Attempt to Open Japanese Vise-Consulate in Lviv, 1938–1939

The article is devoted to the little-studied question of the opening of the Japanese vice-consulate in Lviv, which is highlighted thanks to the involvement, first of all, of documents from the Diplomatic Archive of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan. The process of bilateral discussion of the organization of this institution began in 1938. Japan was motivated to open the institution to provide a systematic study of the situation in the USSR. In March 1938, Poland and Japan reached the agreement about the vice-consulate in Lviv even as the countries had a significant difference in views. Japanese government desired to employ a current official of the embassy in Warsaw as the head of vice-consulate. It would be a precedent in the international law. Then Poland agreed to the creation of a regular vice-consulate. On the eve of 1939, it was determined that Goto Yasutsugu would become the vice-consul in Lviv. He was working as a translator at the embassy in Warsaw. The order appointing Goto Yasutsugu as the Japanese vice-consul in Lviv on behalf of the Japanese emperor was signed in August 1939. Then Poland did not have time to finally approve his appointment because the questions about the consular district were not finally solved. Thus, as shown in this article, the process of organizing the Japanese vice-consulate in Lviv was not complete. Nevertheless, without having an official status in April 1939, Goto Yasutsugu wrote a report about the situation in the Western Ukraine, where he was titled as the vice-consul in Lviv. At that time it was also determined that the institution would have the building at the address of the Lozinskiego Street, 5.