Office of the Historian

760F.62/1211: Telegram

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

Tokyo, September 28, 1938—3 p.m.
[Received September 28—4:10 a.m.]

628. Department’s circular.13 The message of the Government of the United States decoded and transcribed at 1 o’clock, and was placed in the hands of a responsible official of the Foreign Office at 1:05 in anticipation of my appointment with the Minister for Foreign Affairs at 2:50. At that hour, opening the conversation, I observed to the Minister that this is a moment of the utmost gravity in the history of civilization and a moment at which decisions and actions may fundamentally influence the future course of civilization. The message of the American Government was then presented both orally and in an informal paper so that the text would be clear on the record, accompanied by a written transcription of the text of the President’s appeal to the Chancellor of the German Reich, the President of Czechoslovakia and the Prime Ministers of Great Britain and France.14

After listening to the interpreting of the message into Japanese, carefully followed [by] Coville15 who was present at the interview, the Minister replied substantially as follows:

I would express on behalf of the Japanese Government full agreement with the action taken by the President of the United States in the controversy between Germany and Czechoslovakia. As you are aware, Japan is always desirous of peace and although unfortunately engaged at the present time in hostilities in China, Japan hopes to establish there conditions of peace. We also seek a peaceful settlement between Germany and Czechoslovakia, but there is a question whether action by Japan similar to that taken by the President would [Page 301] be efficacious. We must give careful consideration to what action we, as Japan, may best take, from the point of view of our own position. At the same time we firmly share the convictions expressed by the President.

Grew
  1. Dated September 27, 3 p.m., vol. i, p. 677.↩
  2. See President Roosevelt’s telegram of September 26 to Chancellor Hitler, ibid., p. 657.↩
  3. Second Secretary of Embassy in Japan.↩