Office of the Historian

894.5151/245: Telegram

The Ambassador in Japan (Grew) to the Secretary of State

Tokyo, July 26, 1941—5 p.m.
[Received July 26—9:45 a.m.]

1096. During past several days officials from Ministry of Finance have visited American firms in Tokyo and demanded full and complete reports on all business and financial transactions, including details of bank balances, reserves and property holdings. Submission of these reports was demanded by July 25. Demands were also made for a detailed report on all personal property held by American individuals [Page 843] to be submitted by July 31. Apparently this procedure was initiated as prelude to the freezing of America’s credits in Japan as a retaliatory step against the anticipated freezing of Japanese credits by the United States.7

Grew
  1. See press release of July 25 and Executive Order No. 8832, July 26, Foreign Relations, Japan, 1931–1941, vol. ii, pp. 266 and 267.↩