711.94/1746: Telegram
The Ambassador in Japan (Grew) to the Secretary of State
962. For the first time in several weeks I went to the country on October 9, but the Vice Minister for Foreign Affairs (Ohashi) urgently requested me to return to Tokyo so that he might see me, without delay, on behalf of the Minister for Foreign Affairs. We talked for about an hour and it was evident that the Foreign Minister is worried on two points: (a) reports received by him through Suma98a that a total embargo against Japan has been decided upon by the Government of the United States; and (b) reports from Washington that the evacuation of American citizens from the Far East has been [Page 115] “ordered” by the American Government. I stated that I had no information concerning the first point, and that with regard to the second, advice had been given to Americans in the Far East as a precautionary measure but no “order” had been issued. The “embargo” on iron and steel scrap was referred to by the Vice Minister and I informed him of the substance of paragraphs (a) and (b) of the Department’s telegram No. 383 dated October 8, 1940, 6 p.m.99 I had received this telegram a few minutes before the conversation.
That Japan desires peace with the United States and has no intention of attacking us, was a thesis dwelt upon at length by Mr. Ohashi. I said that the United States feels likewise toward Japan and that, as the Vice Minister knows, the American people are strongly peace-minded, but that both the American Government and people have been made less certain of Japan’s real intentions by inflammatory utterances made recently by Japanese statesmen. I added that the American reaction to those utterances is exactly what should have been expected before the statements were made public, and I mentioned our preparedness program and the inevitable effect on it of the Japanese utterances.
Confidentially, I received the clear impression from the nature of the conversation and the marked urgency with which I was called, that the Minister for Foreign Affairs is seriously disturbed by the course of developments in the United States resulting from the Japanese Government’s recent actions and statements.
The conversation was called “private and off the record” by Mr. Ohashi.