711.94/2071
Memorandum by the Secretary of State
The Japanese Ambassador called at my hotel apartment at his request. He spoke promptly and said that he came in to say that, notwithstanding the delays in hearing from his Government in regard to his request for instructions to negotiate with this Government along the lines of the document, which has heretofore been explained, he felt satisfied that he would get a favorable reply from his Government within a few days, and, therefore, he hoped that I would not become impatient. He added that there was politics in the situation back in Japan and implied that this was the cause of the “hitch” in his application for instructions.
I did not comment on the matter, but proceeded with one or two general statements in regard to world conditions, and at a convenient point said that we in this country profoundly feel that Hitler and Hitlerism are utterly destructive of everything worthwhile, and that we are determined to see to it that in these circumstances Hitler does not get control of the high seas; that, in the face of this sort of dangerous threat, we have nothing else to do for one, five or ten years except to marshal our resources and see to it that he does not get control of the high seas. The Ambassador, as he often does, smiled and nodded his head in assent. I again repeated, with respect to our relations to Japan and the Pacific area, that it all gets down to the question of whether Japan is willing to move in the direction and on the course outlined by those basic principles of justice and law and equality and fair dealing, such as all nations have practiced much of the time before the present war was started by Hitler. I added that I thought I knew that this was the view of the Ambassador personally. He nodded in assent.
The Ambassador then brought up the question of embargoes and said that this was a rather delicate question with his Government. I replied that it was not nearly as delicate as the extremely harsh treatment his soldiers and his Government have been administering to American nationals and American interests, and that, of course, there was nothing new for me to say on that question.