Office of the Historian

394.1115/30: Telegram

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

Washington, August 11, 1941—6 p.m.

492. Reference your 1202, August 9, noon, and 1205, August 9, 4 p.m.31 Please review telegrams, Embassy’s 1177, August 6, 3 p.m.,30 and 1191, August 8, noon; also Department’s 476, August 7, 6 p.m., and 487, August 9, 1 p.m.32

The S. S. Coolidge is due to leave Shanghai on the 14th. She is equipped to take on if she puts into a Japanese port, on a semi-emergency basis, approximately 200 passengers. It is necessary that we decide within the next 24 hours whether she is to be ordered to stop in Japan. We do not intend to keep the ship suspended anywhere. It is desired that you inform the Foreign Office of these facts and say that if your Government has not received within the time indicated satisfactory assurances which would warrant our asking the owners to send the Coolidge into Yokohama to pick up American passengers, we will be compelled to let the Coolidge adhere to her regular schedule, proceeding directly homeward without delay; and that, in that event, it will become necessary for us to inform our public that we have tried to make the arrangements under reference but have been unable to obtain from the Japanese Government any assurances.

Your 1216, August 11, 11 p.m., has just been received. This Government perceives no warrant and it believes that the American public would perceive no warrant for making a distinction under the circumstances between American officials and private American citizens who may desire to leave Japan at this time. In the cases of Japanese ships entering American ports after the freezing of Japanese [Page 424] assets in this country became effective,34 both Japanese officials and private Japanese nationals were permitted to embark on Japanese vessels for return to Japan. The Department desires that you bring these considerations to the attention of the Foreign Office as soon as possible; that you state that this Government will not ask the Coolidge to call at Yokohama to pick up American official personnel only; and that you again ask whether the Japanese Government is prepared to offer satisfactory assurances previously suggested with respect to the ship, the cargo and the passengers. Please point out to the Foreign Office that in view of the shortness of time before the Coolidge is scheduled to sail from Shanghai it is necessary for us to reach a decision promptly. If the Foreign Office is prepared to give satisfactory assurances within 24 hours we will be enabled to make arrangements to have the Coolidge call at Yokohama; otherwise, the Coolidge will have to follow her regular schedule.

Please point out also to the Foreign Office that there is no way of avoiding publicity here with regard to the question of the call of the Coolidge at a Japanese port.

Please keep in mind that the question of these arrangements is ad hoc and is not to be associated with future problems, which will have to be dealt with as the situation further develops, regarding shipping, et cetera, between the two countries.

Hull
  1. Neither printed.↩
  2. Not printed.↩
  3. No. 487 not printed.↩
  4. See Executive Order No. 8832 of July 26, 1941, Foreign Relations, Japan, 1931–1941, vol. ii, p. 267.↩