740.00119 PW/8–1345
The Swiss Legation to the Department of State
Memorandum
With regard to the inquiry which Mr. Joseph Grew, Under Secretary of State, made by telephone with Mr. Max Graessli, Chargé d’Affaires ad interim of Switzerland, on the morning of August 13 in respect to a Domei News Agency dispatch according to which the American reply to the Japanese offer of surrender was received in Tokyo only on Monday morning, August 13, 1945, Japanese time, the Legation has received the following details from the Political Department in Berne:
It is stated in a cable from the Political Department that the Domei News Agency report is false in two respects; first, the American answer was not relayed to the Japanese Government through the intermediary of the Swiss Legation in Tokyo, but was sent by way of the Japanese Legation in Berne, and second, the time schedule given by Domei Agency is incorrect.
The cable from the Swiss Legation in Washington containing the American reply was received at the Political Department in Berne on August 11 at 21.00 Swiss time. It was communicated to the Japanese Minister at 21.30 Swiss time, and the Japanese Minister’s cable to Tokyo was dispatched on the same day at 23.24 Swiss time. The station Osaka on the morning of August 12, at 08.00 Swiss time, requested a repetition of the cable and at 09.35 Swiss time confirmed that the cable had been duly received.