Back Door to War: The Roosevelt Foreign Policy 1933-1941

XXVI Japan Is Maneuvered into Firing the First Shot at Pearl Harbor

WHEN THE PRESIDENT perceived that Hitler would not furnish the pretext for a war with Germany, he turned to the Far East and increased his pressure upon Japan. The path to Pearl Harbor had already been pointed out by Mr. Hornbeck in February 1939. After discussing how the American Government had tried to restrain the Japanese advance in North China by “moral and economic opposition,” he stated his belief that in the long run the situation would so “develop that military opposition by this country will have to be offered.”1

But Herbert Feis, the adviser on International Economic Affairs, still favored economic pressure, so on July 26, 1939, Secretary Hull sent a note to Ambassador Horinouchi informing him that the Treaty of February 21, 1911, would terminate on January 26, 1940. The way was thus prepared for an all out economic offensive against Japan. But before this could be launched, several incidents arose which further disturbed the course of Japanese-American relations.

a. Japanese Bombings of Chungking

On July 10 the American chargé d’affaires in Tokyo called on the Minister of Foreign Affairs and made “the strongest possible representation with regard to the recent bombings at Chungking.” Mr. Arita said that he was “distressed” to learn that Ambassador Johnson and his staff “had been put in jeopardy,” but it was “impossible for him to promise that the bombing of Chungking would cease.” Attack from the air was an important phase of the military operations in that area.2 On this same day the President informed Secretary Hull that he desired to receive “without delay a statement from the Japanese Government in regard to the matter.”3 On July 20 the Japanese Ambassador had a conference with Secretary Hull. When the Ambassador explained that military necessities dictated the bombings, Hull sharply rebuffed him by remarking that if the bombings continued “something very serious was liable to happen.” When the Ambassador murmured that he hoped the American Government would urge its nationals to “keep away from places of danger,” Hull acidly replied that the United States did not “concede the right of any other outside country to a monopoly of highways or streets or other localities in China.”4

b. The Tientsin Affair

It was soon apparent that the Department of State was adopting a far more aggressive attitude towards Japan than was the British Foreign Office. This fact was given a convincing demonstration in the Tientsin affair. During the World War the Chinese liquidated the Austrian and German concessions in this city, and in 1920 the Russian concession was taken over. British investment in its concession in Tientsin was estimated at $46,000,000; French investment in the French concession was considerably less. In the British concession banks held silver to the value of $50,000,000 in the name of the Chinese Nationalist Government. When they refused to turn this over to Japanese authorities, reprisals were ordered against the British and French concessions. Barricades and wire entanglements were erected around them and they were subjected to a rigorous blockade. As a result of this pressure Sir Robert Craigie, the British Ambassador in Tokyo, consented to sign a far-reaching agreement (the Craigie-Arita Agreement) on July 21. Under the terms of this formula the British Government fully recognized that as long as large-scale military operations were in progress in China, the Japanese forces there would insist upon “special requirements for the purpose of safeguarding their own security and maintaining public order in the regions under their control, and that they have to suppress or remove any such acts or causes as will obstruct them or benefit their enemy.”5

The Department of State had no intention of following the British policy of appeasement. Although the Japanese had been unusually conciliatory towards the Americans and had given assurances that their goods would be permitted to move through the embargoes around the British and French concessions, the Department of State was disposed to challenge the Japanese program in Tientsin. Its attitude was reflected in a memorandum prepared in the Division of Far Eastern Affairs:

If Great Britain should give way at Tientsin and substantially meet Japanese demands there, that surrender would signal to Japan Great Britain’s vulnerability to further demands and would be the beginning of abandonment by the Powers of the National Government of China. If Great Britain and France were driven, through pressure . . . to close the French Indochina and Burman routes, the United States would be unable, in defense of its own interests, to afford China any further material assistance in the latter’s resistance to Japanese aggression. . . . If the United States does not make an effort at this point, the assistance of Great Britain and France may well be lost to any later efforts that developments may require the United States to make.6

The outbreak of World War II eliminated any possibility that either Britain or France could give any real assistance to the United States in the Far East. It also occasioned a careful survey by the Japanese of the impact of the war upon its program. The Nazi-Soviet Pact had deeply disturbed Japanese statesmen who had welcomed ties with Germany as one means of blunting any Soviet thrust in the Far East. The international situation had to be restudied and a policy of caution was an imperative. From the American Embassy in Tokyo came a report that “the immediate effects of a European war should bring about a sharp increase in the demand for American goods, particularly cotton, wood pulp, machinery and other industrial equipment, nonferrous metals, iron and steel and chemicals.” Without these imports from America, “Japan’s industrial expansion program would completely break down.”7 America would have to be conciliated.

c. Chiang Kai-shek Asks that Roosevelt Mediate in Sino-Japanese War

While European statesmen were having a case of war jitters, Chiang Kai-shek suddenly asked for Roosevelt mediation in the Sino-Japanese War. On September 1 the Chinese Ambassador in Paris called on Bullitt and gave him the substance of some long telegrams he had received from Chiang Kai-shek. The Generalissimo hoped that President Roosevelt could “take action immediately to put an end to the war between China and Japan.” He did not want the public to know “that this initiative had come from him.” It should appear as “a purely American initiative.” With regard to the Soviet Union the Generalissimo wanted the President to realize that he (the Generalissimo) retained “absolute freedom of action.” He had “no pacts with the Soviet Union binding him in any way.” There was need to take action before Japan established “a so-called Chinese Government under Wang Ching-wei.” It would be best to have Britain and France associated in this move towards mediation.8

The President was aware of the difficulties of proposing mediation at that time, and any inclination he might have had was checked by the news from China. After the outbreak of war in Europe, Britain was anxious to remove her troops from the Far East. To accelerate this movement, Japan addressed a note to Britain and France pointing to the importance of this action. This step was resented by Secretary Hull who frankly informed the Japanese Ambassador he regarded the move as an indication that Japan was anxious to push the Western powers out of China.9 The British Foreign Office welcomed these stern words to Japan but doubt was expressed that any real support would be given to British interests in the Tientsin concession where it was greatly needed. It would probably be expedient to remove British troops and thus avoid a clash with Japanese forces.10 In France the Foreign Office had been fearful that “the Soviet Union might send bombing planes to assist the German army in attacking France.” They desired, therefore, “to placate Japan” even though this might injure China.11 This appeasement policy on the part of France would soon be put into effect.

d. The President’s Attitude towards Japan Becomes Increasingly Belligerent

While Britain and France were making plans to appease Japan, President Roosevelt was giving extended consideration to a program of pressure upon that country. He knew from the dispatches from Tokyo that Japan would be increasingly dependent upon imports of certain basic commodities from the United States. The time had arrived when he could use to advantage this economic club. In his talks with the President in September (1939), Ambassador Grew had stressed the fact that sanctions against Japan might lead to war. If an embargo were placed upon American oil exports to Japan the result could well be a Japanese thrust in the direction of the Netherlands East Indies in order to control the rich petroleum resources of Borneo. The President’s answer to these fears indicated that he was thinking in terms of war with Japan: “We could easily intercept her fleet.”12

But Grew wished to prevent rather than provoke war with Japan. While the President was uttering this belligerent bombast, Grew was confiding to his diary that Secretary Hull should “offer the Japanese a modus vivendi” and then commence negotiations for a new commercial treaty. In Japan the Shidehara policy of conciliation “has existed. It can exist again.”13 To Grew the Japanese program with its insistence upon “strategic protection against a future attack by Soviet Russia” did not appear too unreasonable. If America wished to change this program it should not try to do so through the employment of sanctions: “There must be no tone of threat in our attitude.”14

It is evident that Grew did not appreciate the fact that the President’s dislike of Japan had gone very deep and spread very far. He was inclined to discount all Japanese gestures for an understanding. In Japan, Grew had some friendly talks with the Foreign Minister who gave repeated assurances that “the Japanese forces in China have not the slightest intention to drive out American interests and that they have the strictest orders to the contrary.” Measures were being taken “to facilitate American commerce.” Indeed, certain “positive measures were being taken in line with the valuable suggestions” which Grew had recently made.15

These Japanese gestures of conciliation were answered by a White House press release which called for a moral embargo upon the shipment to Japan of “airplanes, aeronautical equipment and materials essential to airplane manufacture.”16 Japan was being penalized for her bombing operations in China. To make these penalties more effective a press release was issued by the Department of State on December 20 containing the significant statement that “national interest suggests that for the time being there should be no further delivery to certain countries of plans, plants, manufacturing rights, or technical information required for the production of high quality aviation gasoline.”17

These measures were merely the prelude to a subsequent program of economic pressure upon Japan. Senator Pittman had introduced a resolution which authorized the President to forbid the export of specified war matériel whenever he found that any signatory of the Nine-Power Treaty was endangering the lives of American citizens or depriving them of their lawful rights. But the Department of State was not ready to push this legislation. A new ministry was about to take office in Japan and it would be given an opportunity to show its hand. On January 17 the newly appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs (Arita) issued a statement which spoke of the efforts he would make to “normalize” relations with the United States. He was referring particularly to the fact that treaty relations with the United States would expire on January 26. After that date there would be no legal barrier to legislation or to Presidential proclamations imposing severe restrictions upon exports to Japan.

e. Japan Establishes a New Central Government in China

Japan’s program for expansion in China made it impossible to “normalize” relations with the United States. On March 15, 1940, the Japanese Prime Minister issued a statement which called for the creation of “a new international relationship between Japan, Manchukuo and China.” This would necessitate the establishment of “a new Central Government of China” to be headed by Wang Ching-wei.18 On March 30, at Nanking, this puppet government was formally proclaimed. It was immediately noted, however, that the three important northern provinces of Hopeh, Shansi, and Shantung, including such key cities as Peiping, Tientsin, and Tsingtao, were not placed under the control of the Wang regime.

