Foreign Relations of the United States: Diplomatic Papers, 1944, Europe, Volume IV

740.00119 European War 1939/2497

The Ambassador of the Soviet Union (Gromyko) to the Secretary of State ⁵³

April 13, 1944

I am instructed by the Soviet Government to ask you to bring to the attention of the United States Government the following confidential information.

Several days ago the Japanese Ambassador to Moscow, Mr. Sato,⁵⁴ approached the People’s Commissar for Foreign Affairs of the U.S.S.R., Mr. V. M. Molotov, on behalf of the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Japan, Mr. Shigemitsu,⁵⁵ with a proposal, analogous to the proposal of the Japanese Government, transmitted by Ambassador Sato to Mr. V. M. Molotov on September 10, 1943.⁵⁶ To the mentioned Japanese proposal the Soviet Government has given a negative reply, an analogous reply given to the proposal of the Japanese Government of September 10, 1943, about which the Government of the United States was confidentially informed in due time by the Soviet Government.

53. Handed to the Secretary by Ambassador Gromyko on April 13, 1944.
54. Naotake Sato.
55. Mamoru Shigemitsu.
56. The information about this earlier Japanese peace proposal, and its rejection by the Soviet Government, was contained in a note dated September 14, 1943, from the Soviet Embassy to the Department of State, Foreign Relations, 1943, vol. iii, p. 696. Regarding rumors of a possible separate peace between Germany find the Soviet Union, see ibid., 1944, vol. i, pp. 484 ff.