Office of the Historian

740.00/2025: Telegram

The Chargé in Japan (Dooman) to the Secretary of State

Tokyo, August 8, 1939—4 p.m.
[Received August 8—9:38 a.m.]

393. Our 389, August 5, 9 p.m.

1.
The Prime Minister’s personal adviser called on me at 9 o’clock this morning. He said that he had just seen the Prime Minister who had expressed desire to receive as soon as possible the Secretary’s reply. I told Mr. Fujii that I had been in a position since yesterday to deliver the reply to the Foreign Office but that I had informed the Department that in view of internal Japanese political developments I was inclined to withhold action for the present. I added, however, that as the Prime Minister had expressed desire to have the reply as soon as possible I would deliver it at once to the Foreign Office. I asked Fujii to call again at noon. I thereupon delivered the reply in person to Yoshizawa79 who received the document without comment for delivery to the Foreign Minister. Upon my return from the Foreign Office Fujii called again. I gave him a copy of the reply and said that it included, for the reasons specified in paragraph 1 of the Department’s 242, August 4, 3 p.m., indication of the Secretary’s reaction of [to?] the Prime Minister’s confidential views.
2.
Fujii’s comment was that the reply seemed to be addressed to the Prime Minister’s written message and, looked at in that light, would he thought be well received by his principal. He said that he would see the Prime Minister again this evening after the Five-Minister Conference (called to discuss the alliance with Germany and Italy).
3.
I marked the reply strictly confidential and told both Yoshizawa and Fujii that it was not to be published.
Dooman
  1. Director of the American Affairs Bureau, Japanese Foreign Office.↩