Secretary Hull’s answer to this Japanese action was immediate and forceful: “The Government of the United States has ample reason for believing that the Government [of Chiang Kai-shek] with capital now at Chungking, has had and still has the allegiance and support of the great majority of the Chinese people. The Government of the United States of course continues to recognize that Government as the Government of China.”19

The language of the Department of State was significantly different from that employed by Sir Robert Craigie, the British Ambassador in Tokyo. On March 28, Craigie delivered an address to the Japanese-British Society in which the note of conciliation was strongly accented. He believed that Britain and Japan were “striving for the same objective, namely, a lasting peace and the preservation of our institutions from extraneous, subversive influences.”20 This friendly gesture towards Japan was favorably regarded by the London Times which spoke of the proposed establishment of the Wang regime as “an offer of peace to the Chinese people.”21

f. Japan Compels Both Britain and France to Adopt a Policy of Appeasement

The British Foreign Office quickly changed its tune when the Japanese Foreign Minister (Arita) announced on April 15 that the economic ties that bound Japan to the Netherlands East Indies were particularly important. For that reason the government of Japan could not but be “deeply concerned over any development accompanying the aggravation of the war in Europe that may affect the status quo of the Netherlands Indies.”22 The Netherlands Minister in Washington (Dr. Loudon) immediately issued a statement that his government would resist any “preventive protection” of its colonial possessions.23 Secretary Hull was equally quick to announce the attitude of the Department of State: “Intervention in the domestic affairs of the Netherlands Indies or any alteration of their status quo by other than peaceful processes would be prejudicial to the cause of stability, peace and security not only in the region of the Netherlands Indies but in the entire Pacific area.” He then alluded to the provisions of the Root-Takahira Agreement of 1908 and the Four-Power Treaty of 1921 with reference to “the maintenance of the existing status quo in the region of the Pacific Ocean.”24 President Roosevelt was about to leave for a vacation at Warm Springs, Georgia, when the Hull statement was given to the press. He remarked that the Secretary of State had spoken “right to the point,” and then significantly added: “I’ll be right back if another country is invaded.”25

Japan did not take this threat very seriously and immediately inaugurated a policy of pressure upon France. On June 17 the Japanese Government presented to the Pétain regime a series of demands which were aimed at stopping all shipments of supplies to Chungking through Indochina. Three days later these demands were complied with and the government of Chiang Kai-shek received a severe setback.

On June 19 another Japanese victory was recorded. For a year pressure had been applied to British and French banks in Tientsin to compel them to turn over to Japanese authorities a large amount of silver that belonged to the Nationalist Government of China. These banks finally yielded to Japanese demands and also agreed to permit Japanese-sponsored paper currency to circulate in the British and French concessions.

The British Foreign Office resented this Japanese pressure and on June 10 made inquiries through Lord Lothian as to the possibility of Anglo-American fleet movements in the Atlantic and Pacific. When Hull gave a negative answer, Lothian, accompanied by the Australian Minister, pointedly asked Hull on June 27 “whether Japan should be opposed or appeased.” A stringent economic embargo could be imposed upon Japan and warships could be sent to Singapore as a demonstration of naval unity. These measures might compel the Japanese Government to adopt a less aggressive policy. If appeasement appealed to the Department of State, Britain was ready to make further concessions. On June 28, Hull vetoed the idea of an embargo and refused to consider the dispatch of any American warships to Singapore. He was equally opposed to a policy of appeasement. It would be best to let things drift along and let Japan take the initiative.26

Japan was not backward in this regard. After securing from France an agreement to stop the shipments of war matériel to Chiang Kai-shek through Indochina, the Japanese Government persuaded Britain (July 17) to close the Burma Road for a period of three months. Munitions of war, gasoline, motor trucks, and railway materials could no longer reach China by this route.27 Secretary Hull, although he had refused to make any promise of support to Britain, announced that the United States had a “legitimate interest in keeping open the arteries of commerce in every part of the world.” The closing of the routes to China through Burma and Indochina had been “unwarranted interpositions of obstacles to world trade.”28

g. The President Orders a Cautious Economic Offensive against Japan

While Secretary Hull was following a policy of watchful waiting, the President favored more forceful measures. Under the recently enacted National Defense Act authority was granted for a rigid control over exports from the United States. Secretary Morgenthau was eager to have the Treasury Department take over this job of export control, while Secretary Hull was exceedingly anxious that the task be given to another department. He was fearful that Morgenthau’s crusading fervor against the dictatorships might lead to a clash in the Pacific. The President finally decided to appoint a single administrator of export control who would be directly under White House supervision. Actually, the control of policy and the issuance of licenses remained in State Department hands.

The basic differences of opinion between the State and Treasury departments were highlighted by what occurred the last week in July 1940. On the evening of July 18, Secretaries Stimson, Knox, and Morgenthau dined with Lord Lothian and the Australian Minister. After the conversation had centered upon the impact of an oil embargo upon Japan, Lothian suddenly suggested that it might be possible for Britain to arrange for the destruction of the oil wells in the Dutch East Indies. If these two sources of supply were cut off from Japan her war machine would come to an abrupt stop.29

When this matter was discussed at the White House, the President seemed deeply interested in this program of pressure but Sumner Welles promptly asserted that an embargo against Japan would lead to a Japanese attack upon British or Dutch colonial possessions. This viewpoint was sharply challenged by Knox, Morgenthau, and Stimson who advised bold measures to curb Japan. Morgenthau, realizing that he “spoke to the President’s nature and inclination,” drew up a proclamation that placed the export of all kinds of oil and all scrap metals under control. This was signed by the President who sent it to Welles for countersignature. Under the excited insistence of Welles the President discarded the proclamation he had signed and substituted one that dealt only with aviation motor fuel and lubricants, and No. 1 heavy melting iron and steel scrap.30

The Japanese Embassy, seeing the newspaper accounts that spoke of total embargo upon oil and scrap metals, hurriedly made inquiries at the Department of State. Welles gave comforting reassurances as to the real scope of the President’s proclamation and asserted that the action was not aimed at any particular country. The Japanese Government assailed this position in three long diplomatic notes but Welles, with his tongue in his cheek, held his ground.31 Lord Lothian, fearing that Roosevelt had tipped his hand, counseled greater prudence in the future, and this advice was strongly seconded by the Dutch representative.

This policy of prudence, however, received a sharp and unexpected attack from Ambassador Grew. He had long been opposed to sanctions against Japan because he believed they would be the prelude to war. But in a long dispatch of September 12, 1940, he reversed his opinions:

If we conceive it to be in our interest to support the British Empire in this hour of her travail, and I most emphatically do so conceive it, we must strive by every means to preserve the status quo in the Pacific at least until the European war has been won or lost. In my opinion this cannot be done . . . by merely registering disapproval and keeping a careful record thereof. . . . Until such time as there is a complete regeneration of thought in this country [Japan], a show of force, together with a determination to employ it if need be, can alone contribute effectively to the achievement of such an outcome and to our own future security.32

This dispatch from Grew confirmed the President’s desire to exert more economic pressure upon Japan. The Japanese thrust southward gave him increasing concern. On September 23, Japanese soldiers moved into Indochina and soon took over Tonkin Province. When this news reached the White House, together with reports that Japan was about to conclude an alliance with Germany, it was decided to place an embargo upon the shipment of all grades of iron and steel scrap to Japan.33 This was a step Japanese statesmen had anticipated by building up a large stockpile for immediate needs.34 The President’s action was a challenge instead of a bombshell.

h. Japan Concludes an Alliance with the Rome-Berlin Axis

The alliance with the Rome-Berlin Axis was long in the making. The most important Japanese promoter of this agreement was General Hiroshi Oshima, the Japanese military attaché and subsequently the Ambassador in Berlin. He and Ribbentrop were particularly intimate. In the summer of 1938, during the Sudeten crisis, Ribbentrop inquired if Japan would be willing to sign a treaty aimed at all the potential enemies of the proposed Rome-Berlin-Tokyo triangle.35 Tokyo rejected this proposal36 and in February 1939, Prince Ito was sent to Berlin to acquaint Ribbentrop with the decision that Japan wished to limit the proposed treaty to action against Russia alone.37 In April 1939, Ribbentrop redoubled his efforts to reach an intimate accord with Japan. He insisted that such an arrangement would be a warning to Washington to remain neutral in the event of an outbreak of war in Europe. But Japan remained cold to these suggestions,38 and after the signature of the Nazi-Soviet Treaty in August 1939 this frigidity definitely increased.

But Ribbentrop never lost hope that he could induce Japan to enter into closer political relations with Germany, and through the agency of the I. G. Farben Chemical Trust large sums of money were spent in Japan for propaganda purposes.39 On June 12, 1940, Ambassador Ott reported that he was “still endeavoring to stir up Japanese ill-feeling against America by influencing the press and leading political personalities.”40 On July 8, Naotake Sato arrived in Berlin for a conference with Ribbentrop. He remarked that Japan had drawn the attention of the United States “to herself since the beginning of the Chinese war, and that she tied up the American fleet in the Pacific Ocean.” When the Nazi Foreign Minister inquired as to the fundamental differences between Japan and the United States, Sato pointed to the Nine-Power Pact. It seemed evident to Ribbentrop that Japan could soon be brought into intimate association with the Rome-Berlin Axis.41

On July 12 a conference was held in Tokyo between representatives of the ministries of War, Navy, and Foreign Affairs with reference to the signature of a tripartite pact.42 In order to hasten their decision, Heinrich Stahmer hurried to Tokyo. The conversations between Stahmer and Matsuoka began on September 9 with Stahmer always emphasizing the fact that Germany’s prime purpose in seeking the alliance with Japan was to keep America out of the war.43 By September 16 the opposition in Japan had been largely silenced, and on September 27 the pact was signed with great pomp in Berlin.44 Article 3 was phrased in language that pointed straight at the United States: “Japan, Germany and Italy . . . undertake to assist one another with all political, economic and military means when one of the three Contracting Parties is attacked by a power at present not involved in the European War or in the Sino-Japanese Conflict.”45

There is evidence to show that Japan extracted from Stahmer a secret oral understanding that she retain for herself the right to decide whether the casus foederis existed in any situation that might arise.46 There is further evidence to indicate that Japan signed the tripartite pact primarily to deter the United States from entering the war. In the instructions from the Japanese Foreign Minister to Admiral Nomura on October 8, 1941, it was repeatedly stated that one of the reasons why Japan entered into the alliance with Germany and Italy was to maintain “amicable relations with America.”47 Matsuoka made a similar statement to Masuo Kato in 1941,48 In September 1940 it was difficult for the Department of State to appreciate this viewpoint.

i. America Draws Closer to Britain

To the Roosevelt Administration it seemed obvious that the new Rome-Berlin-Tokyo Axis was a design for war. In order to sound a note of defiance to this menacing political alignment, the President, on October 12, boldly declared that the “Americas will not be scared or threatened into the ways the dictators want us to follow. . . . No combination of dictator countries of Europe and Asia will stop the help we are giving to almost the last free people fighting to hold them at bay.”49 In order to implement these bold words, the President had already instructed the Department of Agriculture to cease paying subsidies for wheat exports to the Far East since much of this grain was being purchased by Japan. At the same time Prime Minister Churchill announced in the House of Commons that the Burma Road would be opened on October 8.

