Sato of Japan: At the Pre-Kissinger Stage

OF the U.S.'s major allies, none has been more profoundly shaken by Washington's new policy toward China than Japan. Last week, in an interview with TIME, Japanese Premier Eisaku Sato, who may be forced to step down early this summer, said that his government is responding to the Chinese-American rapprochement by attempting to achieve a new relationship of its own with China. "What really concerns me is that we have no means of making contact with Peking," he told Correspondents Jerrold Schecter, Herman Nickel and S. Chang. Sato eagerly questioned Schecter, who had just visited China, about his impressions, then spoke of the foreign policy dilemma facing his country.

ON CHINA: "Japan has had what we call a United Nations-centered foreign policy. Now that China is a member nation, we feel it is a matter of course to enter into negotiations with Peking. We're looking for the best way to do it, but we're still in the pre-Kissinger stage." Sato hinted that once again the Nixon Administration had failed to advise him of a diplomatic initiative--this time it was the plan to hold Chinese-American ambassadorial talks in Paris--and expressed his own preference for Hong Kong as a meeting place. Did he think that the subject of Japanese war reparations might be raised by the Chinese during such talks? "We know it might arise," he said. "On the other hand, there is a school of thought that says this subject should not be raised at all. Generalissimo Chiang Kaishek, you will recall, did not insist on reparations when we negotiated our peace treaty, and that treaty is still in effect."

ON TAIWAN: "We know that Chiang Kai-shek and Mao Tse-tung both say there is only one China. We are not in the position to contest that; we must follow what they say." Reminded that he once expressed his debt to Chiang for approaching postwar Japan "with a spirit of regret and not of revenge," Sato replied, "My esteem for Chiang still has some influence on my personal feelings. But one must distinguish between personal feelings and official views. Whatever my personal feelings to ward Chiang, it does not mean I support independence for Taiwan. But I don't think this is what Chiang has in mind either."

ON THE U.S.: "We attach the utmost importance to our relationship with the U.S. Certainly there were some shocks last year. Concerning the President's visit to Peking, we had a talk about that at San Clemente, so I was not surprised by the outcome. We also dwelt on economic problems, some of which still remain, even though President Nixon ordered a wage-price freeze and made an agreement on a currency realignment. I hope very much that the U.S.'s economic well-being will be restored soon, because we are so dependent on the U.S. for our own well-being."

ON THE SOVIET UNION: Yes he would like to visit Moscow, said Sato, "if I am still fit in body and mind, and if I am still in office." But he expressed doubts about the prospects for the Asian collective-security system that Soviet Party Chief Leonid Brezhnev has proposed: "I am afraid it would not be very effective as long as there is such a state of enmity and tension between the U.S.S.R. and China." He stressed that it would be a "great blunder" for Japan to use Sino-Soviet enmity as a "trick to improve our relations with China."

ON A REBIRTH OF MILITARISM: "We don't even have conscription. There are still people in Japan who say we shouldn't have any self-defense forces at all. It is odd that a country like this should be accused of militarism by countries that are nuclear powers. The American nuclear umbrella is a guarantee that Japan will not become a nuclear power."

ON HIS YEARS AS PREMIER: "What worries me is that some people seem to think of my eight years as Premier as eight years of dictatorship. But I think we have done well in following a policy of peace. All this, however--our economic growth, the return of Okinawa and the Bonin Islands--we owe to our good relations with the U.S. With the Soviets, we have to have arguments even over such things as salmon fishing. My greatest regret is that our opposition has never understood this."

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