Office of the Historian

793.94/10505: Telegram

The Ambassador in Japan (Grew) to the Secretary of State

Tokyo, October 8, 1937—6 p.m.
[Received October 8—9:26 a.m.]

459. Department’s 254, October 6, 7 p.m.81

1.
The Department’s announcement of October 6 on the Sino-Japanese conflict and press telegrams on that subject from Washington and from various European capitals are sensationally featured this morning in all papers. The attitude of the United States is the only subject of editorial comment.
2.
Official comment, pending study of the situation, is cautious and reserved. However, first impression views in official circles are: that the Nine Power Treaty is obsolete and the Kellogg Pact inapplicable to the Far East; that Japan will, if invited, refuse to attend the proposed Nine Power Treaty Conference; and that Japan will not acquiesce in any intervention between Japan and China. One paper reports consideration is being given to denunciation by Japan of the Nine Power Treaty.
3.
Editorials, although not violent in tone, clearly reveal that recent announcements of the American attitude have been a shock to Japanese opinion. They generally conform to a pattern somewhat as follows:

(a) The League of Nations has consistently ignored actual conditions in the Far East, and, moved by Chinese propaganda, it has denounced Japan as a violator of the Nine Power and Kellogg Treaties. The United States had been taking an independent course of action which was impartial and just. However, it is now evident that the United States, in associating itself with the League in denouncing Japan as a treaty violator, is equally with the League unable to understand conditions in the Far East and must share with the League responsibility for aggravating the situation. The initiative in the present conflict was taken by China, and the measures of force resorted to by Japan were necessary to protect its interests in China. It would not be in the interests of peace, either in the Far East or in the world at large, if Japan were to permit third parties to intervene.

4.
It is understood that the Foreign Office will issue, probably tomorrow, a statement with regard to the League resolution and to the Department’s announcement.82
Grew
  1. Not printed; it repeated the Secretary’s statement quoted in telegram No. 10, October 6, 6 p.m., p. 62.↩
  2. See telegram No. 463, October 9, 2 p.m., Foreign Relations, Japan, 1931–1941, vol. i, p. 399.↩