Throughout November and December 1940, Lord Lothian continued to push for joint talks and joint action in the Far East. The conference between Secretary Hull and the British Ambassador on November 25 was typical:

The British Ambassador came in at his request, having just returned from London. He referred to the Far Eastern situation with apprehension, saying that he believed the Japanese were likely soon to attack Singapore. . . . The main point the Ambassador raised was that there should be conferences between the naval experts of our two Governments with respect to what each would or might do in case of military outbreaks on the part of Japan. I [Hull] said that, of course there could be no agreement entered into in this respect, but there should undoubtedly be collaboration with the view of making known to each other any and all information practicable in regard to what both might have in mind to do, and when and where, in case of a military movement by Japan in the South or in some other direction.

The Ambassador said that the information he had gathered in London was that, while our Naval Attaché, Admiral Ghormley, was a good man, he consistently declined to discuss possible future plans on the ground that he had absolutely no authority. . . . He said he hoped there would be discussion between his and our high naval officials with respect to all phases of the Pacific situation.50

We have already seen how these conversations between Hull and Lord Lothian resulted in the Joint Staff conferences that began in Washington in the last week of January 1941.51 These conferences paralleled a drive to put into effect an embargo upon exports to Japan. On December 10 the White House issued a statement announcing that after December 30 new licensing restrictions would apply to exports of iron ore, pig iron, ferroalloys, and “certain iron and steel manufactures and semi-manufactures.”52 On December 20 restrictions were placed upon the export of bromine, ethylene, abrasives, hydraulic pumps, and equipment for the production of aviation lubricating oil.53 Three weeks later (January 10, 1941) this economic offensive shifted to restrictions upon the export of copper, brass, zinc, nickel, and potash.54 These proclamations were followed by a series of others that seemed to touch everything from radium to kip skins—that is everything but oil.

j. Matsuoka and Prince Konoye Are Willing to Sacrifice Japan’s Position in China for the Cause of Peace

While the President was preparing this new economic offensive against Japan, Matsuoka was prepared to sacrifice Japan’s position in China for the cause of peace. In November 1940, Matsuoka asked Bishop James E. Walsh, Superior General of the Catholic Foreign Mission Society of Maryknoll, New York, and Father J. M. Drought, of the same order, to undertake a special mission to Washington in order to impress upon the President the fact that the Japanese Government “wished to negotiate a peace agreement: (1) An agreement to nullify their participation in the Axis Pact . . . (2) a guarantee to recall all military forces from China and to restore to China its geographical and political integrity.” Other conditions bearing upon the relations of Japan and the United States were to be explored and agreed upon “in the conversations that it was hoped would ensue.”

Bishop Walsh and Father Drought then had a conference with General Muto, the director of the Central Bureau of Military Affairs, who assured them that “he and his associates in the Japanese Army were in accord with the efforts to reach a peace agreement.”

Bishop Walsh and Father Drought hurried to Washington where (on January 23, 1941) they placed the whole matter before President Roosevelt and Secretary Hull during a long conference of more than two hours. They were told that the matter would be “taken under advisement,”55 and thus ended an anxious effort on the part of the Japanese Government to find a path to peace even though this path led to a renunciation of Japan’s objectives in China and a tremendous loss of face. It seems quite possible that the Far Eastern Military Tribunal brought to trial the wrong persons. It might have been better if the tribunal had held its sessions in Washington.

k. An Informal Negotiation Looking towards an Improvement in Japanese-American Relations

Just before Bishop Walsh and Father Drought placed their peace proposal before the President, an informal Japanese peace delegation began some fruitless conversations with officials in the Department of State. This delegation was headed by S. Hashimoto, once a member of the Amur Society and more recently connected with Shi-Un-So, the Purple Clouds Society.56 Mr. Hashimoto was devoted to the cause of peaceful relations between the United States and Japan and he had connections with important members of the Japanese Government.

In lengthy conversations with Mr. Hornbeck, Mr. Hamilton, and Mr. Ballantine57 he explored every phase of the difficulties between Japan and the United States. To Mr. Hashimoto it appeared obvious that the best way to improve Japanese-American relations was for the Department of State to convince Prince Konoye of the “desirability of pursuing a new course.” If America would help to secure for Japan “an open door to trade in the colonial possessions of various countries throughout the world,” Prince Konoye might have the courage of his real convictions. This friendly gesture would be of enormous value.

Mr. Hornbeck had no use for friendly gestures towards Japan. Japan should be chided, not conciliated. His answer to Hashimoto’s plea for new efforts towards a friendly understanding was a gruff negative:

It is Japan, not the United States, that has been the aggressor: Japan, not the United States, has disregarded law, violated treaties, killed and injured persons, created fear, destroyed property, discriminated, necessitated evacuations, piled up armaments, seized territory and threatened to seize more, et cetera. . . . It is Japan, not the United States, that has made threats and talked of war.58

l. Blueprint for Anglo-American Co-operation

While informal negotiations looking towards an improvement in Japanese-American relations were reaching an impasse, the formal Joint Staff conferences between the American delegation and representatives of Britain, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand finally resulted in the ABC-1 Staff Agreement. During the sessions the British had ardently argued that the defense of Singapore was so essential that the United States should be willing to divide the Pacific fleet for that purpose. This proposal was rejected by the American delegation. In the ABC-1 Staff Agreement, in the event of American intervention in the war, the main task assigned to the American fleet was a defensive one (the protection of our island possessions). But it was also to undertake diversions in the direction of the Marshall and Caroline Islands and to attack Japanese communications and shipping. The plan, therefore, provided for connected but not joint naval operations.

After an extended consideration of all the factors involved, the plan was endorsed by the Secretaries of the Navy and War; the President gave it no explicit approval.59 It was soon apparent, however, that American military plans were profoundly affected by it.60 The changes made in them were far more than mere technical details:, they indicated a close community of thought between important representatives of America and Britain. They were additional bonds drawing the two countries closer together and all their dangerous implications were not lost upon the President. A blueprint had been drawn for Anglo-American co-operation. It would be implemented as soon as the Chief Executive could find a pretext for doing so.

m. Japan Seeks Peace, Not War, with the United States

As Hitler moved towards war with Russia he began to think more and more of Japanese assistance in this projected struggle with the Soviets.

During a conference with his military leaders on January 8-9, 1941, Stalin was denounced as a “cold-blooded blackmailer” who would, if he found it expedient to do so, repudiate “any written treaty at any time.” In any contest with Russia, Germany could receive vital help from Japan.61 Japanese assistance against Britain was equally important. When General Oshima returned to Germany in 1941 he hurried to Fuschl to see his old friend, Ribbentrop. The Nazi Foreign Minister had a great deal to say. Japan, in its own interest, should enter the war “as soon as possible.” This intervention would destroy England’s key position in the Far East. It was also “bound to keep America out of the war.”62

On March 3, Ribbentrop renewed his pressure upon Oshima in favor of an early entry into the war by Japan. He again advised that no action be taken against the United States. Two days later (March 5), Hitler issued a secret order to the German armed forces which summarized the Ribbentrop viewpoint:

It must be the aim of the collaboration based on the Three Power Pact to induce Japan as soon as possible to take active measures in the Far East. Strong British forces will thereby be tied down, and the center of gravity of the interest of the United States of America will be diverted to the Pacific. . . . The common aim of the conduct of the war is to be stressed as forcing England to the ground quickly and thereby keeping the United States out of war.63

On March 26, Matsuoka, now serving as the Japanese Foreign Minister, arrived in Berlin. On the following day Ribbentrop plied him with the usual arguments. It would be “very advantageous if Japan would decide as soon as possible to take an active part in the war upon England.” Japanese intervention would be “most likely to keep America out of the war.” When Matsuoka was taken into the presence of Hitler he heard a repetition of Ribbentrop’s remarks, but he refused to commit himself. On March 28, Ribbentrop continued the conversations with Matsuoka and the war in the Pacific was discussed from all angles. Finally the Japanese Foreign Minister bluntly inquired about the attitude of Germany towards America after Britain was defeated. Ribbentrop quickly answered that “Germany did not have the slightest interest in a war against the United States.” Matsuoka closed the conference with the expression of a wish that America might be converted to “our way of thinking.”64

Matsuoka moved from Berlin to Moscow where on April 13 he signed with Molotov a neutrality pact. It is possible that Hitler welcomed this pact as a part of his scheme to lull Russian suspicions with reference to the approaching Nazi offensive,65 but it is certain that it aroused apprehensions in many minds in Berlin.

n. Admiral Nomura Strives to Improve Japanese-American Relations

The appointment of Admiral Nomura as ambassador to the United States was another friendly gesture on the part of the Japanese Government. The new ambassador had been the naval attaché in Washington during the World War where he formed a friendly acquaintance with Franklin D. Roosevelt then serving as the Assistant Secretary of the Navy. He had also been a member of the Japanese delegation to the Washington Disarmament Conference, 1921-1922. His reception at the White House (February 14) was cordial but the President frankly referred to the fact that relations, between Japan and the United States were steadily “deteriorating.”66 At the State Department he discovered a studied “policy of coolness toward the Japanese.”67

On March 8, Hull and Nomura had their first conversation on Japanese-American relations. Subsequently they met more than forty times in vain endeavors to find some firm ground on which to build a new structure of friendship. Hitler viewed these negotiations with frank alarm. As Ribbentrop later remarked:

The Fuehrer . . . saw the attitude of the United States “short of war” and he was worried . . . about groups in Japan who wanted to come to an arrangement with America. He was afraid that if an arrangement would be made between the United States and Japan, this would mean, so to speak, the back free for America and the expected attack or entry into the war by the United States would come quicker.68

Ribbentrop, in the spring of 1941, exerted strong pressure upon the German Ambassador in Tokyo with reference to the Hull-Nomura talks. Japan should insist upon the abandonment of unneutral policies on the part of the United States. The ambassador, in turn, emphasized to the Japanese Foreign Office the importance of being firm with the United States. That was the only way to keep America neutral.69

o. Matsuoka Advises a Policy of Delay

In the spring of 1941 before he left for Berlin, Matsuoka wrote to Thomas Lamont a “passionate plea” for the promotion of better understanding between Japan and the United States. When he reached Rome, en route to Berlin, he received a message from the Japanese Embassy in Washington that “a specially chartered airplane was waiting for him at Lisbon to take him to America for a confidential meeting with the President. This had been arranged by Roy Howard, Matsuoka’s intimate friend.” But Matsuoka would first have to go to Berlin and Moscow to complete the important items in his program. In Moscow he talked freely with Ambassador Steinhardt in an effort to prepare the way for conversations in Washington.70 When he arrived in Dairen on April 21 he received a call from Konoye who asked him to fly at once to Tokyo. He returned to the capital to find an American proposal that Nomura had just cabled from Washington.71

