026 Foreign Relations/1356a
The Secretary of State to the Ambassador in Japan (Grew)
Sir: …
. . . . . . . . . . . . . .
The Department desires that in your discretion you ascertain the views of the Japanese Government with regard to the possibility of issuing Foreign Relations volumes which will include documents of a date closer to current events than the fifteen-year period mentioned. [Page 979] The Department would prefer, however, that you refrain from making any approach to the Japanese Government on this matter at this time if you have reason to believe that instead of contributing to accomplishment of the purpose which this Government has in view, such an approach is likely to prompt the Japanese Government to insist upon a further widening of the present gap of fifteen years in respect to its documents. The Department has in mind the statement contained in your despatch No. 953 of September 5, 19347 that an official of the Foreign Office in discussing with the Embassy the question of the publication in Foreign Relations of certain documents, expressed himself as feeling that 1920 was rather recent and that many documents were not “dead” in so short a time. Reference is also made to your conversation with the Chief of the Division of Research and Publication when you visited the Department in 1935 and your statement to him that the Japanese Foreign Office was opposed to reducing the so-called fifteen-year gap. While such statements clearly indicate that at the time they were made the Japanese Government was opposed to the publication of its documents in the Foreign Relations volumes less than fifteen years old, they do not in any way commit the Japanese Government to consenting or agreeing to publishing documents which are fifteen years old; on the contrary, the statements in despatch No. 953 referred to above would seem to indicate that the Japanese Government does not look with favor on even the fifteen-year interval. In the circumstances, the Department realizes that it might be injudicious to present the question again to the Japanese officials in that it might result in the Japanese Foreign Office making use of the occasion to insist on widening the gap rather than shortening it.
If you feel notwithstanding these considerations that you may safely approach the Foreign Office on this question, you may in your discretion make such use of the material referred to above as you believe appropriate.
The Department will appreciate receiving an early and complete report on any action you may take in response to this instruction.
Very truly yours,
- Not printed.↩