An Official Letter Send From Gaimusho (Ministry Of Foreign Affairs) Japan, 9/20/1930

Everything is clear here, except that I can found out who has been the "Director of European and American Bureau" in Japan back in late 1930....a signature is very hard to be deciphered (to me, at least)... and, as usual, any help will be highly appreciated.

Apparently the Gaimusho (The Ministry of Foreign Affairs) was very involved in war crimes in China in that 1930's time period. The name might be M. Mott.

Hello Revcollector, nice to hear from you. Thank you for your reply. Mott doesn't sounds like a Japanese surname...maybe Motta or Motto... but, the first letter of the surname looks something more complicated than just an "M". Also, I didn't noted double t (TT) in Japanese names and surnames. I have tried to find a list of Gaimusho officials, but, it is not available anywhere... at least, on English language.

I don't think that the Director of European and American Bureau would have been a Japanese. I suspect that it would have been a European or an American working for them (and possibly doing a little espionage on the side). Remember, the Japanese and the US were allies during WWI; there was a lot of work/student exchanges going on in the teens and twenties, including with the military. For example, Yamamoto went to Harvard, and later worked as a Naval Attache.

I really can't imagine that in the Japanese Government on a major position of the important bureau can be someone else than a Japanese... althought they have been allies, they have not been occupied... but, everything is possible.

Btw. he got a book written on German language... and looks that he already read it... so, he must be fluent in German, too... his English looks also very literate... and his Japanese also must be excellent for that position.

Now it looks like "Alcott" to me... :)

A puzzling aspect about this cover is the blue return "The Gaimusho Tokio" Normally (at least in the few covers I have seen), the return from the Gaimusho is written in Japanese, not romaji. Also, the printing of this does not look "official", which on official stationary is engraved (again in my limited experience). Perhaps these were privately produced by the Director.
As the cover was mailed from Tokyo, the Director may have been employed at the main office of the Gaimusho. It may be that the director was a "ka-cho" along with other foreign bureaus, who would answer to a "bu-cho" (a Directorate Head), who would be under other authorities up to the "sho-cho" (minister). So there might have been several foreigners employed in the Gaimusho, but at relatively low ranks.
Just some speculations....

Thank you for your reply, Dandow. I have another Gaimusho letter + cover, same at the same time to the same person, but from the another department. I will scan it and add it to this topic in a day or two.