At this point, according to the story as related by Toshikazu Kase, Matsuoka found that negotiations in Washington were being conducted on the basis of a series of “informal” conversations between two American Catholic priests “and an ex-official of the Japanese Treasury Department whose integrity was rather dubious.” For this reason, Matsuoka asked for a halt in the negotiations.72 As a matter of fact, Mr. Kase is badly confused in this matter of the negotiations. As the deposition of Bishop Walsh clearly shows, Matsuoka himself asked Bishop Walsh and Father Drought to go on a special mission to Washington, and their program was worked out in a series of conferences among Foreign Office officials, General Muto, and Prince Konoye.73 It is certainly incorrect to state that this mission had “been inaugurated without the knowledge of the foreign minister.”74

p. Secretary Hull and Ambassador Nomura Search in Vain for a Formula of Peace

During the spring and summer of 1941, through more than forty conversations between Hull and Nomura, the search for a formula of peace was carried on in vain. The story of these negotiations is told in great detail in the memoirs of Prince Konoye75 and in the documents published by the Department of State.76

The Japanese Government was willing to give two important pledges: (1) to use only peaceful measures in the southwest Pacific; (2) to go to the support of Germany only in the event she was the object of aggression. In return for these pledges Japan wished America (1) to restore normal trade relations between the two countries; (2) to assist Japan to secure access to basic raw materials in the southwest Pacific area; (3) to exert pressure upon Chiang Kai-shek so that he would consent to certain peace terms; (4) if Chiang refused to yield to this pressure the American Government would withdraw support from his regime; (5) and finally, to lend friendly diplomatic assistance aimed at the removal of Hongkong and Singapore as doorways “to further political encroachment by the British in the Far East.”

Secretary Hull countered with a memorandum emphasizing the following points: (1) respect for the territorial integrity and the sovereignty of each and all nations; (2) support of the principle of noninterference in the internal affairs of other countries; (3) support of the principle of equality, including equality of commercial opportunity; (4) nondisturbance of the status quo in the Pacific except as the status quo may be altered by peaceful means.77

The discussion of these bases for a friendly accord was not helped by occasional verbal pyrotechnics on the part of Matsuoka. On May 14 he had a conversation with Ambassador Grew during the course of which he sharply criticized the attitude of the United States towards Germany. American attacks upon German submarines might bring into action Article 3 of the Tripartite Pact of September 27, 1940.78

This conversation was the subject of comment by Sumner Welles during a conference with the British Ambassador. Lord Halifax inquired as to the progress of the Hull-Nomura talks. Was there any chance that they would have a successful outcome? Welles thought that the “chances might not be better than one in ten.” He then handed to Halifax a copy of a letter Matsuoka wrote to Grew immediately after their conversation on May 14. It was written in such a rambling style that Halifax thought it “bore evidence of lunacy.” Welles shared this impression but finally came to the conclusion that it “might be due to the fact that Mr. Matsuoka was understood to be drinking extremely heavily at this time and the mental state apparent in the writing of this letter might be momentary rather than permanent.”79

It is obvious that Matsuoka’s belligerent state of mind was a result of the pressure from Berlin. Hitler would soon launch his attack upon Russia and he was particularly anxious that America remain neutral. But this Japanese threat failed to restrain Roosevelt. On June 20 an announcement was made in Washington that no more oil would be exported from American eastern ports (including the Gulf of Mexico) except to the British Empire and the Western Hemisphere. Two days later, Hitler’s armies crossed the Russian frontier and the German offensive began to roll. When the news reached Tokyo, Matsuoka rushed to the Emperor and vehemently argued that Japan should support Germany by immediately attacking Russia. He readily admitted that his program implied possible war with the United States.80

Although Konoye wished to apply a brake to the forward tactics of Matsuoka, the Japanese army leaders were restive, and liaison conferences on June 25 and July 2 mapped a new and dangerous program: (1) Japan should not rush into a conflict with the Soviets; (2) the tripartite pact should not be abandoned; (3) Japan should move south into Indochina.81 Knowledge of this decision reached Washington during the first week in July. The Japanese code had been broken and from July to December 1941 the President and the Secretary of State could read the instructions from the Japanese Foreign Office to Ambassador Nomura.82 The projected Japanese drive to the South was soon familiar in all its details.

q. Matsuoka Is Dropped but Roosevelt Grows More Belligerent

Prince Konoye reluctantly accepted the decisions of the liaison conferences but he was determined not to endure the constant arguments of Matsuoka for a bolder policy towards the United States. During the new liaison conferences of July 10 and 12, Matsuoka led a bitter attack upon the United States and even asked for a termination of the Hull-Nomura conversations. But the Army and Navy representatives in the conference were strongly in favor of the continuation of the talks, so Matsuoka’s proposal was quickly defeated. It was evident that the Foreign Minister was quite unpopular with his colleagues who decided to get rid of him by indirection. On July 16 the whole Cabinet resigned. Konoye was then asked to form a new cabinet, and when it was organized, Admiral Toyoda was given the post of Foreign Minister.

This significant cabinet change made little impression upon the President and several of his advisers who had been pushing for sanctions against Japan. One of the most active of these was Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson. As early as December 16, 1940, he confided to his diary that eventually America would be drawn into the war.83 During the spring and summer of 1941 he was constantly pressing the President to take stronger measures against the Germans.84

Some of the instructions sent by Tokyo to Nomura strengthened the Stimson counsel. These intercepted messages were placed before the President and influenced his decisions. On July 14 a particularly important message was decoded. It clearly outlined Japanese objectives: “The immediate object of our occupation of French Indochina will be to achieve our purposes there. Secondly, its purpose is, when the international situation is suitable, to launch therefrom a rapid attack. . . . In the main, through the activities of our air arm . . . we will once and for all crush Anglo-American military power and their ability to assist in any schemes against us.”85 A week later the Foreign Office sent an ominous instruction to Ambassador Nomura:

Should the U.S. . . . take steps at this time which would unduly excite Japan (such as . . . the freezing of assets), an exceedingly critical situation may be created. Please advise the United States of this fact, and attempt to bring about an improvement in the situation.86

The very step that the Japanese Foreign Office greatly feared was then being seriously discussed by American cabinet officials. The Navy Department counseled caution, the Treasury Department was anxious for prompt action against Japan, while the Department of State vacillated from day to day. On July 24 the President had a conference with Ambassador Nomura and talked with brutal frankness. He said that he had not shut off oil supplies from Japan because such action would have furnished a pretext for “moving down upon the Netherlands East Indies.” But in view of the oil shortage in the eastern part of the United States there were many persons who were asking why further oil shipments to Japan were permitted while she was following a policy of aggression. In the event that Japan did move upon the Netherlands East Indies she could be certain that Britain would rush to the assistance of the Dutch, and this, in turn, might involve the United States in hostilities. The President then stated that he had a proposal to make to the Ambassador:

If the Japanese Government would refrain from occupying Indochina with its military and naval forces, or, had such steps actually been commenced, if the Japanese Government would withdraw such forces, the President could assure the Japanese Government that he would do everything within his power to obtain from the Governments of China, Great Britain, the Netherlands, and of course the United States itself a binding and solemn declaration . . . to regard Indochina as a neutralized country.87

On the following day (July 25) Colonel Iwakuro had a long talk with Mr. Ballantine and expressed the hope that an understanding with the United States could be effected. As far as Japan was concerned this could be achieved in a satisfactory manner if the American Government “did not take measures in the nature of embargoes or freezing of assets against Japan.”88 The President was not impressed with this gesture of good will. On the following day (July 26) an order was issued freezing Japanese funds in the United States. When Ambassador Nomura called at the Department of State to inquire as to the administration of this order, he was received in a definitely cold manner by Sumner Welles. He expressed the hope that the measure would not mean any “further deterioration in the relations of our two countries,” but Welles parried the indirect query by remarking upon the “extraordinary patience which the United States had demonstrated in its relations with Japan during recent years.” Nomura quietly stated that he believed the best thing to do under the circumstances was to adopt some “compromise solution which would prove acceptable to both sides.” Welles crisply replied that he did not see “that there was the slightest ground for any compromise solution.”89 It was evident that Welles was thinking of war.

This feeling of a deadlock was deepened during a conversation between Welles and Mr. Wakasugi, the Japanese Minister to the United States. Wakasugi was about to return to Tokyo to report to his Government on the actual state of Japanese-American relations. He wanted a frank statement from Mr. Welles in this regard. The Acting Secretary of State was glad to respond in his usual cold, detached manner. Japan should always keep in mind the basic principles of American foreign policy:

The maintenance of peace in the Pacific; the renunciation by all of the powers interested in the Pacific of force and of conquest as their national policy; the recognition of the rights of independent and autonomous peoples of the Pacific to independence and integrity; and equal opportunity and fair treatment for all. . . . If Japan continued on an aggressive policy of force and undertook moves of expansion . . . I thought it necessary at this stage to say that in my judgment such a situation as that would inevitably be regarded as intolerable by the United States and . . . would inevitably result in armed hostilities in the Pacific.90

This threat of war was very discouraging to Wakasugi who clearly realized that Japanese-American relations had reached an impasse that had very dangerous implications. On the following day (August 5) he received an instruction from Tokyo that gave ample evidence of the deep concern the Foreign Office felt with regard to the situation: “We are convinced that we have reached the most important, and at the same time the most critical, moment of Japanese-U.S. relations.”91 In order to improve these strained relations the Japanese Government was willing to pledge that it would “not further station its troops in the Southwestern Pacific areas except French Indo-China and that the Japanese troops now stationed in French Indo-China will be withdrawn forthwith on the settlement of the China Incident.” Japan would gladly guarantee the neutrality of the Philippine Islands if the United States, in turn, would suspend its military measures in the southwestern Pacific areas, would help Japan to secure access to the important natural resources of these areas, and would also restore normal trade relations between Japan and the United States. In answer to an oral statement by the Japanese Ambassador, Hull replied that he felt “very discouraged indeed” about future relations between the two countries.92

Similar discouragement in Tokyo led the Konoye Ministry to send instructions to Nomura to sound out Secretary Hull about a joint meeting between the Prime Minister and President Roosevelt.93 When the Japanese Ambassador handed to Hull this proposal for a conference between Prince Konoye and President Roosevelt, the reply came in the form of a written memorandum which rejected the Japanese proposals of August 6 as “lacking in responsiveness.”94 It was evident that Hull thought no purpose would be served by a Konoye-Roosevelt meeting. This fact was clear to Nomura who cabled the Foreign Office that he greatly feared “that even the offer of the Prime Minister to personally come here would not move the United States to any perceptible degree.” He could only report that he saw “dark clouds over the world.”95

r. The Atlantic Conference Pushes America Closer to a Break with Japan

For Japan there were very dark clouds along the Newfoundland horizon. On the evening of August 9, in the Newfoundland harbor of Argentia, Roosevelt and Churchill had their first conference. The British were particularly concerned about the danger of a Japanese thrust into the southwest Pacific area, and Sir Alexander Cadogan had drafted parallel Anglo-American declarations designed to halt this possible advance. America was to state very frankly that “any further encroachment by Japan in the Southwestern Pacific” would compel the United States to take measures that might lead to war. In order to implement this declaration the President was to “seek authority from Congress” to employ American armed forces as he thought best. The President at once rejected any thought of consulting with Congress. On his own initiative and responsibility he would let the Japanese Government know that if her armed forces moved southward, “various steps would have to be taken by the United States notwithstanding the President’s realization that the taking of such further measures might result in war between the United States and Japan.” But Sumner Welles thought that the United States should play the role of policeman in a much wider area than the southwest Pacific. America should be ready to repel any Japanese thrust whether it was directed “against China, against the Soviet Union or against the British Dominions or British colonies, or the colonies of the Netherlands in the Southern Pacific area.” Churchill and Roosevelt were in hearty agreement with this wider formula,96 but the President was too cautious to broadcast it to the American public. It had better remain a secret understanding.

