740.0011 European War 1939/8448: Telegram
The Chargé in Germany (Morris) to the Secretary of State
[Received February 18—10:55 a.m.]
602. General Oshima,1 appointed Japanese Ambassador, upon his arrival yesterday in Berlin gave an interview to the Boersen Zeitung in which besides stressing Japan’s loyal cooperation with the Axis under the pact and his confidence in an early German victory he stated [Page 43] “with regard to America I should like to emphasize that my Government has not yet given up hope that Washington will correctly understand the Japanese objectives and be prepared to cooperate in the creation of a new world order. The United States has at its disposal so much living space and raw materials in its sphere of domination that it has no need of interfering with the interests of other living spaces. But if America should obstruct us in the realization of our solemnly proclaimed aims this obstruction would have to be eliminated since the United States to which its own Monroe Doctrine is sacred cannot lay claim to the right to intervene in foreign living spaces.”
- Gen. Hiroshi Oshima, formerly Japanese Military Attaché in Germany and Ambassador there, 1938–39.↩