894.20211 Tachibana, Itaru/12
Memorandum of Conversation, by the Under Secretary of State (Welles)
The Japanese Ambassador called to see me this morning as a result of his urgent request for an interview.
The Ambassador said that he had learned of the arrest in Los Angeles of Lieutenant Commander Tachibana by Federal authorities, and that from newspaper reports which he had read and from information sent to him by his consular officials in that city, it was apparent that the arrest was made on a charge of espionage.
The Ambassador said that he realized that this was primarily a judicial question but he wished urgently to express the personal hope [Page 267] that in the interest of friendly relations between the two countries, the Government of the United States might permit Commander Tachibana to be deported immediately from the United States rather than to be subjected to trial. The Ambassador said that at this time some hotheads in Japan might seize the opportunity to create some difficulties for American language officers in Japan as a measure of retaliation and that this would merely make a bad situation worse.
At this stage the Ambassador interjected, with no apparent relation to the subject that he had been discussing, the statement that he wished me to know that officers of the Japanese Navy were really very friendly to the United States and that they had a great admiration for the American Navy and for American naval officers.
I replied by saying that the Ambassador was, of course, well aware of the very friendly regard in which he personally was held by officers of the American Navy.
The Ambassador then went back to the other subject and said that while he was fully cognizant of the fact that the Tachibana case was one for the Department of Justice to handle, he hoped very much that the Department of State would try in a friendly way to have his suggestion adopted.
I said to the Ambassador that I was completely ignorant of the details of this case and that as he had correctly stated, the matter was one within the jurisdiction of the Department of Justice, but that I appreciated his friendly statement and the spirit which prompted it and that he could rest assured that the matter would be given immediate consideration.