894.24/833: Telegram
The Ambassador in Japan (Grew) to the Secretary of State
[Received February 17—6 a.m.]
125. 1. Replying to an interpellation in a Subcommittee meeting of the Lower House yesterday in regard to the possibility of an American embargo against Japan, the Foreign Minister76 is reported to have stated in part as follows:
“With respect to the question of an embargo on American exports to Japan, I hear that the Foreign Relations Committee of the Senate has postponed the study of this problem. This is due, in my opinion, to a recent change in the Japanese attitude toward the United States and to developments in the European situation. However, postponement of discussions on this matter by the Foreign Relations Committee is only temporary. Considering the deep roots from which the embargo proposals spring and the large number of supporters, we must bear in mind that future developments are unpredictable. Fortunately, however, there are some farsighted people in the United States, and if the situation finally reaches the stage of actually enforcing embargo measures, the constant advocates of these measures will certainly come to realize the dangers inherent therein, in which case we may safely assume that the materialization of any embargo measures would require a considerable length of time.”
2. In reply to another interpellation on the same occasion as to whether Japan had any obligation to open the Yangtze River to navigation, the Foreign Minister said:
“Inasmuch as the Japanese Government acted upon its own initiative when it notified the American Government of its intention, in the light of the lessening of absolute military requirements, to open the Yangtze River to navigation,77 there is no obligation on the part of the Imperial Government to open the river. The foregoing is a strictly legal view. As a practical matter the Japanese military authorities in the Yangtze area are studying the question of when and under what conditions the river will be opened. Although the Imperial Government has no obligation to open the river, inasmuch as we have declared that the preparations for the opening of the river were being made in the light of the lessening of absolute military requirements, I believe that we should carry it out. Barring unforeseen contingencies, I think that the lower reaches of the Yangtze will be opened in the relatively near future.”
Repeated to Shanghai. Shanghai please repeat to Chungking, Peiping.
- Hachiro Arita.↩
- See point 2 of Japanese pro memoria, quoted in telegram No. 687, December 18, 1939, 10 p.m., from the Ambassador in Japan, Foreign Relations, Japan, 1931–1941, vol. ii, p. 48.↩