[Secret]
 
From: Tokyo
To: Washington
November 24, 1941
Purple (Very Urgent)
#821 (Government Code)
 

1. It seems that the United States as well as England, Australia, and the Netherlands is not satisfied with evacuation merely from the Southern part of French Indo-China. We have gone out of our way to venture this proposal in order to break the deadlock. We absolutely cannot make any further concessions.

 

2. Our expectations, as I told you in my #798, [b] go beyond the restoration of Japan-American trade and a return to the situation prior to the exercise of the freezing legislation and require the realization of all points of Proposal B with the exception of clauses 6 and 7. Therefore, our demand for a cessation of aid to CHIANG (the acquisition of Netherlands Indies goods and at the same time the supply of American petroleum to Japan as well) is a most essential condition. In view of the fact that this is a just demand, the fact that the government of the United States finds it hard to accept it makes us here in Japan suffer inordinately. Therefore, on the basis of what I told you in my #816, [c] as well as all that has gone before, please make every effort to persuade the Government of the United States.

 

3. Insofar as what we propose in Proposal B is concerned, the United States has misconstrued it as our demand. We here in Japan, in view of the extremely critical situation, only hope most earnestly for a speedy settlement. Naturally, that's all we want. Speaking further on this, it is necessary to warn the United States against enticing England, Australia, the Netherlands, etc., in paving the way for a joint hostile set-up. As you have written, we would like to secure the agreement of other competent countries in accordance with the gist of my #731 [d] at the same time Japan and the United States reach an understanding.

 
Army 25176                                           Trans. 11/24/41 (S)
 
[a]Not available. [Note: There was no superscript "a" in the text used for the electronic version. We will check other versions of this message as times permits. LWJ]
[b] S.I.S. #25040 which tells Ambassador NOMURA to present Proposal B to the U. S. Government and says that no further concessions will be made.
[c] See S.I.S. #25175.
[d] S.I.S. #24333 in which Tokyo instructs Washington to impress upon the American officials the importance of having Great Britain and the Netherlands also agree to the proposals.
 

(EXHIBITS OF JOINT COMMITTEE , EXHIBIT NO. 1 INTERCEPTED DIPLOMATIC MESSAGES SENT BY THE JAPANESE GOVERNMENT BETWEEN JULY l AND DECEMBER 8, 1941)