Churchill had failed to secure a parallel declaration that pointed straight to war, but the Roosevelt pledges of support relieved most of his fears. This fact was revealed in his speech to Parliament on January 27, 1942: “The probability, since the Atlantic Conference . . . that the United States, even if not herself attacked, would come into a war in the Far East, and thus make final victory sure, seemed to allay some of these anxieties. . . . As time went on, one had greater assurance that if Japan ran amok in the Pacific, we should not fight alone.”97

s. Roosevelt Refuses to Meet Prince Konoye

In a statement he handed to the Japanese Ambassador on August 17, Roosevelt carried out his pledge to Churchill. It was phrased in language that was not unduly provocative, but its meaning was very clear:

If the Japanese Government takes any further steps in pursuance of a policy or program of military domination by force or threat of force of neighboring countries, the Government of the United States will be compelled to take immediately any and all steps which it may deem necessary toward safeguarding the legitimate rights and interests of the United States and American nationals and toward insuring the safety and security of the United States.

With reference to a meeting between Prince Konoye and President Roosevelt, the Japanese Ambassador was informed that if his Government was ready “to suspend its expansionist activities” and embark upon a “peaceful program for the Pacific,” the government of the United States “would be glad to endeavor to arrange a suitable time and place to exchange views.”98

Before this Roosevelt statement could reach Tokyo, Foreign Minister Toyoda had a conference with Ambassador Grew and once more strongly pushed the idea of a meeting at Honolulu between Konoye and Roosevelt. He ardently hoped that at such a meeting it would be possible “to reach a just and equitable agreement.”99 Grew was so deeply impressed with the sincerity of Toyoda’s plea that he immediately sent a dispatch to Secretary Hull and urged, “with all the force at his command, for the sake of avoiding the obviously growing possibility of an utterly futile war between Japan and the United States, that this Japanese proposal not be turned aside without very prayerful consideration. . . . The opportunity is here presented . . . for an act of the highest statesmanship . . . with the possible overcoming thereby of apparently insurmountable obstacles to peace hereafter in the Pacific.”100

On August 28, Ambassador Nomura delivered to President Roosevelt a personal message from Konoye pleading for a meeting which could “explore the possibility of saving the situation.”101 In his remarks to Nomura with reference to a possible meeting with Konoye, the President appeared to think that it would be difficult for him to go as far as Hawaii. Possibly Juneau, Alaska, would be more suitable.102

As the President vacillated as to what course to pursue about this proposed meeting with Konoye, an Imperial conference was held on September 6. It was finally decided that Japanese preparations for war would have to be continued so “that they be completed approximately toward the end of October.” At the same time, the Foreign Office should “endeavor by every possible diplomatic means to have our demands agreed to by America and England.” If these negotiations did not lead to favorable results by the early part of October, then the government should “get ready for war against America.”103

The position of Japan was very clear. It was insisting upon American recognition of Japan’s dominance in the Far East. In the Root-Takahira Agreement of November 30, 1908, we had given Japan a green light to move ahead in Manchuria.104 Japan had taken advantage of President Theodore Roosevelt’s friendly suggestions and had strongly intrenched herself in large areas in North China. In the face of rapidly expanding Russian power in the Far East, this action had been regarded as a national imperative. In the Far East the future belonged either to Japan or Russia, not to a China that had been exhausted by an endless cycle of war, revolution, and war. The policy of President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Secretary Hull in giving strong support to a gravely weakened China was highly unrealistic, and the later collapse of the American position in China stems straight back to the decisions taken in September and October 1941.

During the eventful weeks of September, President Roosevelt seemed unable to make up his mind concerning a meeting with Konoye. In order to dispel this sense of uncertainty, the Division of Far Eastern Affairs (Mr. Ballantine) prepared a long memorandum which was highly critical of Japan. In conclusion, Mr. Ballantine remarked: “The holding of the meeting between the President and the Japanese Prime Minister on the basis of the present status of the discussions between this country and Japan would result in more of disadvantage than of advantage as regards this country’s interests and policies.”105 From Tokyo, Ambassador Grew spoke from an entirely different angle. He would not stand inflexibly upon certain principles and demand that Japan agree to accept every one of them. Political differences can be expressed in subtle shades that need not affront nations involved in serious controversy; one does not have to insist upon the conventional pattern of black and white. If America would show some slight spirit of compromise, this concession might evoke concessions on the part of Japan and some path to understanding might be found. There was no real point in insisting that Konoye agree in advance to a long agenda which would awaken instant opposition in Japan. During the sessions of a conference between Konoye and Roosevelt it was highly possible that a spirit of reciprocity might arise which would turn thoughts from war to peace. The situation required statesmanship of the highest order. There seemed no reason to doubt that it could be found in Washington.106

Unfortunately, at this time of national crisis, President Roosevelt did not measure up to the demands of the hour. Without the courage to make a decision in the matter of meeting Konoye, he pushed the responsibility upon the shoulders of Secretary Hull. Hull did not hesitate. He was always “wound-up” for such occasions. On October 2 he handed to Ambassador Nomura a statement that contained all the Hull clichés about high moral principles being the directing force in international relations. Dubious American practices in the Caribbean were not mentioned. After a long rehearsal of the reasons why the Hull-Nomura conversations had been a flat failure, he sonorously remarked that before there could be a meeting between the President and Prince Konoye, there would first have to be an agreement upon basic principles of policy.107 He knew that such an agreement was not possible. He had cleared the decks of the American ship of state for war at any time. It would not be long in coming.

t. General Marshall and Admiral Stark Oppose an Ultimatum to Japan

The Hull note of October 2 did not kill all Japanese hopes for an adjustment of difficulties with the United States. Konoye retained a faint belief that through indirect channels he still might find a means of convincing President Roosevelt of his sincerity. Through August and September 1941 he had worked through Bishop Walsh, of the Maryknoll mission, who sent many messages to Father Drought in New York. These messages, which revealed a strong desire for accommodation, were “concealed under missionary phraseology.” Father Drought conveyed the messages to Washington, but to no avail. Finally, on October 14, Walsh was commissioned by Konoye to hurry to Washington and tell the President that “the pressure of events on the Japanese Government was such that it would not be able to negotiate much longer.”108 The Konoye Ministry fell long before Walsh reached Washington.

In the meantime, Foreign Minister Toyoda had turned to the British Ambassador in Tokyo and requested his help with regard to the Konoye-Roosevelt meeting. Craigie at once cabled to London his view of the situation. It was decidedly critical of the Hull policy:

By pursuing a policy of stalling, the United States is arguing about every word and every phrase on the grounds that it is an essential preliminary to any kind of an agreement. It seems apparent that the United States does not comprehend the fact that by the nature of the Japanese and also on account of the domestic conditions in Japan, no delays can be countenanced. It would be very regrettable indeed if the best opportunity for the settlement of the Far Eastern problems since I assumed my post here, were to be lost in such a manner. . . . Both the U.S. Ambassador in Japan and I are firmly of the opinion that it would be a foolish policy if this superb opportunity is permitted to slip by by assuming an unduly suspicious attitude.109

On October 7, in a final bid for an understanding with the United States, Toyoda told Grew that it seemed apparent that the United States “wished the Japanese Government to revert at once and unqualifiedly to the status quo which had prevailed four years ago. . . . The Japanese Government was willing and prepared to return to the situation prevailing four years ago but it was essential that the Government of the United States should understand that to undo virtually at a moment’s notice the work of the past four years is an undertaking of tremendous scope.” It would take time on the part of the Japanese Government and understanding on the part of the American.110

But these gestures of conciliation failed to evoke the hoped-for response from Washington, so on October 16 the Konoye Cabinet resigned.111 In the new Cabinet, General Hideki Tojo assumed the post of Prime Minister, with Shigenori Togo as the new Minister of Foreign Affairs. The story of the attempts of the Tojo Cabinet to find some formula of accommodation with the United States is a twice-told tale that does not have to be repeated here.112 The hopelessness of the situation was apparent to Ambassador Grew who warned Secretary Hull that “action by Japan which might render unavoidable an armed conflict with the United States may come with dangerous and dramatic suddenness.”113

The Army feared this sudden Japanese attack upon an American outpost, and they were deeply disturbed during a meeting of the Army-Navy Joint Board when Mr. Hornbeck, representing the Department of State, advocated a firm stand against Japan.114 The armed forces were not ready for war with Japan, and they resented the pressure of Chiang Kai-shek for assistance that might lead to American intervention. On November 2 the Generalissimo wrote to Roosevelt that a new Japanese offensive against Yunnan might shake the morale of the Chinese Army and the Chinese people “to its foundation.” For the “first time in this long war a real collapse of resistance would be possible” if the Japanese drive succeeded in taking Kunming.115 General Marshall and Admiral Stark were extremely anxious that these appeals from Chiang should not push the President to some rash act. On November 5, after a review of the situation in the Far East, they strongly recommended that “no ultimatum be delivered to Japan.”116

