711.94/2297: Telegram
The Ambassador in Japan (Grew) to the Secretary of State
[Received September 18—12:15 p.m.]
1480. For the Secretary and Under Secretary only. [Here follows report based on memorandum by the Ambassador in Japan, dated September 17, 1941, printed in Foreign Relations, Japan, 1931–1941, volume II, page 624.]
Mr. Shigemitsu39 then went on to say in the utmost confidence that the Emperor himself had taken the initiative in starting this movement for a rapprochement towards the United States and Great Britain and that the Ambassador had been recalled from London in this particular connection. He had had a 2-hour audience with the Emperor and he could tell me that the Emperor’s firm desire for friendship with the United States and Great Britain had never receded during the period of the Matsuoka regime and the conclusion of the Tripartite Pact. In this connection, I recall an occasion in 1937 when the then Minister for Foreign Affairs told me in the strictest confidence that the Emperor had informed the Army and Navy that he would not, under any circumstances, sanction war by Japan against the United States or Britain.
It may be of interest that in my recent conversation with the Prime Minister he told me in strictest confidence that in case a meeting with the President should be arranged he would probably take Shigemitsu with him as representative of the Foreign Office.
- Mamoru Shigemitsu, Japanese Ambassador to the United Kingdom, on leave.↩