Thursday, 20 July

Fine, sun

In the morning I went out with Shaozhou and Chengyong to the second-hand book shops to buy second-hand books. This is my only entertainment here.

Japan seems to have experienced a big political upheaval recently. A week ago the Secretary of the Japanese Navy was replaced. The day before yesterday Japan announced that the Commander-in-chief of the Kwantung Army would be transferred to take up the post as Chief-of-Staff. But today Tōjō Hideki suddenly resigned. According to Tōjō’s speech on 18 July, the fall of Saipan Island worried the Emperor and he was quite upset about it. Probably the reorganisation of the Cabinet was because of this. But it is also possible that because of Germany’s collapse it needed to change its policy. All in all, Japan now clearly knows its prospect is bleak. It is really true that Tōjō Hideki and others are unable to handle the situation.

Yesterday Secretary Litvinov of the Soviet Foreign Office told Shaozhou that Governor Sheng Shicai was instructed to go to Chongqing to report. It seems that the Generalissimo has paid great attention to the Xinjiang incident.

According to the Japanese newspaper, Zhu Jiahua has resigned as the Minister of the Organisation Department. Chen Guofu would take up his place.

The German surrendered Lieutenant-General Gofmaister wrote to the Red Army Command, pointing out Hitler’s tactical errors, and he also said that those brilliant senior military officers inside the German army all disagreed with Hitler’s tactics. Field Marshals Leeb, List, Rundstedt, Bock and others were sacked because they criticised Hitler’s war strategy. When he recently saw Hitler, he found that Hitler looked unwell and talked trash. He and other veteran experienced military leaders thought that the only way for Germany to go was to oust Hitler and try to have peace talks with the Allies.