This blunt recommendation temporarily slowed the President’s progress down the road to war. On the following day (November 6) he had a talk with Secretary Stimson with reference to the pressing need for time to complete American military preparations. It might be well for the Department of State to arrange for a truce “in which there would be no movement or armament for six months.” Stimson opposed such a truce. It was still “very important to keep the Chinese in the war, and I believed that they would feel that such a truce was a desertion of them, and that this would have a very serious effect on Chinese morale.” On November 7 the President polled the Cabinet on the question of whether he would receive popular support “if it became necessary to strike at Japan in case she should attack England in Malaya or the Dutch in the East Indies. The Cabinet was unanimous in the feeling that the country would support such a move.”117 This unanimity was not as genuine as Secretary Stimson’s diary would indicate. Hull thought that there was definite need for numerous speeches throughout the country which would prepare the people for the possibility of war.118 The tragedy of the situation was that America was really at war without any clear perception of that fact by the popular mind. As Admiral Stark wrote to Admiral Hart on November 7: “The Navy is already in the war of the Atlantic, but the country doesn’t seem to realize it. Apathy, to the point of opposition is evident in a considerable section of the press. . . . Whether the country knows it or not, we are at war.”119

u. Japan Is Maneuvered into Firing the First Shot at Pearl Harbor

In the second week in November 1941 tension began to mount in Tokyo. On November 10 the Japanese Foreign Minister expressed to Grew the opinion that the “preliminary and exploratory conversations” in Washington had proceeded long enough. It was time for both countries to “enter into formal and official negotiations.” The Japanese Government had “repeatedly made proposals calculated to approach the American point of view, but the American Government. . . had taken no step toward meeting the Japanese position.”120 On this same day (November 10), Ambassador Nomura presented to President Roosevelt a further explanation of his Government’s proposals. In the meantime the Japanese Foreign Office instructed Nomura that November 25 was the deadline. All negotiations would have to be concluded by that date.121 This deadline was repeated from Tokyo on November 11.122 Under pressure from the Foreign Office, Nomura was extremely anxious to secure an early answer to the Japanese proposals of November 7 and 10. While he was awaiting this answer, he noted the military preparations that were being rushed by the Roosevelt Administration: “They are contriving by every possible means to prepare for actual warfare.”123 Tokyo replied to this cablegram by insisting that the deadline of November 25 was “an absolutely immovable one.”124

Secretary Hull knew of this deadline through intercepted Japanese instructions to Nomura, so on November 15 he handed to Nomura a long oral statement setting forth the bases of an agreement. He knew they would not be acceptable to Japan. Complete control over its economic, financial and monetary affairs” should be restored to China, and Japan should abandon any thought of preserving in China, or anywhere else in the Pacific area, a “preferential position.”125

The abrupt tone of this note was a challenge that could easily lead to a break in diplomatic relations. Japan had long feared that such a break was inevitable, but in a final attempt to stave off such an emergency it had been decided to send to Washington another diplomat who would assist Nomura in the delicate negotiations that were hanging by a very slender thread. The new appointee, Saburo Kurusu, had served as consul in Chicago and New York and had recently been in Berlin as ambassador. His happy marriage to an American girl gave him a personal interest in maintaining friendly relations between Japan and the United States.126

On November 17, Nomura and Kurusu had a talk with President Roosevelt, and then long, inconclusive conversations with Hull were carried on. To Kurusu it seemed that the President was “very much in earnest in regard to effecting an understanding between Japan and the United States.” With Hull, little progress was made. This was particularly true with reference to a solution of the difficulties between China and Japan. Roosevelt seemed to have taken a liking to his old naval acquaintance, Nomura, and was not ready to push things. One day Lowell Mellett and Max Lowenthal paid a visit to the office of Senator Burton K. Wheeler to convey the information that “the President does not want to push America into the war.” The Senator took this statement with a large grain of salt, but he remembered that at times Secretary Hull had been more belligerent than the President. This fact had been particularly evident during the sessions of the Democratic National Convention in 1940. When Wheeler was putting up a strong fight to write an antiwar plank in such specific terms that the President could not disregard it, “Jimmy” Byrnes confided to him that Hull was strongly against such a plank. It would prevent him from exerting maximum pressure upon Japan.127

In November 1941 the Hull policy of pressure upon Japan was being implemented at full strength. On November 20, Kurusu discussed with Hull the matter of bringing to a close the hostilities between China and Japan. The Japanese Foreign Office believed this could be arranged if the United States would stop sending supplies to China. After stressing this point, Nomura then remarked: “If the tension between Japan and the United States can be relaxed, be it ever so little, particularly in the southwestern Pacific, and quickly clear the atmosphere, then I think we could go on and settle everything else.” Kurusu pushed the idea of a modus vivendi,128 and President Roosevelt responded by outlining one that might be accepted. The fourth item in this Presidential proposal read as follows: “U.S. to introduce Japs to Chinese to talk things over but U.S. to take no part in their conversations. Later on Pacific agreements.”129

Japan met this show of conciliation with a concession of her own. The deadline in the negotiations was now extended from November 25 to November 29. But this was the final concession: “This time we mean it, that the deadline absolutely cannot be changed. After that things are automatically going to happen.”130

On the same day that this deadline was extended (November 22), Nomura and Kurusu once more met Hull in conference. It was soon apparent from his tone that there was small chance that Japanese conditions for a truce would be accepted: (1) a revocation of the American order of July 26 freezing Japanese credits in the United States and thereby stopping all shipments of oil from American ports; (2) American consent to a program aimed at increasing the export of oil and other commodities from the Netherlands East Indies to Japan; (3) American mediation between China and Japan so as to initiate negotiations between the two powers and the cessation of American assistance to Chiang Kai-shek. American consent to these conditions was out of the question even if Japan made far-reaching concessions in return.

During the conference on November 22, Hull acidly complained of the “threatening tone” of the Japanese press and then asked why some Japanese statesman did not start “preaching peace?” When Nomura remarked that he “did not have the slightest doubt that Japan desired peace,” Hull scoffed at this statement and lamented that it was a pity that Japan “could not do just a few small things to help tide over the situation.” He was particularly critical of the Japanese attitude towards Chiang Kai-shek.131

Two days later (November 24), Hull had a conference with the diplomatic representatives of Australia, Britain, China, and the Netherlands. He quickly discovered that the Chinese Ambassador, Dr. Hu Shih, was not enthusiastic about a three months’ truce with Japan.132 But Hull went ahead and drafted a modus vivendi which President Roosevelt regarded as a “fair proposition” but he was “not very hopeful” and thought there might be “real trouble very soon.”133

On the following morning (November 25), Hull showed to Secretaries Knox and Stimson this draft that provided for a three months’ truce with Japan. But its terms were so drastic that Stimson believed that Japan would not accept it. That afternoon Secretaries Hull, Knox, and Stimson, along with General Marshall and Admiral Stark, went to the White House for a long conference with the President. From intercepted Japanese cablegrams to Nomura, the President knew that the Japanese deadline for an end to the current negotiations was on November 29. He expressed a fear that Japanese armed forces might make an attack “as soon as next Monday.” The main question was “how we should maneuver them into the position of firing the first shot without allowing too much danger to ourselves.”134

When Hull returned to the Department of State he had a long talk with the Chinese Ambassador who handed him a telegram from Chungking: “After reading your [Hu Shih’s] telegram the Generalissimo showed rather strong reaction. He got the impression that the United States Government has put aside the Chinese question in its conversations with Japan instead of seeking a solution and is still inclined to appease Japan at the expense of China.” This impudent telegram placed Hull on the defensive. He frankly admitted that the conversations he had been carrying on with the Japanese envoys was merely a delaying action: “The official heads of our Army and Navy for some weeks have been most earnestly urging that we not get into war with Japan until they have an opportunity to increase further their plans and methods and means of defense in the Pacific area.”135

On the afternoon of November 25 there were more cablegrams from China. Mr. T. V. Soong handed Secretary Stimson another cablegram from Chiang Kai-shek in which the Generalissimo urged the United States to be “uncompromising” in its attitude towards Japan.136 This pressure was increased by a communication from Owen Lattimore, the American adviser of Chiang Kai-shek, to Lauchlin Currie, administrative assistant to President Roosevelt: Any “modus vivendi” arrived at with Japan “would be disastrous to Chinese belief in America.”137 For a week Currie was “terribly anxious” because he feared that “Hull was in danger of selling China and America and Britain down the river.”138 In Chungking, Madame Chiang Kai-shek became “unrestrainedly critical” of the American Government for its failure to “plunge into the war” and thus aid China.139

On the morning of November 26, Hull saw a telegram from Churchill to the President: “There is only one point that disquiets us. What about Chiang Kai-shek? Is he not having a very thin diet?”140 It was not long before Hull was nearly hysterical. During a telephone conversation with Secretary Stimson he remarked that he had just about made up his mind about the modus vivendi—he “would kick the whole thing over.”141 A few moments later Stimson phoned to the President and informed him that a Japanese expeditionary force was moving south from Shanghai. The President promptly “blew up” and exclaimed that this fact “changed the whole situation because it was an evidence of bad faith on the part of the Japanese.”142 But the leading officers of the American armed forces still counseled caution. On this same morning (November 26) there was a meeting of the Army-Navy Joint Board and Admiral Ingersoll presented a series of arguments “why we should not precipitate a war.”143

But Hull was tired of carrying on negotiations with Japan. He was not a master of diplomatic double talk and he squirmed under the direct questions of the Japanese envoys. As far back as January 23, 1941, he had listened without any real interest to the proposals that Bishop Walsh and Father Drought had brought from Matsuoka: “(1) an agreement to nullify their [Japanese] participation in the Axis Pact; (2) a guarantee to recall all military forces from China and to restore to China its geographical and political integrity.”144 If he had rejected these unusually conciliatory proposals why should he be deeply concerned about recent ones that did not go nearly so far!

On the afternoon of November 26 he abandoned all thought of a truce with Japan and put into final shape a ten-point proposal. Both he and the President knew this program would be rejected by Japan.

There was no thought of compromise or conciliation: “The Government of Japan will withdraw all military, naval, air and police forces from China and from Indochina.” When Kurusu read the ten-point proposal of Secretary Hull he immediately inquired if this was the American answer to the Japanese request for a modus vivendi or truce. Was not the American Government interested in a truce? Hull merely replied that “we have explored that” but had arrived at no real decision. Kurusu could only reply that the Secretary’s attitude “could be interpreted as tantamount to meaning the end.”145 It was obvious that the next step was war.

