794.00/208: Telegram
The Ambassador in Japan (Grew) to the Secretary of State
[Received September 3—11:20 a.m.]
778. A high ranking member of the Japanese diplomatic service who has been en disponibilité for the past year, who is a victim of the current purge, and who admitted that he was “in opposition” to the Government made certain remarks in a conversation today of which the following is a summary.
He stated that he believed everything in this country was on the downward path and that Japan’s future was ruined; that a new ambassador was appointed to Berlin, a general whose name he did not divulge,53 and that affairs were now going to move fast and disastrously. When asked whether he did not believe that developments would depend upon the Battle of Britain, [he] replied in the negative and stated that the decisions had already been taken, the die was cast and that it was already too late.
My informant who on the substance of the foregoing conversation stated that in his judgment the purport of the above was that Japan had decided irrevocably to pursue the southward advance policy at an early date, that is an attack upon French Indochina, Hong Kong and the Netherlands East Indies.
My own opinion is that the phrase “at an early date” is open to wide interpretation and that if the Government can control the armed [Page 95] forces of Japan [it] will direct move with some degree of caution and that high pressure diplomacy will probably precede each step. Control of the army and navy is, however, an uncertain factor in the situation which needs to be watched.
Sent to the Department, repeated to Shanghai.
- Gen. Hiroshi Oshima, formerly Japanese Military Attaché and then Ambassador in Germany, succeeded Saburo Kurusu as Ambassador in 1941.↩