762.94/485: Telegram
The Acting Secretary of State to the Ambassador in Japan (Grew)
201. The Department has been informed by the American Ambassador in the U. S. S. R. that when Matsuoka was in Moscow the chiefs of the German and Italian diplomatic missions there as well as those of the powers associated with the Axis were received by him on March 24. The substance of his remarks to them is as follows:
- 1.
- Japan was with the Axis one hundred per cent.
- 2.
- He was going to Rome and Berlin in order to confer with Japan’s allies, for no nation acted by itself under conditions as they exist, each nation acts as part of a bloc; and on his return trip here the character of his visit would rest wholly upon the result which his talks in Rome and Berlin would have. The Minister then stated categorically that he did not intend to go anywhere except to Rome and Berlin. (This statement is an interesting contrast to the one he made to the American Ambassador that it was his desire and intention to visit several of the occupied capitals and Vichy.)
- 3.
- Japan had entered into the tripartite pact because of her desire for peace, not for the making of war, and specifically because Japan wished to prevent the entry of the United States into the war. Matsuoka said he was convinced that the United States would not join the war, but in the contrary event, Japan would come in likewise on the side of her allies.
- 4.
- Matsuoka stated that he was informed that production in the United States could not be substantially increased before June of this year and that the United States would not be in a position to render Britain effective help before the end of the year. By that time Britain will have been defeated, though an empire the size of Britain could not, of course, collapse in a couple of days.
- 5.
- After Britain’s collapse there would be no continuation of the struggle by the United States, but that country would withdraw and would give its attention to its own affairs and interests. The Minister said that it was chimerical to talk about the war’s being continued by the United States with the aid of the British Fleet. He added that [Page 184] to his personal knowledge it was an illusion to see any possibility of Britain’s continuing to carry on the war by transferring the seat of government to Canada or some other place.
When Matsuoka had finished speaking he was asked by the Bulgarian Minister for an expression of his views on the Balkan situation. The Japanese Minister replied that it was his belief that Greece would be persuaded by Italy and Germany to conclude peace for the reason that Yugoslavia is now becoming a member of the tripartite, and that he was unable to think that Greece would continue to wage a hopeless contest with Italy and Germany. Greece could not expect to receive sufficient effective help from Great Britain, in his opinion, to make it possible for Greece to continue to resist, and added, also as his opinion, that the Greeks would think of their own best interests as they were intelligent. He also said that then peace would be assured in the Balkans—as Turkey would be unable to do anything—once Greece had made peace.
The Rumanian Minister made the observation on this point that everything, it seemed to him, hinged upon how Greece would play her cards, and on the conditions of peace which might be offered by Germany. Matsuoka answered that he could state definitely and of his own knowledge that Germany had no desire to force the issue and would do the utmost to convince the Greeks by diplomatic means that to make peace was in their own interest.