On the morning of December 4, the Navy radio receiving station at Cheltenham, Maryland, intercepted a Japanese overseas news broadcast from Station JAP in Tokyo, in which there was inserted a false weather report, “east wind rain.” On November 19 the Japanese Government had instructed its ambassador in Washington that such a weather forecast would indicate imminence of war with the United States.146 After intercepting this Japanese instruction the radio receiving stations of the American armed forces were on the alert for the “east wind rain” message. As soon as it was translated, Lieutenant Commander Kramer handed it to Commander Salford with the exclamation: “This is it.” Safford got in touch immediately with Rear Admiral Noyes who telephoned the substance of the intercepted message “to the naval aide to the President.”147

According to the testimony of Captain Safford [in 1941 a Commander], the

“winds” message and the change of the [Japanese] naval operations code came in the middle of the week: two days to Saturday and three days to Sunday. It was unthinkable that the Japanese would surrender their hopes of surprise by delaying until the week-end of December 13-14. This was not crystal-gazing or “intuition”—it was just the plain, common sense acceptance of a self-evident proposition. Col. Sadtler saw it, and so did Capt. Joseph R. Redman, U.S.N., according to Col. Sadtler’s testimony in 1944. . . . The Japanese were going to start the war on Saturday, December 6, 1941, or Sunday, December 7, 1941.148

For the next three days Commander Safford and Lieutenant Commander Kramer tried in vain to get some action out of their superior officers with regard to the implications of the “east wind rain” message.

When they induced Captain McCollum to exert some pressure upon Admiral Stark he was given a sharp rebuke which so infuriated him that he later poured the whole story into the receptive ears of Admiral Kimmel. This disclosure led Kimmel to press for the Pearl Harbor investigations.

The unaccountable failure of high naval officers to convey a warning to Honolulu about the imminence of war was given additional highlights on the evening of December 6 when the Japanese reply to the American note of November 26 was sent secretly to Ambassador Nomura. It was intercepted by Navy receiving stations and decoded. When the President read this message to Nomura he at once exclaimed: “This means war!” He tried to get in touch with Admiral Stark but was informed that the chief of naval operations was at the National Theatre enjoying the delightful strains of The Student Prince,149 The next day the Admiral’s ears would be assailed by the crashing echoes of the attack upon Pearl Harbor.

It would ordinarily be assumed that the President, after reading this intercepted Japanese message, would hurriedly call a conference of the more important Army and Navy officers to concert plans to meet the anticipated attack. The testimony of General Marshall and Admiral Stark would indicate that the Chief Executive took the ominous news so calmly that he made no effort to consult with them.150 Did he deliberately seek the Pearl Harbor attack in order to get America into the war? What is the real answer to this riddle of Presidential composure in the face of a threatened attack upon some American outpost in the faraway Pacific? This problem grows more complicated as we watch the approach of zero hour. At 9:00 A.M. on December 7, Lieutenant Commander Kramer delivered to Admiral Stark the final installment of the Japanese instruction to Nomura. Its meaning was now so obvious that Stark cried out in great alarm: “My God! This means war. I must get word to Kimmel at once.”151 But he made no effort to contact Honolulu. Instead he tried to get in touch with General Marshall, who, for some strange reason, suddenly decided to go on a long horseback ride. It was a history-making ride. In the early hours of the American Revolution, Paul Revere went on a famous ride to warn his countrymen of the enemy’s approach and thus save American lives. In the early hours of World II, General Marshall took a ride that helped prevent an alert from reaching Pearl Harbor in time to save an American fleet from serious disaster and an American garrison from a bombing that cost more than two thousand lives. Was there an important purpose behind this ride? This question looms constantly larger as we look further into the Pearl Harbor hearings.

When Colonel Bratton, on the morning of December 7, saw the last part of the Japanese instruction to Nomura he realized at once that “Japan planned to attack the United States at some point at or near 1 o’clock that day.”152 To Lieutenant Commander Kramer the message meant “a surprise attack at Pearl Harbor today.”153 This information was in the hands of Secretary Knox by 10:00 A.M., and he must have passed it on to the President immediately.

It was 11:25 A.M. when General Marshall returned to his office. If he carefully read the reports on the threatened Japanese attack (on Pearl Harbor) he still had plenty of time to contact Honolulu by means of the scrambler telephone on his desk, or by the Navy radio or the FBI radio. For some reason best known to himself he chose to send the alert to Honolulu by RCA and did not even take the precaution to have it stamped, “priority.” As the Army Pearl Harbor Board significantly remarked: “We find no justification for a failure to send this message by multiple secret means either through the Navy radio or the FBI radio or the scrambler telephone or all three.”154 Was the General under Presidential orders to break military regulations with regard to the transmission of important military information? Did he think that the President’s political objectives outweighed considerations of national safety? Was the preservation of the British Empire worth the blood, sweat, and tears not only of the men who would die in the agony of Pearl Harbor but also of the long roll of heroes who perished in the epic encounters in the Pacific, in the Mediterranean area, and in the famous offensive that rolled at high tide across the war-torn fields of France? New cemeteries all over the world would confirm to stricken American parents the melancholy fact that the paths of military glory lead but to the grave.

But the President and Harry Hopkins viewed these dread contingencies with amazing equanimity. In the quiet atmosphere of the oval study in the White House, with all incoming telephone calls shut off, the Chief Executive calmly studied his well-filled stamp albums while Hopkins fondled Fala, the White House scottie. At one o’clock, Death stood in the doorway. The Japanese had bombed Pearl Harbor. America had suddenly been thrust into a war she is still fighting.

