Adopted Kato Dies

Over the cables from Tokyo flashed a single sentence: "After being ill with influenza for four days, Viscount Takaaki Kato, Premier of Japan, is dead."

At the news of Viscount Kato's death, two completely dissimilar personalities flickered in the memory of diplomats familiar with Japan. First they recalled the silent, square-jawed Viscount himself -- direct, almost pugnacious, with the habit of rolling the sleeves of his kimono well above the elbow whenever work was to be done in the privacy of his home. The second personality that the diplomats recalled was the frail, timid-seeming man, who next to Admiral Togo was perhaps the greatest of Japanese naval strategists. He was Admiral Baron Tomasaburo Kato, Premier from 1922 until 1923, an actual son of the house of Kato, whereas Premier Viscount Takaaki Kato was an orphan adopted into the Kato family.

When Admiral Kato died some two years ago (TIME, Sept. 3, 1923), the Nichi-Nichi, a newspaper owned by Viscount Takaaki Kato, remarked with asperity that as Premier "he was a disappointment."* Soon the Nichi-Nichi welcomed its owner as Premier (TIME, June 23, 1924). Since then he has held together his coalition government with an iron hand.

Late despatches announced that Prince Regent Hirohito had appointed Minister of Home Affairs Reijiro Wakatsuki to be Premier pro tempore. As everyone knows, he is the leader of the late Premier's party, the Kensei-Kai, which holds 151 of the 464 seats in the Japanese Diet, 35 seats more than the second largest party, the Seiyuhonto.

Orphan Kato's career. After graduating from the Imperial Tokyo University, he became the personal secretary of the then Foreign Minister, Count Okuma, and gradually rose through numerous posts in the Finance and Foreign Ministries until he was appointed Minister and then Ambassador to Great Britain. It was he who signed with Sir Edward Grey the Anglo-Japanese compact which brought Japan into the War on the side of the Allies. During his career he served as Foreign Minister in three cabinets, and was often referred to as "the least sympathetic of Japanese statesmen toward the U. S. exclusion policy respecting Japanese immigrants."

He was at all times persona grata with royalty. Edward VII created him a knight of the Grand Cross of St. Michael and St. George. The Mikado elevated him to the rank of Baron and then Viscount.

*His somewhat insignificant appearance forced him to assume a stern expression in public. When asked to smile by photographers, he invariably snapped: "I cannot smile, because there is nothing to smile at." A frugal man, he said: "Western people eat too much. One of their meals would last me a week."