711.94/21628/14
Draft Document Received Informally From Associates of the Japanese Ambassador (Nomura) on June 15, 1941
The Governments of the United States and of Japan accept joint responsibility for the initiation and conclusion of a general agreement of understanding as expressed in a joint declaration for the resumption of traditional friendly relations.
Without reference to specific causes of recent estrangement, it is the sincere desire of both Governments that the incidents which led to the deterioration of amicable sentiment between their countries should be prevented from recurrence and corrected in their unforeseen and unfortunate consequences.
It is our earnest hope that, by a cooperative effort, the United States and Japan may contribute effectively toward the establishment and preservation of peace in the Pacific area and, by the rapid consummation of an amicable understanding, encourage world peace and arrest, if not dispel, the tragic confusion that now threatens to engulf civilization.
[Page 474]For such decisive action, protracted negotiations would seem ill-suited and weakening. Both Governments, therefore, desire that adequate instrumentalities should be developed for the realization of a general understanding which would bind, meanwhile, both Governments in honor and in act.
It is the belief of the two Governments that such an understanding should comprise only the pivotal issues of urgency and not the accessory concerns which could be deliberated later at a Conference.
Both Governments presume to anticipate that they could achieve harmonious relations if certain situations and attitudes were clarified or improved; to wit:
- 1.
- The concepts of the United States and of Japan respecting the international relations and the character of nations.
- 2.
- The attitudes of both Governments toward the European war.
- 3.
- Action toward a peaceful settlement between China and Japan.
- 4.
- Commerce between both nations.
- 5.
- Economic activity of both nations in the Pacific area.
- 6.
- The policies of both nations affecting political stabilization in the Pacific area.
- 7.
- Neutralization of the Philippine Islands.
Accordingly, the Government of the United States and the Government of Japan have come to the following mutual understanding and declaration of policy:
I. The concepts of the United States and of Japan respecting international relations and the character of nations.
Both Governments affirm that their national policies are directed toward the foundation of a lasting peace and the inauguration of a new era of reciprocal confidence and cooperation between our peoples.
Both Governments declare that it is their traditional, and present, concept and conviction that nations and races compose, as members of a family, one household living under the ideal of universal concord through justice and equity; each equally enjoying rights and admitting responsibilities with a mutuality of interests regulated by peaceful processes and directed to the pursuit of their moral and physical welfare, which they are bound to defend for themselves as they are bound not to destroy for others; they further admit their responsibilities to oppose the oppression or exploitation of other peoples.
Both Governments are firmly determined that their respective traditional concepts on the character of nations and the underlying moral principles of social order and national life will continue to be preserved and never transformed by foreign ideas or ideologies contrary to those moral principles and concepts.
[Page 475]II. The attitudes of both Governments toward the European war.
The Government of Japan maintains that the purpose of the Tripartite Pact was, and is, defensive and is designed to prevent the participation of nations in the European war not at present involved in it.
The Government of the United States maintains that its attitude toward the European hostilities is and will continue to be determined solely and exclusively by considerations of protection and self-defense: its national security and the defense thereof.
III. Action toward a peaceful settlement between Japan and China.
The Government of Japan having declared that the general terms, within the framework of which the Government of Japan will propose the negotiation of a peaceful settlement of the China Affair, are implied in the Konoe principles and in the practical application of those principles, the President of the United States, relying upon the policy of the Government of Japan to establish a relation of neighborly friendship with China, will suggest to the Government at Chungking that it enter with the Government of Japan into a negotiation for a termination of hostilities and resumption of peaceful relations.
IV. Commerce between both nations.
When official approbation to the present understanding has been given by both Governments, the United States and Japan shall assure each other mutually to supply such commodities as are, respectively, available and required by either of them. Both Governments further consent to take necessary steps to resume normal trade relations as formerly established under the Treaty of Commerce and Navigation between the United States and Japan. If a new commercial treaty is desired by both Governments, it would be negotiated as soon as possible and be concluded in accordance with usual procedures.
V. Economic activity of both nations in the Pacific Area.
On the basis of mutual pledges hereby given that Japanese activity and American activity in the Pacific area shall be carried on by peaceful means and in conformity with the principle of non-discrimination in international commercial relations, the Japanese Government and the Government of the United States agree to cooperate each with the other toward obtaining non-discriminatory access by Japan and by the United States to commercial supplies of natural resources (such as oil, rubber, tin, nickel) which each country needs for the safeguarding and development of its own economy.
[Page 476]VI. The policies of both nations affecting political stabilization in the Pacific area.
Both Governments declare that the controlling policy underlying this understanding is peace in the Pacific area; that it is their fundamental purpose, through cooperative effort, to contribute to the maintenance and the preservation of peace in the Pacific area; and that neither has territorial designs in the area mentioned.
VII. Neutralization of the Philippine Islands.
The Government of Japan declares its willingness to enter at such time as the Government of the United States may desire into negotiation with the Government of the United States with a view to the conclusion of a treaty for the neutralization of the Philippine Islands, when Philippine independence shall have been achieved.