711.94/2117
Memorandum by the Secretary of State
The Japanese Ambassador called at my apartment at his request. He came in apparently more or less concerned and said that he had made a mistake when he handed me yesterday his document of instructions from Tokyo, including one to follow entitled “explanations of the original document.” He added that he should not have handed to me, along with these official instructions, the copy of Premier [Page 419] Konoye’s statement of December 22, 1938,19 copies of the Nanking agreement,19a or of the “Joint Declaration by the Governments of Japan, ‘Manchukuo’ and China”.19b He then handed to me what he said were the proper documents constituting his instructions, copies of which are hereto attached.19c At the same time he requested me to return to him the entire set of documents handed to me on yesterday, including that portion of his instructions to which reference has already been made, and copies of which have been placed on file here in the Department.
I thanked him and then proceeded to ask a few oral questions. One question related to modification of the provision in his original document about Japan’s keeping out of the South Sea area in a military way. He said that the original language was such as to bind Japan alone, leaving the United States and all other nations free to go in that area if they should see fit, and that the only purpose was to place Japan on a basis of equality with other countries.
I brought up the references to the three principles contained in the statement made by Premier Konoye in December 1938, and inquired if they might not constitute the so-called “new order in greater eastern Asia” declaration, and the Ambassador said that the purpose was only to refer to the three principles set out in the explanation which accompanies this proposal.
The Ambassador was very earnest in his insistence that his Government had no desire or purpose to go to the southern area with force, and he again repeated that Japan desired to keep war out of the Pacific area.
In answer to another question, he said that both documents were official, as stated, and that the purpose in having them separated was to enable his Government to give out to the press only the main document with the other manuscript containing the explanations omitted for the purpose of face-saving.
I again made it very clear that I would receive these papers entirely unofficially and informally and would study them before passing on their merits in any way even in an informal and unofficial way. The Ambassador agreed to this.