• 1John H. Ferguson, American Diplomacy and the Boer War (Philadelphia, 1939), pp. 208-9.
• 2February 10, 1904.
• 3February 10, 1904.
• 4February 11, 1904.
• 5Tatsuji Takeuchi, War and Diplomacy in the Japanese Empire (New York, 1936), pp. 155-57.
• 6Edward H. Zabriskie, American-Russian Rivalry in the Far East 1895-1914 (Philadelphia, 1946), pp. 101-60.
• 7Ernest B. Price, The Russo-Japanese Treaties of 1907-1916 Concerning Manchuria and Mongolia (Baltimore, 1933), pp. 34-38.
• 8A. Whitney Griswold, The Far Eastern Policy of the United States (New York, 1938), pp. 129-34.
• 9Theodore Roosevelt to President William H. Taft, December 22, 1910. Knox MS, Library of Congress.
• 10John G. Reid, The Manchu Abdication and the Powers, 1908-1912 (Berkeley, 1935), chaps. 4-10.
• 11Charles Callan Tansill, Canadian-American Relations, 1875-1911 (New York, 1944), chaps. 1-4, 10-12.
• 12Merle E. Curti, “Bryan and World Peace,” Smith College Studies in History, XVI (Northampton, 1931).
• 13Charles Callan Tansill, America Goes to War (Boston, 1938), chaps. 2-6.
• 14Edwin Borchard and William P. Lage, Neutrality for the United States (New Haven, 1937), p. 183.
• 15Tansill, op. cit., pp. 459-60.
• 16Borchard and Lage, op. cit., p. 88. It is interesting to note that in the eventful days that just preceded America’s entry into the World War, President Wilson had so little regard for Secretary Lansing that he complained bitterly to Colonel House about his shortcomings: “I [House] was surprised to hear him [the President] say that Lansing was the most unsatisfactory Secretary in his Cabinet; . . . that he had no imagination, no constructive ability, and but little real ability of any kind. He was constantly afraid of him because he often undertook to launch policies himself which he, the President, had on several occasions rather brusquely reversed.” House Diary, March 28, 1917. House MS, Yale University Library.
• 17President Wilson did not have a clear idea of the actual meaning of the Fourteen Points. In his Diary, December 20, 1918, Secretary Lansing makes the following significant comments: “There are certain phrases in the President’s ‘Fourteen Points’ [Freedom of the Seas and Self-Determination] which I am sure will cause trouble in the future because their meaning and application have not been thought out. . . . These phrases will certainly come home to roost and cause much vexation. . . . He [the President] apparently never thought out in advance where they would lead or how they would be interpreted by others. In fact he does not seem to care just so his words sound well.” Lansing Papers, Library of Congress.
• 18Oscar Cargill, Intellectual America: Ideas on the March (New York, 1941), p. 504.
• 19The correspondence dealing with the pre-Armistice agreement is printed in full in Foreign Relations, 1918, Supplement, I, The World War, I (Washington, 1933), 337-38, 343, 357-58, 379-81, 382-83, 425, 468-69.
• 20Paul Birdsall, Versailles Twenty Years After (New York, 1941), pp. 35-36.
• 21David Lloyd George, Memoirs of the Peace Conference (New Haven, 1939), I, 306-9.
• 22Harold Nicolson, Peacemaking, 1919 (New York, 1939), p. 18.
• 23The Intimate Papers of Colonel House, ed. Charles Seymour (Cambridge, 1928), IV, 343.
• 24Philip M. Burnett, Reparation at the Paris Peace Conference (New York, 1940), I, 63-64.
• 25Ibid., p. 69.
• 26Ibid., pp. 832-33.
• 27Birdsall, op. cit., p. 258.
• 28Thomas A. Bailey, Woodrow Wilson and the Lost Peace (New York, 1944), p. 240.
• 29Thorstein Veblen, The Nature of Peace (New York, 1917), p. 261. Secretary Lansing did not share the viewpoint that the Germans had forfeited their colonies through maladministration. In his Diary, January 10, 1918, he remarked: “This purpose of the retention of conquered territory is prima facie based upon conquest and is not in accord with the spirit of a peace based upon justice. . . . it is necessary for peace that the adjustment should be equitable.” Lansing Papers. Library of Congress.
• 30Edwyn Bevan, The Method in the Madness (London, 1917), pp. 305-6.
• 31Arthur P. Scott, “George Louis Beer,” in the Marcus W. Jernegan Essays in American Historiography, ed. W. T. Hutchinson (Chicago, 1937), p. 315.
• 32Ibid., p. 319.
• 33George L. Beer, African Questions at the Paris Peace Conference, ed. L. H. Gray (New York, 1923), pp. 58-60.
• 34Bailey, op. cit., p. 163.
• 35Harry R. Rudin, Germany in the Cameroons, 1884-1914 (New Haven, 1938), pp. 11, 414, 419.
• 36Bailey, op. cit., p. 167.
• 37It is significant that most of Professor Lord’s colleagues on the Inquiry thought that his zeal for Poland was “excessive.” Birdsall, op. cit., p. 178. See also, Hunter Miller, My Diary at the Conference of Paris (privately printed, 1928), I, 289.
• 38Ray S. Baker, Woodrow Wilson and World Settlement (Garden City, 1922), III, 37-38.
• 39Miller, op. cit., IV, 224-26.
• 40Seymour, op. cit., IV, 334-35.
• 41Lloyd George, op. cit., II, 637-42.
• 42René Martel, The Eastern Frontiers of Germany (London, 1930), pp. 49-50.
• 43William H. Dawson, Germany Under the Treaty (London, 1933), pp. 149-52.
• 44Diaries, Letters and Papers (London, 1935-37), II, 503.
• 45Documents on International Affairs, 1934, ed. John W. Wheeler-Bennett and Stephen Heald (New York), p. 424.
• 46Miller, op. cit., IV, 224-28; VI, 49-52.
• 47E. Alexander Powell, Thunder Over Europe (New York, 1931), p. 62.
• 48Dawson, op. cit., pp. 102-9. See also, I. F. D. Morrow and L. M. Sieveking, The Peace Settlement in the German Polish Borderlands (London, 1936).
• 49Powell, op. cit., p. 66.
• 50Baker, op. cit., pp. 482-84. Apparently, Henry White did much to give President Wilson the correct view of the situation in Upper Silesia. See Allan Nevins, Henry White (New York, 1930), p. 423.
• 51In the learned account written by Georges Kaeckenbeeck, The International Experiment of Upper Silesia (London, 1942), p. 6, the vote is given as 707,605 for Germany; 479,359 for Poland.
• 52(London, 1930), pp. 79-88.
• 53Dawson, op. cit., pp. 206-9.
• 54Sir Robert Donald, The Polish Corridor and the Consequences (London, 1929), pp. 197-98. See also, Sarah Wambaugh, Plebiscites Since the World War (Washington, 1933); W. J. Rose, The Drama of Upper Silesia (Brattleboro, 1936); Colonel E. S. Hutchinson, Silesia Revisited—1929 (London, 1930).
• 55Seymour, op. cit., IV, 347, 349, 383.
• 56Articles 428-432 of the Treaty of Versailles, The Treaties of Peace, 1919-1923 (New York, 1924), I, 254-55.
• 57General Henry T. Allen to Secretary Hughes, December 22, 1921. 862T.01/346, MS, National Archives.
• 58Ambassador Wallace to Secretary Hughes, Paris, April 27, 1920. 862.00/921, MS, National Archives.
• 59Emil Sauer to Secretary Hughes, Cologne, February 16, 1923. 862.00/1215, MS, National Archives.
• 60Dawson, op. cit., p. 84.
• 61Nevins, op. cit., p. 372.
• 62G. E. R. Gedye, The Revolver Republic (London, 1930), pp. 29-31.
• 63Herbert Hoover, “Communism Erupts in Europe,” Collier’s, CXXVIII (September 8, 1951), pp. 26-27, 68-71.
• 64Alma Luckau, The German Delegation at the Paris Peace Conference (New York, 1941), p. 124.
• 65Ibid., pp. 98-100.
• 66George A. Gordon to Secretary Hull, Berlin, May 22, 1933. 862.00/2985-86, MS, Department of State.
• 67George A. Gordon to Secretary Hull, Berlin, June 17, 1933. 862.00/3010, MS, Department of State.
• 68George A. Gordon to Secretary Hull, Berlin, June 23, 1933. 862.00/3017, MS, Department of State.
• 69George A. Gordon to Secretary Hull, Berlin, July 10, 1933. 862.00/3028-29, MS, Department of State.
• 70George S. Messersmith to Secretary Hull, July 10, 1933. 862.00/3033, MS, Department of State.
• 71The Final Act of the Lausanne Conference, July 9, 1932 (London, 1932), Cmd. 4126.
• 72The countries represented at this conference in Berlin were France, Great Britain, the Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United States.
• 73New York Times, June 3, 1933.
• 74The United States was deeply concerned about this transfer moratorium because about 40 per cent of the German external debt, approximately $1,800,000,000, was owed to American creditors. For a different estimate see Cleona Lewis, America’s Stake in International Investments (Washington, 1938), p. 414.
• 75New York Times, June 21, 1933.
• 76Raymond Moley, After Seven Years (New York, 1939), p. 247.
• 77Ibid., pp. 261-62.
• 78The documents dealing with the London Economic Conference are given in great detail in Foreign Relations, 1933, I, 452-762.
• 79Memorandum by the chief of the Division of Western European Affairs (Moffat), March 24, 1933. Ibid., pp. 396-98.
• 80Ibid., pp. 409-11. Atherton to Secretary Hull, London, May 12, 1933.
• 81Ibid., pp. 417-19. Agreement of understanding and co-operation.
• 82Memorandum by the ambassador in France (Straus) of a conversation with the British Ambassador in France (Tyrrell), June 15, 1933. Ibid., pp. 420-21.
• 83Ambassador Dodd’s Diary, 1933-1938, pp. 9-10. For July 4, 1933, Dodd records a conversation with Colonel House in which the aging colonel remarked: “I sent two nominations to the President, your’s and Nicholas Butler’s, but I felt that you ought to be given precedence.”
• 84Ibid., p. 5.
• 85Cordell Hull, Memoirs (New York, 1948), I, 237-38.
• 86New York Times, January 19, 1933.
• 87New York Times, March 19, 1933.
• 88New York Times, May 8, 1933.
• 89Dodd, op. cit., p. 9.
• 90Ibid., p. 5.
• 91Ibid., pp. 6-7.
• 92Ibid., p. 9.
• 93Ibid., pp. 10-11.
• 94Ibid., p. ix.
• 95Ibid., February 21, 1927, LXVIII, pt. III, 4389.
• 96January 8-10, 23-24, 29, 1927.
• 97January 9, 1927.
• 98January 25, 1927.
• 99March 17, 1927.
• 100January 21, 26, 1927.
• 101January 23, 28, 30; February 3, 5, 9, 1927.
• 102March 22, 1927.
• 103January 25, 1927.
• 104Consul John K. Davis to Secretary Kellogg, Nanking, March 28, 1927. Foreign Relations, 1927, II, 151-63.
• 105MacMurray to Secretary Kellogg, Peking, March 28, 1927. Ibid., p. 151.
• 106Ambassador MacVeagh to Secretary Kellogg, Tokyo, March 28, 1927. Ibid., p. 164.
• 107British Ambassador (Howard) to Secretary Kellogg, April 5, 1927. Ibid., pp. 179-81.
• 108Memorandum by the Secretary of State, April 6, 1927. Ibid., pp. 182-83.
• 109Consul General at Hankow (Lockhart) to Eugene Ch’en, April 11, 1927. Ibid., pp. 189-90. These demands included the following items: (1) adequate punishment of commanders of the troops responsible for the murders, personal injuries, and indignities and the material damage done as also of all persons found to be implicated; (2) apology in writing by the Commander in Chief of the Nationalist Army including an express written undertaking to refrain from all forms of violence and agitation against foreign lives and property; (3) complete reparation for the personal injuries and material damage done.
• 110Memorandum by the Secretary or State, April 20, 1927. Ibid., 204-5.
• 111MacMurray to Secretary Kellogg, Peking, April 23, 1927. Ibid., pp. 209-10.
• 112Secretary Kellogg to MacMurray, April 25, 1927. Ibid., pp. 210-11.
• 113Secretary Kellogg to MacMurray, April 28, 1927. Ibid., pp. 215-16.
• 114United States Daily, April 26, 1927.
• 115North China Herald, April 30. 1927.
• 116Borg, op. cit., p. 344.
• 117Ibid., p. 351.
• 118Bulletin of the American Chamber of Commerce of Shanghai, August, 1927.
• 119China in Chaos, p. 2.
• 120June 18, 1927.
• 121MacMurray to Secretary Kellogg, Peking, June 20, 1928. Foreign Relations, 1928, II, 184-85.
• 122Ibid., pp. 475-77.
• 123Secretary Kellogg to MacMurray, August 10, 1928. Ibid., pp. 192-93.
• 124Ibid., III, 230-35.
• 125H. W. Briggs, American Journal of International Law, XXXV (1941), 506-13.
• 126Fuehrer Conferences on Matters Dealing with the German Navy, 1941, I (May 22, 1941), 68-69.
• 127Documents on American Foreign Relations, 1940-1941, III, 417-19.
• 128Fuehrer Conferences on Matters Dealing with the German Navy, 1941, II (June 21, 1941), 1.
• 129Documents on American Foreign Relations, op. cit., pp. 58-60.
• 130New York Times, July 10, 1941.
• 131Morison, op. cit., pp. 79-81; Congressional Record, 77 Cong., 1 sess., pt. 8, 8314.
• 132Peace and War, pp. 737-43.
• 133Fuehrer Conferences on Matters Dealing uith the German Navy. 1941, II. 44.
• 134Hearings Before the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, Lend-Lease Bill, 1941, pt. 1, p. 211.
• 135Morison, op. cit., pp. 92-93.
• 136Peace and War, pp. 767-72.
• 137Trefousse, op, cit., p. 122.
• 138Fuehrer Conferences on Matters Dealing with the German Navy, 1941, II, 66-67.
• 139Peace and War, pp. 784-87.
• 140Pearl Harbor Attack, pt. 14, p. 1300.
• 141Henry L. Stimson’s Diary, November 26, 1941. Ibid., pt. 11, p. 5434.
• 142Ibid.
• 143Ibid., pt. 9, p. 4259.
• 144See ante, pp. 628-29.
• 145Oral statement handed by Secretary Hull to Ambassador Nomura and Mr. Kurusu, November 26, 1941. Japan: 1931-1941, II, 766-70.
• 146Japanese Foreign Office to Ambassador Nomura, Tokyo, November 19, 1941. Pearl Harbor Attack, pt. 12, p. 154.
• 147George Morgenstern, Pearl Harbor (New York, 1947), p. 206.
• 148Ibid., p. 211. The testimony of Captain Safford is given in detail in Pearl Harbor Attack, pt. 8, pp. 3555-3814.
• 149In this regard the testimony of Commander Lester B. Schulz is pertinent and colorful. Ibid., pt. 10, pp. 4662-63.
• 150Ibid., pt. 3, pp. 1049-1541; pt. 5, pp. 2096-2477.
• 151Morgenstern, op. cit., p. 269.
• 152Ibid., p. 275. See also the testimony of Colonel Rufus S. Bratton in Pearl Harbor Attack, pts. 9-10, pp. 4508-4623.
• 153Ibid., p. 276.
• 154Pearl Harbor Attack, pt. 39, p. 95; Robert E. Ward, “The Inside Story of the Pearl Harbor Plan,” United States Naval Institute Proceedings, LXXVII, No. 12 (December 1951), 1271-83.