762.9411/77: Telegram
The Ambassador in Japan (Grew) to the Secretary of State
929. Some members of the Diplomatic Corps in Tokyo, in informal conversations with Mr. Ohashi, Vice Minister for Foreign Affairs, upon asking what advantage Japan expected to gain from the pact, have been told that it was specifically directed against the United States. Mr. Ohashi has told these persons that ever since 1924, the date on which Japanese exclusion was embodied in the American immigration laws,9a the United States has been hampering Japan in its inevitable necessity for expansion. Mr. Ohashi pointed out that it was only natural that Japan should secure as allies countries opposed to the present world order and that world totalitarianism would effectively wipe out the nearly bankrupt Anglo-Saxon democracies.