711.94/21627/14
Memorandum of a Conversation
The Japanese Ambassador and his associates41a called at the Secretary’s apartment by appointment made at the Japanese Ambassador’s request.
The Ambassador, after some preliminary observations, said that he desired to assure the Secretary that he was absolutely sure that the Japanese Government was sincerely desirous of concluding the proposed understanding with the United States, and that he was also sure that in the higher Army and Navy circles in Japan there was no feeling of hostility toward the United States. The Ambassador then went on to say that he considered it a matter of urgency that he now report to his Government in regard to how matters stood with respect to our conversations and that he would like to come to an understanding with the Secretary as to what were the points in the Japanese proposal on which we were agreed and what were the points on which we differed so that he could inform his Government.
The Secretary replied that he believed that such a procedure might give rise to misundertanding on the part of the Japanese Government and that he thought that in the interest of the Japanese themselves it would be preferable for the Japanese Ambassador in anything he might consider it desirable to report to his Government on the progress of our conversations to base such report on his own judgment as to the situation. The Secretary pointed out that the Ambassador and his associates had had a number of conversations with the Secretary and other officers of this Government, and that in those conversations our attitude in respect to the various points had been made clear.
The Secretary referred also to the fact that there was also involved the question of our sounding out the Chinese Government in regard to this matter before any definitive steps could be taken. In the course of the conversation the Ambassador, in reply to a question by the Secretary as to the Ambassador’s estimate of the likelihood that the Chinese Government would find acceptable the Japanese terms as communicated to us, replied in the same tenor as he had done on a previous occasion that the Chungking Government was in a weakened position, and was only being sustained by American help, and that if we withdrew this help, Chiang Kai-shek would be obliged to accept Japanese terms.
[Page 472]The Ambassador expressed a wish to have discussions continued between his associates and officers of the Department. The Secretary asked Mr. Ballantine to arrange to keep in touch with the Ambassador’s associates.
- Colonel Iwakuro and Mr. Wikawa.↩