certainly too ill to continue in Washington, ordered him home.
The Premier decided to take on the Foreign Affairs portfolio himself for the time being, quickly appointed as new Ambassador to the U. S. his Vice Minister for Foreign Affairs, 52-year-old Kensuke Horinouchi, a cultured, urbane globe trotter with 27 years of diplomatic life behind him. No stranger to the U. S., Ambassador Horinouchi served as counselor to the embassy in Washington in 1930 and as consul general in New York in 1931-34.
A large part of a Japanese Ambassador's duties consists of smoothing over trivial incidents which might impair "hands across the sea" relationships. Even before he left for the U. S., the new Ambassador was faced with one of these last week. Prissy delegates to the International Women's Friendship League in Tokyo protested to the police authorities when they learned that 30 lissome Hollywood girl Softball players, Japan-bound for an exhibition series, habitually cavorted about the fields in snug-fitting, thigh-revealing shorts. Police decreed that the girls' shorts must be lengthened to cover the knees.